HMS Manxman's demise (Part 1 of 3)
Heroes Remember
HMS Manxman's demise (Part 1 of 3)
The Welshman and the Manxman continued to operate in the
Mediterranean and to bring supplies in, into Malta until in
November and the date, the actual date escapes my memory at this
time. It was early, within the first week of November at 5 p.m.
or 5, 1701.5 hours, that's 1.5 minutes past 5 p.m., we were
struck by a torpedo fired at us by a U-boat. We avoided the
first one but the second one hit us directly into the engine room
and brought us to a standstill. It's just a loud explosion and of
course the air blown out through the ship's side and, you know,
the water sprayed up where it hits. We had, we lost 4 men who
were on duty in the engine room, 2 engine room articifers and 2
stokers. We never did recover the body of one stoker and just
above the engine room was a pom-pom gun, 20mm pom-pom and a
rating was standing, leaning over the rail around the pom-pom
when the torpedo struck the ship on the opposite side. There was
an air vent that came up just underneath the pom-pom from the
engine room, a big air-exchange and the force of the air picked
this rating up and through him over the side of the ship. He
was unharmed, he just sailed through the air into the ocean.
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