HMS Manchester (1942): Shipwreck Map, Location & Facts

Name	HMS Manchester	Wikidata label
Year lost	1942	Wikidata P793 significant event, point-in-time qualifier
Era	Second World War	derived from year
Ship type	light cruiser	Wikidata P31 instance of
Cause of loss	Scuttled	Keyword match in English Wikipedia lead sentence
Nationality / flag	United Kingdom	Wikidata P8047 country of registry
Operator	Royal Navy	Wikidata P137 operator
Conflict	Battle of the Atlantic	Wikidata P607 conflict
Sea / ocean	Mediterranean Sea	Natural Earth marine areas (public domain), point-in-polygon
Nearest coast	Tunisia	Natural Earth (public domain); approx. 6 km from land
Position	36.8333, 11.1667	Wikidata P793 significant event, coordinate qualifier (CC0)

About the wreck

HMS Manchester was a Town-class light cruiser built for the Royal Navy in the late 1930s, one of three ships in the Gloucester subclass. Completed in 1938, she was initially deployed with the East Indies Station and had a relatively short but active career. When World War II began in September 1939, the cruiser began escorting convoys in the Indian Ocean until she was ordered home two months later. In late December Manchester began conducting patrols in the Norwegian Sea enforcing the blockade of Germany. Beginning in April 1940 the ship played a minor role in the Norwegian Campaign, mostly escorting convoys. She was assigned to anti-invasion duties in May–November in between refits.

In November the cruiser was tasked to escort a convoy through the Mediterranean and participated in the Battle of Cape Spartivento. Manchester was refitting during most of early 1941, but began patrolling the southern reaches of the Arctic Ocean in May. The cruiser was detached to escort a convoy to Malta in July and she was badly damaged by an aerial torpedo en route. Repairs were not completed until April 1942 and the ship spent the next several months working up and escorting convoys.

Manchester participated in Operation Pedestal, another Malta convoy, in mid-1942; she was torpedoed by two Italian motor torpedo boats and subsequently scuttled by her crew.

Location

Recorded position: 36.8333, 11.1667 (Wikidata P793 significant event, coordinate qualifier (CC0); may be approximate)
Sea / ocean: Mediterranean Sea
Nearest coast: Tunisia

Wreck positions on this site are for interest only and are not for navigation. Many wrecks are war graves or legally protected: never disturb human remains or remove artefacts, and check local law before diving.

OpenStreetMap

Text adapted from the Wikipedia article HMS Manchester (15) (revision 1375014438), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; condensed by selecting paragraphs and trimming at sentence boundaries; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.