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Arctic convoys of World War II

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Arctic convoys of World War II
Part of World War II
HMS Sheffield convoy.jpg
View from the cruiser HMS Sheffield as she sails on convoy duty through the waters of the Arctic Ocean. In the background are merchant ships of the convoy.
DateAugust 1941 – May 1945
Location
Result Allied victory
Belligerents
 United Kingdom
 Soviet Union
 Canada
 United States
 Norway
 Free France
 Germany
Casualties and losses
85 merchant vessels
16 warships
4 warships
30 submarines

The Arctic convoys of World War II were oceangoing convoys which sailed from the United Kingdom, Iceland, and North America to northern ports in the Soviet Union – primarily Arkhangelsk (Archangel) and Murmansk in Russia. There were 78 convoys between August 1941 and May 1945,[1] sailing via several seas of the Atlantic and Arctic oceans, with two gaps with no sailings between July and September 1942, and March and November 1943.

About 1,400 merchant ships delivered essential supplies to the Soviet Union under the Anglo-Soviet agreement and US Lend-Lease program, escorted by ships of the Royal Navy, Royal Canadian Navy, and the U.S. Navy. Eighty-five merchant vessels and 16 Royal Navy warships (two cruisers, six destroyers, eight other escort ships) were lost. Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine lost a number of vessels including one battleship, three destroyers, 30 U-boats, and many aircraft. The convoys demonstrated the Allies' commitment to helping the Soviet Union, prior to the opening of a second front, and tied up a substantial part of Germany's naval and air forces.[2]

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Convoy

Convoy

A convoy is a group of vehicles, typically motor vehicles or ships, traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support and can help maintain cohesion within a unit. It may also be used in a non-military sense, for example when driving through remote areas.

Arkhangelsk

Arkhangelsk

Arkhangelsk, also known in English as Archangel and Archangelsk, is a city and the administrative center of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on both banks of the Northern Dvina near its mouth into the White Sea. The city spreads for over 40 kilometres (25 mi) along the banks of the river and numerous islands of its delta. Arkhangelsk was the chief seaport of medieval and early modern Russia until 1703, when it was replaced by the newly-founded Saint Petersburg.

Murmansk

Murmansk

Murmansk is a port city and the administrative center of Murmansk Oblast in the far northwest part of Russia. It sits on both slopes and banks of a modest ria or fjord, Kola Bay, an estuarine inlet of the Barents Sea. Its bulk is on the east bank of the inlet. It is in the north of the rounded Kola Peninsula which covers most of the oblast. The city is 108 kilometres (67 mi) from the border with Norway and 182 kilometres (113 mi) from the border with Finland.

Atlantic Ocean

Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about 106,460,000 km2 (41,100,000 sq mi). It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Africa, Europe, and Asia from the "New World" of the Americas in the European perception of the World.

Arctic Ocean

Arctic Ocean

The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately 14,060,000 km2 (5,430,000 sq mi) and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, although some oceanographers call it the Arctic Mediterranean Sea. It has been also been described as an estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. It is also seen as the northernmost part of the all-encompassing World Ocean.

Anglo-Soviet Agreement

Anglo-Soviet Agreement

The Anglo-Soviet Agreement was a formal military alliance that was signed by the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany on July 12, 1941, shortly after the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Both powers pledged to assist each other and not to make a separate peace with Germany. The military alliance was to be valid until the end of World War II. The two founding principles of the agreement of a commitment of mutual assistance and renunciation of a separate peace formed the basis of the later Declaration by United Nations.

Lend-Lease

Lend-Lease

Lend-Lease, formally the Lend-Lease Act and introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States, was a policy under which the United States supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, France, China, and other Allied nations with food, oil, and materiel between 1941 and 1945. The aid was given for free on the basis that such help was essential for the defense of the United States.

Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against France. The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the early 16th century; the oldest of the UK's armed services, it is consequently known as the Senior Service.

