The opening shots of the campaign were not fired by any of these ships. It was the eagle eyed Wernet Haupt in morning air flight Thor that would start the battle, spotting a British Sunderland over the Fuerteventura Channel and going in to shoot that plane down at a few minutes before ten on the 15th of September. When they heard the Sunderland’s ‘Mayday’ call, the British on Tenerife quickly scrambled a pair of Spitfires in Group Dogrose. They would be too late to save the Sunderland, but would instead find a German Kondor up, and straying uncomfortably close to Force C. The fighters vectored in, and saw the German plane turning and running for the safety of friendly islands. It was not known whether the plane had spotted the British force.
That Kondor would not see anything alarming, but a second plane out of Tangier was up at 11:00 and quickly detected something on radar to the southwest. It turned in the direction of the contact, sending a signal to Casablanca as to the suspected position, which in turn was relayed to Jean Bart. At 12:40. The French raiding group executed a 30 point turn to come about on a heading of 285, then came another 30 points to starboard to eventually assume a heading of 315 at a little after noon. They were sailing right into the outliers of the huge American invasion group.
The three contacts that had been detected were the biggest ships in the American covering force, three battleships sailing with an escort of four destroyers from Desron 4. That bold German Kondor then overflew Desron 15, reporting three destroyers before Santee ordered a pair of Wildcats to get after it. Its radar was now picking up contacts all over the sea, and it flashed the urgent warning: Large convoy spotted – 13:00 hours, heading 100 degrees East—many warships.
The jig was up.
Desron 4 soon spotted a pair of destroyers to the south, and they turned to engage. At 2:11 local time, DD Wainright was the first ship to score a hit, straddling the French destroyer Fougueux with its deck guns. The French ship was badly hit, losing a 130mm gun, a pair of its AA guns and with minor flooding on the bow. Its speed fell off dramatically when the water reached the boiler room amidships and swamped the propulsion plant. Fougueux was soon dead in the water, and now the destroyer Boulonnaise was also taking a pasting from Wainright, which had turned over its initial prey to the able hands of DD Mayrant.
The remaining five ships in the French group has formed a wide battle line and fanned out to the northeast. The two destroyers, Milan and Simoun, rushed to engage the US DDs. Next came Jean Bart, deciding to weigh in with her secondary batteries when it was clear that Fougueux was sinking. The battleship opened fire on DD Jenkins, and that ship would take severe damage, along with Myrant, which prompted the remaining two US destroyers to wheel south. They thought they would fare better if they could put the French destroyers between their position and that battleship, and in the ensuing action, Milan would go down on the French side, joining Fougueux and Boulonnaise, and Myrant would sink, ending the little destroyer duel when the remaining US destroyers slowed to pick up survivors. Now it was time for the heavy metal.
Jean Bart saw her real foe, the tall silhouette of the leading American battleship, the Massachusetts under Captain Whiting. The entire French squadron, only four ships remaining, executed a sharp turn to the north, intending to cross the enemy’s T, and Jean Bart opened up with her 15-inch guns. Massachusetts returned fire, and the first US battleship engagement in the Atlantic was now underway. The French maneuver was correct, but it would be easily countered by the Americans when Whiting ordered his ship to come to 080 degrees northeast. Now he would be able to bring all those big 16-inch guns to bear. Undaunted, Jean Bart held her course, and the two supporting cruisers Gloire and Tourville, increased speed to engage the second tall silhouette, which was the battleship Texas. Their smaller guns would be no match for the ten 14-inch guns on the American ship, and Texas also had heavy armor, 300mm amidships, with 250mm bulkheads, and 360mm on the face armor of those turrets.
New York was last to arrive, almost due north of the Massachusetts. Captain Whiting could see that his faster ship would cut the New York off, blocking her sighting of the enemy if he continued on his present course. He therefore ordered an immediate hard turn to starboard, intending to come due south. This would give New York a crack at Jean Bart, and the Americans could double team this dangerous ship. He could already see the Texas engaging the leading French heavy cruiser, Tourville, and now he had every hope that he would prevail in this hot action.
Both sides went at it for another 30 minutes, with the range slowly closing until it was about 6 nautical miles from Jean Bart to New York. With most of her guns forward, Jean Bart shifted fire to the newcomer, as Massachusetts was now running southeast, attempting to come around the French ship’s stern at about 8 nautical miles. Captain Barthes thought he had hit the American battleship several times, and when he saw it slowing down he hoped one of those hits had penetrated to do some serious damage. In reality, Whiting had only slowed to stabilize his ship after that hard turn, and now increased to 21 knots. Most of his damage was to the twin secondary batteries, and 40mm Bofors. His engineering plant was sound, and all main guns were operational.
That would not be the case for the French ship soon. Massachusetts scored a heavy blow amidships, penetrating to the boilers and seriously compromising the steam plant. Jean Bart fell off to 12 then 8 knots, taking on water and with heavy damage, as one of the rounds had fallen short, exploding underwater and reaching an unprotected segment of the hull. To make matter worse, Tourville had met a similar fate at the hands of the battleship Texas. The cruiser was struck by two 14-inch rounds right on her superstructure near the stacks, but more serious damage from an earlier hit beneath the waterline had put her into a list. The cruiser keeled over, foundering in the moderate swells under a heavy pall of black smoke.
Now heavily outgunned, Jean Bart would not survive. Captain Barthes felt his ship taking one heavy blow after another, and at three PM local time, he finally gave the order to abandon ship. Eighteen minutes later, the brave French battleship began to sink, and seeing this, both light cruiser Gloire and the destroyer Simoun broke off, running for the safety of Casablanca. They would later make a run for Gibraltar and the safety of the Med, along with the few French destroyers that remained in the Atlantic.