LOSS OF CRUISER MANCHESTER

Southland Times, Issue 24826, 19 August 1942, Page 5

LOSS OF CRUISER MANCHESTER

(8.0.W.) LONDON, August 17. The loss of the cruiser Manchester was described to an agency correspondent, who was himself on the Eagle when she was torpedoed on the previous day, by one of the Manchester survivors now at Gibraltar. “The Manchester was with the Malta convoy when the ship was attacked by E-boats at 1 a.m. last Thursday,” said the survivor. "We were about seven miles off the coast of Tunisia when Eboats came in. It was difficult to see them. Suddenly we saw a tiny light and realized it was an electric torch shining dimly as the torpedo man in the E-boat was setting a depth torpedo. We let fly with a six-inch high explosive shell and scored a direct hit. She was blown to pieces. Another Eboat let fly with one torpedo, missed and slewed round and fired a second torpedo, which struck the ship. A few seconds later when we were on the quarter deck another E-boat sprayed the deck with machine-gun bullets. We replied with an Oerlikon gun and scored a hit. We abandoned the ship in a raft. We tried to make the coast of Tunisia and had been in the sea for eight hours when a British destroyer rescued us. A French ship came out several times, picking up survivors and

taking them into the shore. As it got light we could see them lined up on the beach. Then we sighted the British destroyer which picked us up and brought us on to Gibraltar.” He added that many officers and men reached the Tunisian coast safely and more were rescued by the destroyer. An Admiralty communique states that information has been received that most of the complement of the Manchester is safe, although no names are yet available. Three officers and 142 men were picked up by British ships and the remaining survivors are in French hands. '