The German ships were unaware of the sinking until the following afternoon and continued onward to the rendezvous point. They had been spotted by an American Liberator bomber on the morning of the 28th and the British light cruisers and , which were assigned to Stonewall, maneuvered to intercept them. By this time, the weather had gotten significantly worse and the German ships were steaming for home, hampered by the rough seas that threw spray over their forward guns that made them very hard to work. In addition the spray severely reduced visibility and hampered the rangefinders and sights for the guns and torpedoes. Using her radar, Glasgow was the first to open fire at the closest German ships, Z23 and Z27, at 13:46 at a range of with Enterprise following a few minutes later. Z23 fired six torpedoes once the range closed to , but they all missed. About that time, the destroyers began firing back. At 14:18 Erdmenger decided to split his forces and ordered Z23, Z27, and three torpedo boats to reverse course to the north. Z23 fired another torpedo, which also missed, five minutes later. The cruisers pursued the northern group and a hit in Z27s forward boiler room disabled one of her turbines and gradually reduced her speed. Glasgow and Enterprise concentrated their fire on the three torpedo boats after they turned south again at 14:39, sinking two of the torpedo boats. Z23 attempted to come to the drifting Z27s aid, but was ordered to disengage when Enterprise appeared. The torpedo boat joined up with Z23 and the two ships reached Saint-Jean-de-Luz, close to the Spanish border, later that day.Koop & Schmolke, p. 103; Rohwer, p. 295; Whitley, pp. 149–153