Royal Canadian Navy

Royal Canadian Navy

The Royal Canadian Navy is the naval force of Canada. The RCN is one of three environmental commands within the Canadian Armed Forces. As of 2021, the RCN operates 12 frigates, four attack submarines, 12 coastal defence vessels, eight patrol class training vessels, two offshore patrol vessels, and several auxiliary vessels. The RCN consists of 8,570 Regular Force and 4,111 Primary Reserve sailors, supported by 3,800 civilians. Vice-Admiral Angus Topshee is the current commander of the Royal Canadian Navy and chief of the Naval Staff.

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a dictatorship. Under Hitler's rule, Germany quickly became a totalitarian state where nearly all aspects of life were controlled by the government. The Third Reich, meaning "Third Realm" or "Third Empire", alluded to the Nazi claim that Nazi Germany was the successor to the earlier Holy Roman Empire (800–1806) and German Empire (1871–1918). The Third Reich, which Hitler and the Nazis referred to as the Thousand-Year Reich, ended in May 1945 after just 12 years when the Allies defeated Germany, ending World War II in Europe.

Kriegsmarine

Kriegsmarine

The Kriegsmarine was the navy of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war Reichsmarine (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches, along with the Heer and the Luftwaffe, of the Wehrmacht, the German armed forces from 1935 to 1945.

German battleship Scharnhorst

German battleship Scharnhorst

Scharnhorst was a German capital ship, alternatively described as a battleship or battlecruiser, of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine. She was the lead ship of her class, which included her sister ship Gneisenau. The ship was built at the Kriegsmarinewerft dockyard in Wilhelmshaven; she was laid down on 15 June 1935 and launched a year and four months later on 3 October 1936. Completed in January 1939, the ship was armed with a main battery of nine 28 cm (11 in) C/34 guns in three triple turrets. Plans to replace these weapons with six 38 cm (15 in) SK C/34 guns in twin turrets were never carried out.

Background

In June 1941, Germany launched Operation Barbarossa, invading the USSR. The following month, Britain and the Soviet Union formed an alliance, the Anglo-Soviet Agreement. Britain was quick to provide limited materiel aid to the USSR beginning in August - including tanks and aircraft - in order to try to keep her new ally in the war against the Axis powers.[3] One major conduit for supplies was through Iran. The two nations began a joint occupation of Iran in late August, to neutralize German influence. The Soviet Union joined the Second Inter-Allied Meeting in London in September. The USSR thereafter became one of the "Big Three" Allies of World War II along with Britain and, from December, the United States, fighting against the Axis Powers. The American Lend-Lease program was signed into law in March 1941. It provided Britain and the Soviet Union with limited war materiel beginning in October that year. The programme began to increase in scale during 1943.[4][5] The British Commonwealth and, to a lesser extent, the Soviet Union reciprocated with a smaller Reverse Lend-Lease program.[6][7]

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Operation Barbarossa

Operation Barbarossa

Operation Barbarossa was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. It was the largest land offensive in human history, with over 10 million combatants taking part. The operation, code-named after Frederick Barbarossa, a 12th-century Holy Roman emperor and German king, put into action Nazi Germany's ideological goal of conquering the western Soviet Union to repopulate it with Germans. The German Generalplan Ost aimed to use some of the conquered people as forced labour for the Axis war effort while acquiring the oil reserves of the Caucasus as well as the agricultural resources of various Soviet territories. Their ultimate goal was to create more Lebensraum for Germany, and the eventual extermination of the indigenous Slavic peoples by mass deportation to Siberia, Germanisation, enslavement, and genocide.

Anglo-Soviet Agreement

Anglo-Soviet Agreement

The Anglo-Soviet Agreement was a formal military alliance that was signed by the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany on July 12, 1941, shortly after the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Both powers pledged to assist each other and not to make a separate peace with Germany. The military alliance was to be valid until the end of World War II. The two founding principles of the agreement of a commitment of mutual assistance and renunciation of a separate peace formed the basis of the later Declaration by United Nations.

