Battle of Sept-Îles

23 October 1943, English Channel, off the Sept-Îles, Brittany

German victory; Charybdis and Limbourne sunk without loss

The blockade runner Münsterland was trying to get up the Channel from Brest, and the British sent the cruiser Charybdis with two fleet destroyers and four Hunts to catch her. They had never worked together and had no common radio net. Five torpedo boats of the German 4th Flotilla, covering Münsterland, picked them up on their hydrophones and radar in the dark early on 23 October 1943, and fired torpedoes before the British saw them. Two hit Charybdis, which rolled over and sank, and another blew the bow off Limbourne, which was later scuttled. 462 men were lost from Charybdis and 46 from Limbourne. The German boats were not touched. Many of the dead washed ashore in the Channel Islands, where thousands of islanders came to their funerals, defying the occupiers.