Brest Breakout - Part 5

 To the Bitter End

The British scramble to turn their disorganised formation northwards:

Devastation takes a pasting:

 The lead ships of the French line, the Vauban and Ocean, come under heavy fire...

 ... and it soon becomes apparent that Désespéré's situation is hopeless.

 He orders the Courbet and Colbert to turn south at flank speed, and sends his other remaining ships back to port. Without the rest of his ships slowing him down, he'll be able to make 15 knots. Well, you have to look on the bright side.

Colbert and Dreadnought pass each other on opposite courses at point blank range. Dreadnought's guns miss, and is heavily damaged by the Colbert's broadside, suffering flooding from a waterline hit:

... while to the north Inflexible takes a pounding and Ocean is reduced to a wreck:

Alexandra and Conqueror concentrate fire on the Courbet and after several turns she is beaten into a twisted iron hulk. The crew abandon ship, but Désespéré refuses to leave and goes down with his ship.

The GT map toward the end, showing tracks of the French ships that have left the table and are heading back to Brest:

The Colbert is damaged and outnumbered but in a last desperate act of defiance her captain rams the already damaged Dreadnought causing heavy flooding.

The Ajax, low on ammo and short on options, rams the stationary Colbert, sinking her.

Remarkably, the Dreadnought's damage control parties work miracles and the ship is saved, managing to limp away with decks awash.

Conclusion

This was always going to go badly for poor old Admiral Désespéré. After 90 minutes the French have lost three major warships and nearly all their light forces, but they gave a good account of themselves. All of the British ships have taken serious damage and will be out of action for months, and the Dreadnought may have to be scrapped. So strategically it's not as rosy as it might seem for the RN, who will now have to find warships from elsewhere to keep the remaining French bottled up in Brest.

Admiral Spiffington returns to a hero's welcome from the press, but quietly the Admiralty are highly miffed at his failure to bring about a more decisive result, and with the state of the ships under his command.

In France tales of Admiral Désespéré's heroic dash for freedom stoke the fires of nationalistic fervour, and Jules Massenet composes a little-known opera, entitled La Charge des Torpilleurs!