My fleet is interdicted by me. How do I escape the battle?

[longheart]

I need help saving my ships.
I sent these ships (my most powerful) to kill a couple freighters in orbit around an enemy planet.
After I was done, I tried to retreat my ships, but the retreat button was missing.
I had made the mistaken assumption that I could tell my interdiction frigate to turn off its interdictor so my ships could retreat.
It was sad, but I threw my interdiction frigate onto the powerful enemy battle stations, and let it be destroyed. It was worth it to save my other front line ships.
However... once the interdiction frigate was destroyed... none of my ships could retreat - the button was still missing.
This is a massive bug that defies logic.
And I don't know how to continue my game now since I really don't want to lose my entire attack force against this race. I don't have an earlier save that I can use instead.

[longheart]

Another attempt to add attachments.

[Darvin3]

Keep in mind that you cannot retreat into a system occupied by an enemy power. If you're behind enemy lines then you can't retreat and are forced to win the battle or perish.