Axis powers

Axis powers

The Axis powers, originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis, was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were Nazi Germany, the Kingdom of Italy, and the Empire of Japan. The Axis were united in their opposition to the Allies, but otherwise lacked comparable coordination and ideological cohesion.

Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran

The Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran or Anglo-Soviet invasion of Persia was the joint invasion of the neutral Imperial State of Iran by the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union in August 1941. The invasion, code name Operation Countenance, was largely unopposed by the numerically and technologically outmatched Iranian forces. The multi-pronged coordinated invasion took place along Iran's borders with the Kingdom of Iraq, Azerbaijan SSR, and Turkmen SSR, with fighting beginning on 25 August and ending on 31 August when the Iranian government formally agreed to surrender, having already agreed to a ceasefire on 30 August.

Allies of World War II

Allies of World War II

The Allies, formally referred to as the United Nations from 1942, were an international military coalition formed during the Second World War (1939–1945) to oppose the Axis powers, led by Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and Fascist Italy. Its principal members by the end of 1941 were the United Kingdom, United States, Soviet Union, and China.

Consequences of the attack on Pearl Harbor

Consequences of the attack on Pearl Harbor

Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor took place on December 7, 1941. The U.S. military suffered 18 ships damaged or sunk, and 2,400 people were killed. Its most significant consequence was the entrance of the United States into World War II. The US had previously been officially neutral but subsequently entered the Pacific War, the Battle of the Atlantic and the European theatre of war. Following the attack, the US interned 120,000 Japanese Americans, 11,000 German Americans, and 3,000 Italian Americans

Lend-Lease

Lend-Lease

Lend-Lease, formally the Lend-Lease Act and introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States, was a policy under which the United States supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, France, China, and other Allied nations with food, oil, and materiel between 1941 and 1945. The aid was given for free on the basis that such help was essential for the defense of the United States.

Convoy organisation

Ice forms on a 20-inch (51 cm) signal projector on the cruiser HMS Sheffield, part of an escort of an Arctic convoy to the Soviet Union.
Ice forms on a 20-inch (51 cm) signal projector on the cruiser HMS Sheffield, part of an escort of an Arctic convoy to the Soviet Union.
Routes of the northern allied convoys. 1941-1945
Routes of the northern allied convoys. 1941-1945

After the first convoy, code-named Operation Dervish in August 1941, the Arctic convoys ran in two series:[8]

  • The first series, PQ (outbound) and QP (homebound), ran from September 1941 to September 1942. These convoys ran twice monthly, with interruptions in the summer of 1942, when the series was suspended after the disaster of Convoy PQ 17, and again in the autumn after the final convoy of the series, Convoy PQ 18, because of the long daylight hours and the preparations for November 1942's Operation Torch.
  • The second series of convoys, JW (outbound) and RA (homebound) ran from December 1942 until the end of the war, though with interruptions in the summer of 1943 and again in the summer of 1944.

The convoys ran from Iceland (usually off Hvalfjörður) and traveled north of Jan Mayen Island to Arkhangelsk when the ice permitted in the summer months, shifting south as the pack ice increased and terminating at Murmansk. From February 1942 they assembled and sailed from Loch Ewe in Scotland.[9]

Outbound and homebound convoys were planned to run simultaneously; a close escort accompanied the merchant ships to port, remaining to make the subsequent return trip, whilst a covering force of heavy surface units was also provided to guard against sorties by ships such as Tirpitz. Escorts would accompany the outbound convoy to a cross-over point, meeting and then conducting the homebound convoy back, while the close escort finished the voyage with its charges.

