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Naval War off the Channel Islands
Vincent P. O'Hara and Przemyslaw Federowicz 
12 March 2004
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After their victory in the naval Battle of Brittany the ships of the Allied 10th Destroyer Flotilla patrolled across the Channel nearly every night into the Gulf of St. Malo to suppress German shipping. On the night of 13/14 June the Polish destroyer Piorun (Commander Tadeusz Gorazdowski, Senior Officer) and the British Destroyer Ashanti (Commander J. R. Barnes) were sailing from Île de Batz to Jersey, looking for enemy destroyers, minesweepers or submarines. The wind was blowing from the southwest at 20 knots, lifting short, crested waves in the shallow waters of the gulf. There was a heavy overcast and visibility was only four to six thousand yards. That evening six minesweepers of the 24th Flotilla along with assorted V-boats were escorting a small convoy from St. Malo to St. Peter's Port in Guernsey.
At 0025 hours on 14 June Piorun's radar operator picked up four pips to the southwest which he read as ships headed north at 15 knots. The two destroyers turned to investigate. At 0037 at a range of 2,300 yards they fired star shell and illuminated a line of three M class minesweepers. The destroyers immediately opened fire and their 4.7-inch shells set the lead German ship ablaze. But the minesweepers turned toward the larger enemy ships and fought back: "their returning fire was both vigorous and, as always with the Germans, accurate."8 One 4.1-inch shell exploded near Piorun's No. 4 gun and detonated ammunition, wounding four men and igniting a small fire. A second round damaged the destroyer's aft 20-mm mounting and wounded two more men. At 0048 the Polish destroyer responded by firing her full load of five torpedoes; one ran true and exploded against M343's bow, leaving her stopped and gravely damaged.
The destroyers were steaming north, northeast drawing close to Jersey. At 0055 they temporarily ceased fire. Two minutes later there was the roar of heavy guns and starshells from the 8.66-inch guns at Battery "Roon" on Jersey's southwestern promontory flashed overhead. Faced with this threat the Allied destroyers came about at high speed. During this evolution Piorun damaged her gyrocompass and at 0113 she fell back letting Ashanti take the lead. As they steamed southwest two more German ships emerged from the darkness two miles to the south and two others about the same distance to the northeast. At 0125 the Allied ships swung to the northeast in pursuit of these new targets and at 0132 they commenced fire. As ranges closed to only a thousand yards their the machineguns joined in. The Germans fired back and small caliber shells punctured Piorun's quarterdeck. This action was over by 0155 as the German ships vanished in the smoke and dark. But only five minutes later Piorun had new radar contacts. Once again the Allied destroyers turned in pursuit. Ashanti fired star shell (the Polish destroyer had used up all of hers) illuminating more enemy minesweepers about four thousand yards east. There was a heavy exchange of fire and the Allied ships claimed they set three of the enemy on fire. Shortly afterward M343 exploded. Ashanti finished off her star shells but the destroyers kept firing using their radar to acquire targets.
At 0228 Battery Roon intervened once again and two minutes later, magazines nearly empty, the Allied destroyers turned for home. The intensity of the action may be gauged by the amount of ordinance used. Piorun shot 679 rounds of 4.7-inch, 104 of 4-inch, 100 star shells and 1,260 40-mm shells. A witness on Jersey remembered: "watchers from the south coast reported that the sky was lit like daylight by the numerous star shells during the action."9 The Allied destroyers claimed three minesweepers sunk and one more severely damaged. In fact, the toll was much less. M343 sank at around 0240 hours; M412 was moderately damaged and had four men wounded. M422, M432, M442, and M452, all suffered light damage.
Endnotes
8. Peszke, Poland's Navy, 157
9. Le Sauteur, Jersey Under the Swastika, 12-3.
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