Battle of Pierres Noires

Battle of Pierres Noires Part of World War II, Battle of the Atlantic, Invasion of Normandy Date 5 July 1944 Location Iroise Sea, near Pierres Noires lighthouse Coordinates: 48°12′42″N 4°54′53″W / 48.21167°N 4.91472°W / 48.21167; -4.91472 Result Allied victory Belligerents Canada  Nazi Germany Commanders and leaders Dickson Carlile Wallace Gerhard Palmgren Strength 4 destroyers 4 patrol boats 1 U-boat Casualties and losses 1 patrol boat sunk 1 patrol boat damaged

Atlantic Campaign America Northern Barrage Caribbean St. Lawrence Gibraltar Timeline River Plate HX 72 SC 7 HX 79 HX 84 HX 90 SC 19 Berlin HX 106 HG 53 OB 293 HX 112 4 April 1941 OB 318 HX 126 Denmark Strait Bismarck OG 69 OG 71 SC 42 HG 73 SC 48 HG 76 2nd Happy Time Torpedo Alley Neuland ON 67 27 March 1942 OG 82 6 June 1942 HG 84 SL 78 QS 15 SC 94 ON 122 QS 33 ON 127 Laconia SC 100 SC 104 HX 212 SL 125 SC 107 Casablanca ON 144 ON 154 TM 1 SG 19 SC 118 ON 166 UC 1 SC 121 HX 228 UGS 6 HX 229/SC 122 Black May ONS 5 SC 129 SC 130 ONS 18/ON 202 SC 143 ONS 20/ON 206 Sept-Îles SL 138/MKS 28 SL 139/MKS 30 SL 140/MKS 31 Stonewall Bay of Biscay Lyme Bay 26 April 1944 13 May 1944 HX 300 WEP 3 BX 141 Teardrop Operation Overlord Invasion of Normandy Prelude Atlantic Wall Bodyguard Fortitude Zeppelin Titanic Taxable, Glimmer & Big Drum Combined Bomber Offensive Pointblank Transport Plan Postage Able Tarbrush Tiger Fabius Initial airborne assault British sector Deadstick Tonga Merville Battery Mallard American sector Albany Boston Chicago Detroit Elmira Normandy landings American sector Omaha Utah Pointe du Hoc Anglo-Canadian sector Gambit Sword Juno Gold Port-en-Bessin Initial ground campaign American sector Brécourt Manor Graignes Hill 30 Saint-Lô Carentan Cherbourg Anglo-Canadian sector Caen Bréville Perch Villers–Bocage Le Mesnil-Patry Douvres Martlet Epsom (1st Odon) Windsor Charnwood Jupiter 2nd Odon Atlantic Goodwood Verrières Ridge Breakout Cobra Spring Bluecoat Totalize Lüttich Tractable Hill 262 Chambois Falaise Brest Paris Air and sea operations Ushant La Caine Cherbourg Pierres Noires Audierne Bay Supporting operations Dingson Samwest Titanic Cooney Jedburgh Pluto Mulberry Dragoon Aftermath Cemeteries

The Battle of Pierres Noires was a naval action that occurred during the Allied Operation Dredger, involving several Royal Canadian Navy destroyers and a Kriegsmarine u-boat with escorts near Brest, France. The RCN force managed to sink or damage some of the escorts on the surface, but the U-boat was able to escape.^[1]

Background

The port of Brest had been an important U-boat base since the Fall of France, and its capture was one of the objectives of Operation Overlord. With the increasing effectiveness of the Allied anti-submarine campaign however it often became essential for any U-boat departing the port to have surface escorts. The Kriegsmarine would often employ Vorpostenboot class escort trawlers to accomplish that task, and over time these boats developed a fearsome reputation among the Allied navies. On July 5, 1944 Escort Group 12 and Escort Group 14 were deployed to the vicinity of Brest as part of Operation Dredger; EG 12 (Consisting of the RCN River-class destroyers HMCS Saskatchewan, HMCS Qu'Appelle, HMCS Skeena and HMCS Restigouche) was tasked with intercepting the ships escorting the u-boats, while EG 14 would patrol further offshore to intercept any U-boats that managed to escape.

The Battle

U-741 departed Brest on 5 July 1944 under the protection of 4 Vorpostenboot escort trawlers. Escort Group 12, with HMCS Qu'Appelle as the lead boat, detected the German force on radar and set off in pursuit at 30 knots.^[2] The two sides engaged in the vicinity of the Pierres Noires lighthouse in the late evening. The darkness, combined with uncertainty of the size of the German force and the close range at which the ships engaged each other nullified some of the advantage in speed and armour enjoyed by EG 12, and U-741 managed to escape. However, despite inflicting some damage to all of the Canadian vessels, the Vorpostenboot V-715 was sunk, another was heavily damaged, and the remainder withdrew to Brest. EG 12 withdrew to Portsmouth for repairs.

Aftermath

Operation Dredger would continue with further Allied naval infiltration into the Bay of Biscay, engaging the U-boats and their escorts in their home waters. U-741 was sunk in the English Channel on 15 August,^[3] a few days after American forces began to lay siege to Brest. The last U-boat departed on 4 September, just before the Americans took control of the city on September 19. HMCS Skeena would be lost in a storm off Iceland on 25 October, the only ship from EG 12 not to survive the war.

See also

Battle of Ushant (1944)
Battle for Brest
Royal Canadian Navy

Notes

References

• Rohwer, Jurgen (2005). Chronology of the war at sea, 1939-1945: the naval history of World War II. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-59114-119-2. 
• Milner, Marc (2010). Canada's Navy: The First Century. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-0-8020-9604-3. 

External links

• Canada's Remembrances: The War at Sea
• HMCS RESTIGOUCHE at Naval-History.net