World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseHMS Edinburgh was one of the two ships of the Edinburgh-subclass of the Town-class light cruisers, which was the final subclass of the Town-class. Upon commissioning in mid-1939, she was assigned to the Home Fleet of the British Royal Navy and patrolled between Iceland and the Faroe Islands. In Oct 1939, while in the Firth of Forth estuary in Scotland, United Kingdom, she sustained minor damage by German aircraft. On 23 Oct, she departed Scotland as an escort for Allied convoys to and from Narvik, Norway. In late Nov, she hunted for German battleship Scharnhorst which had just sank the armed merchant cruiser HMS Rawalpindi. After a lengthy refitting that took up most of 1940, she returned to active service in Nov 1940, escorting Allied convoy WS4B to Freetown, British West Africa. In Dec 1940, she sortied to hunt for a rumored German raider in the North Atlantic. In early 1941, she escorted convoys in the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, laid mines off Denmark, and supported the raid on Lofoten Islands, Norway. In early 1942, she was refitted at Tyne, England, United Kingdom once again. In Mar and Apr, she escorted convoys QP4, PQ13, and PQ14 between Britain and the Soviet Union.

ww2dbaseOn 28 Apr 1942, HMS Edinburgh departed Murmansk, Russia as the flagship of Rear-Admiral Stuart Bonham Carter, escorting the 17-ship Allied convoy QP11. On route, on 30 Apr, she was struck by a torpedo on the starboard side by German submarine U-456. She began to list heavily, but successful counter-flooding righted her. U-456 returned, however, and hit her again in the stern, heavily damaging her steering equipment. An attempt was made to tow her back to Murmansk with a light escort. German torpedo bombers shadowed her along the way, attacking occasionally. On 2 May, German destroyers Z.7 Hermann Schoemann, Z.24, and Z.25 attacked her and her escorts off Bear Island, Norway. Her tow lines were cut to allow her to sail in circles (due to the damaged steering equipment), firing at the German ships. Her second salvo straddled Z.7 Hermann Schoemann, heavily damaging the German destroyer which ultimately was scuttled. Before the other two destroyers were chased off, however, Edinburgh was hit by another torpedo on the port side. As this third hit was about the exact opposite side as the first torpedo hit of 30 Apr, thus her structural integrity was now in question. Deciding that it would be too risky to try to tow her to port, she was scuttled after about 840 people aboard were taken off by HMS Gossamer and HMS Harrier. It took 20 shots from HMS Harrier, depth charges, and two torpedoes from HMS Foresight to sink her. She went to the bottom of the sea with 4,570 kilograms of Soviet gold, which was meant to be payment for Allied war supplies. Most of the 465 gold bars were recovered in the 1980s, most of which (431) were recovered during the 1981 mission by dive support vessel Stephaniturm, while a 1986 mission recovered a further 29 bars.

Light Cruiser Edinburgh (16) Interactive Map

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Edinburgh Operational Timeline

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