Richard Osborne - The Watery Grave: The Life and Death of HMS Manchester

THE WATERY GRAVE

The Life and Death of HMS Manchester

This edition published in 2015 by Frontline Books,
an imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd,
47 Church Street, Barnsley, S. Yorkshire, S70 2AS

Copyright Richard Osborne, 2015

The right of Richard Osborne to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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Contents

List of Maps

Foreword

I grew up in Portsmouth and from 1956 went to school in Southsea. My bus journey took me past the Portsmouth Naval Base where, until 1958, I could see the cruiser HMS Liverpool laid up in Reserve. Liverpool was the name-ship of a sub-class of three ships belonging to the Town-class and had been badly damaged by torpedoes in the Mediterranean in both 1940 and 1942. The latter incident occurred during a Malta convoy code-named Operation Harpoon and the torpedo damage was so severe that Liverpool was not returned to service until after VE day. Gloucester, one of her two sisters, was sunk off Crete during May 1941 having run out of anti-aircraft ammunition. Her other sister, Manchester, was a Portsmouth-based ship and was lost during the Malta convoy code-named Operation Pedestal.

By the early 1960s I had read Volume II of Captain Stephen Roskills official history The War at Sea 1939 1945, and noted that he had recorded Manchester as being scuttled prematurely. Many of my school friends fathers had served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War but I could never persuade them to comment on the loss of Manchester. Eventually, one former Royal Navy officer who had served in the Mediterranean during 19411943 expressed the opinion that the loss of Manchester was not the Royal Navys finest moment but would not elaborate further.

In due course I became a University Lecturer in Pharmacology at the University of the West of England but continued to develop my interest in the Royal Navy and its ships as a hobby. From 1979 onwards I organised an annual meeting in Bristol for World Ship Society warship enthusiasts and, during the 2010 event, Dr Chris Simons, a university colleague of mine, gave an illustrated presentation about his dive on the wreck of Manchester the year before. This rekindled my interest in the loss of the cruiser and resulted in several visits to the National Archives at Kew where I was able to view the Minutes of the court martial convened to consider the loss of Manchester. These Minutes were written up in three volumes (with the National Archives references: ADM 156/209211), the last being ship plans, totalling 600 pages of questions and answers plus the apportionment of blame.

This book charts the origins and career of the Town-class cruiser Manchester from the date she was ordered until 13 August 1942 when she scuttled off Kelibia. I have drawn extensively upon the material in the Minutes of the court martial in an attempt to explain what happened that night in August 1942. However, to understand why Manchester was scuttled it is also necessary to consider her experience and that of her Captain during another Malta convoy, code-named Operation Substance, in July 1941. There is no doubt that the scuttling of Manchester triggered a robust response from the higher echelons in the Admiralty, not least because during 1941 and 1942 several British cruisers had been fought until they were sunk. The tame scuttling of a large cruiser therefore did not go down well with Their Lordships. In this book I have attempted to address the problems facing Manchesters commanding officer, the alternative actions he could have taken and the possible consequences for his ship and the convoy operation in which he was involved.

Richard Osborne
Nailsea, August 2015

Glossary

of Technical Terms and Abbreviations