The Battle of Groix took place off the Biscay coast of Brittany on 23 June 1795. It was fought between elements of the British Channel Fleet and the French Atlantic Fleet, which were cruising in the region on separate missions. The British fleet, commanded by Admiral Lord Bridport, was covering an invasion convoy carrying a French Royalist army to invade Quiberon. The French under Vice-admiral Villaret de Joyeuse had sailed a week earlier to rescue a French convoy from attack by a British squadron.
About Battle of Groix in brief
The Battle of Groix took place off the Biscay coast of Brittany on 23 June 1795. It was fought between elements of the British Channel Fleet and the French Atlantic Fleet, which were cruising in the region on separate missions. The British fleet, commanded by Admiral Lord Bridport, was covering an invasion convoy carrying a French Royalist army to invade Quiberon. The French under Vice-admiral Villaret de Joyeuse had sailed a week earlier to rescue a French convoy from attack by a British squadron. They had driven off the British squadron in a battle on 17 June known as Cornwallis’s Retreat, and were attempting to return to their base at Brest when Bridport’s force of 14 ships of the line appeared on 22 June. Although Villaret fought a determined rearguard action, three French ships were captured, all with very heavy casualties, and the remainder of the French fleet was left scattered across miles of coastline. After only a few hours’ engagement, Bridport called off the action and allowed Villaret to regroup inshore and retreat to Lorient. Several French captains were court-martialled following the battle, with two dismissed from the Navy for disobeying orders. Although the battle was a British victory, there was criticism of Bridport’s rapid withdrawal. British historians have subsequently considered that a unique opportunity to destroy theFrench Atlantic fleet had been lost. The first two years of the French Revolutionary Wars had seen the FrenchAtlantic Fleet suffer a series of setbacks.
In May 1794, the French. fleet sallied into the Atlantic to protect an incoming grain convoy from the United States and was attacked by the British. Channel Fleet at the battle of the Glorious First of June, losing seven ships, although the convoy was saved. In the winter of 1794–1795, five more French ships lost in a disastrous sortie in the middle of the Atlantic winter storm season known as the Croisière du Grand Hiver. By the spring of 1795, the British channel fleet was in the ascendancy, enforcing a distant blockade of theFrench fleet in Brest. On 8 June, as Vence’s convoy passed the fortified island of Belle Île on the southern Breton coast they were discovered by British battle squadron of five ships of. the line and two frigates under Captain William Cornwallis Vence. Vence ordered his outnumbered ships to shelter under the batteries of Belle Île and after a brief skirmish with Cornwallis, withdrew his forces escorting his captured merchant ships to the mouth of the Channel. While Vence was escorting the convoy, Cornwallis returned to the region, hunting for an overwhelming force to rescue him. This time Cornwallis was able to extricate himself from the anchorage due to the proximity of the island. On the morning of 16 June, Vence discovered on 15 June that the main force of his Atlantic fleet was the British main force.
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