The 'Blitz on Manchester Blitz' was the German heavy bombing of the city of Manchester and its surrounding areas in north-western England (August 1940/1942).

This was one of three major raids on Manchester, which in World War II an important inland port and industrial city, and Trafford Park in neighbouring Stretford was a major centre of war production.

The German air attacks on Manchester began in August 1940, and in the following month the Palace Theatre on Oxford Street was hit. The heaviest raids occurred on the nights of 22/23 and 23/24 December 1940, killing an estimated 684 people and injuring more than 2,000. Manchester Cathedral, the Royal Exchange, the Free Trade Hall and the Manchester Assize Courts were among the large buildings damaged. On the night of 22/23 December 272 tons of high explosive were dropped, with another 195 tons following on the next night. Almost 2,000 incendiaries were also dropped on the city over the two nights. The aircraft approached the city in a loose column and then spread out to use the now-familiar tactic of dropping flares followed by incendiaries and high explosives before later waves of bombers targeted the fires caused by the earlier attacks. There were other less intensive bombing raids across the UK at this time, and two German aircraft were reported to have been lost over the British Isles on 24 December: one crashed into the sea near Blackpool and the other, loaded with incendiaries and flares, crashed in flames near Etchingham, Sussex.

Neighbouring Salford, Stretford and other districts were also badly damaged by the bombing. It is estimated that more than 215 people were killed and 910 injured in Salford, and more than 8,000 homes were damaged or destroyed. In Stretford, the dead totalled 73, and many more were injured.

On 11 March 1941 the Old Trafford football stadium was hit by a bomb aimed at the industrial complex of Trafford Park, wrecking the pitch and demolishing the stands. In June of the same year, German bombing damaged the Salford Royal Hospital on Chapel Street at the junction with Adelphi Street, killing 14 nurses, and in the same month German bombing damaged the police headquarters. Manchester continued to be bombed by the Luftwaffe throughout the war, and the city later became the target of air-launched V-1 flying bombs when, on 24 December 1944, Heinkel He 111 twin-engined aircraft flying over the Yorkshire coast launched 45 flying bombs at Manchester. No V-1 came down on Manchester itself, but 27 people in neighbouring Oldham were killed by a stray bomb. Another 17 people were killed elsewhere and 109 wounded overall. de Havilland Mosquito twin-engined night-fighters of the RAF shot down one German bomber over the North Sea and severely damaged another, causing it to crash-land in Germany.