The order was intercepted by the British which detailed Canadian Beaufighter aircraft from RAF Coastal Command to attack the German ships as they sailed through the Bay of Biscay.

With them were HMS Ashanti, Eskimo and Javelin, the Canadian ships HMCS Haida and Huron, and the Polish vessels ORP Piorun and Błyskawica.

[2] Haida and Huron returned to the scene and came across Bechtolsheim's Z32, which had received a heavy pounding and lost contact with the rest of the Germans.

[2] Bechtolsheim fled at high speed, but Z32, having sustained heavy damage, was driven ashore on the Ile de Batz, and then finished off by a squadron of Beaufighter aircraft the next day.

Two destroyers from the battle survive as museum ships, Haida in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and Błyskawica in Gdynia, Poland.