it is said that in November 1941, 3 German destroyers, the Z23, Zl Leberecht Maas, and Z17 Diether von Roeder, was patrolling just off the west coast of France, when suddenly they got a report from a Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor maritime patrol plane reporting the sighting of 2 Royal Navy vessels just 39 miles or 62 kilometers north of their position, the destroyers quickly approached the target location, within an hour the destroyers saw both ships from 10.000 yards away, or about 9 kilometers, they scrambled over to attack, Z23 and Z17 went east to flank the bigger vessel, while Z1 Leberecht Maas went head to head against what seems to be a destroyer, and they were right.
the destroyer was the HMCS Assiniboine, a Canadian destroyer class ship tasked with escorting the light cruiser HMS Dido, they were on regular patrol off the south coast of England, the fist shot was fired by HMS Dido at the destroyer Z1 Leberecht Maas, but missed, Assiniboine turned hard to port and full steamed ahead to engage Z1 Leberecht Maas, not knowing the presence of the other 2 enemy vessels.
Z23 fired its 15cm guns on HMS Dido, Z17 did the same, both shots landing close in the waters around HMS Dido, while Dido concentrated its fire on Z1 Leberecht Maas, Z1 was hit with 4 shells from Dido's 5.25 inch guns, and a further 6 shells from Assiniboine's 4.7 inch guns, disabling 2 of it's torpedo launchers and the rangefinding system, making it harder to determine the ranges of the allied vessels, and a fire had spread on the crew compartment.
taking advantage of the distracted Allied vessels, Z23 and Z17 both turned to it's side to fire salvos, they barraged HMS Dido for about 10 minutes until HMS Dido turned it's guns on them, a 40 minute firefight between the vessels commenced, the Dido having difficulties aiming due to the damage suffered by the initial barrage, it was then heavily damaged and tried to retreat, however the lightly damaged Z23 puts the final blow into the light cruiser, sinking the crippled vessel, now their attention turns towards the HMCS Assiniboine.
seeing the situation, the HMCS Assiniboine rushed to the now crippled Z1 Leberecht Maas, firing everything it had as a revenge for the loss ship, after sinking the German vessel, it charged at Z17 and Z23, the ship managed to maneuver around the shells fired by the other 2 German vessel, and successfully ramming Z23 on its port side, leading to imbalances in the hull of both ships, but in a very risky move the Assiniboine fired at point blank range, damaging itself and Z23 in the process, both of them continued firing at each other at point blank range, with main guns, light AA guns, and heavy AA guns, in the end both of them sank with almost all hands, leaving Z17 to carry out the evacuation, in the end, 14 German sailors and 7 British sailors were rescued, and they returned to France shortly after.