The route skirted occupied Norway en route to the Soviet ports. Particular dangers included:

  • the proximity of German air, submarine and surface forces
  • the likelihood of severe weather
  • the frequency of fog
  • the strong currents and the mixing of cold and warm waters, which made ASDIC use difficult
  • drift ice
  • the alternation between the difficulties of navigating and maintaining convoy cohesion in constant darkness in winter convoys or being attacked around-the-clock in constant daylight in summer convoys

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HMS Sheffield (C24)

HMS Sheffield (C24)

HMS Sheffield was one of the Southampton sub class of the Town-class cruisers of the Royal Navy during the Second World War. She took part in actions against several major German warships. Unlike most Royal Navy ships of her time, her fittings were constructed from stainless steel instead of the more traditional brass. This was an attempt to reduce the amount of cleaning required on the part of the crew. Her nickname, the "Shiny Sheff", stemmed from this. A prototype radar system was placed into service in August 1938 on the Sheffield. It was the first vessel in the Royal Navy to be so equipped.

Operation Dervish (1941)

Operation Dervish (1941)

Operation Dervish was the first of the Arctic Convoys of the Second World War by which the Western Allies supplied material to the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany. Included in the convoy was the personnel and equipment of an RAF Wing, for the air defence of the Russian ports, several civilians and diplomatic missions.

Arctic

Arctic

The Arctic is a polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada, Danish Realm (Greenland), northern Finland (Lapland), Iceland, northern Norway, Russia, northernmost Sweden and the United States (Alaska). Land within the Arctic region has seasonally varying snow and ice cover, with predominantly treeless permafrost containing tundra. Arctic seas contain seasonal sea ice in many places.

Convoy PQ 17

Convoy PQ 17

PQ 17 was the code name for an Allied Arctic convoy during the Second World War. On 27 June 1942, the ships sailed from Hvalfjörður, Iceland, for the port of Arkhangelsk in the Soviet Union. The convoy was located by German forces on 1 July, after which it was shadowed continuously and attacked. The First Sea Lord Admiral Dudley Pound, acting on information that German surface units, including the German battleship Tirpitz, were moving to intercept, ordered the covering force built around the Allied battleships HMS Duke of York and the USS Washington away from the convoy and told the convoy to scatter. Because of vacillation by Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, the Tirpitz raid never materialised. The convoy was the first large joint Anglo-American naval operation under British command; in Churchill's view this encouraged a more careful approach to fleet movements.

Convoy PQ 18

Convoy PQ 18

Convoy PQ 18 was an Arctic convoy of forty Allied freighters from Scotland and Iceland to Arkhangelsk in the Soviet Union in the war against Nazi Germany. The convoy departed Loch Ewe, Scotland on 2 September 1942, rendezvoused with more ships and escorts at Iceland and arrived at Arkhangelsk on 21 September. An exceptionally large number of escorts was provided by the Royal Navy in Operation EV, including the first escort carrier to accompany an Arctic convoy. Detailed information on German intentions was provided by the code breakers at Bletchley Park and elsewhere, through Ultra signals decrypts and eavesdropping on Luftwaffe wireless communications.

Hvalfjörður

Hvalfjörður

Hvalfjörður is situated in the west of Iceland between Mosfellsbær and Akranes. The fjord is approximately 30 km long and 5 km wide.

Loch Ewe

Loch Ewe

Loch Ewe is a sea loch in the region of Wester Ross in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland. The shores are inhabited by a traditionally Gàidhlig-speaking people living in or sustained by crofting villages, the most notable of which, situated on the north-eastern shore, is the Aultbea settlement.

Covering force

Covering force

A covering force is a military force tasked with operating in conjunction with a larger force, with the role of providing a strong protective outpost line, searching for and attacking enemy forces or defending the main force from attack.

German battleship Tirpitz

German battleship Tirpitz

Tirpitz was the second of two Bismarck-class battleships built for Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine (navy) prior to and during the Second World War. Named after Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, the architect of the Kaiserliche Marine, the ship was laid down at the Kriegsmarinewerft Wilhelmshaven in November 1936 and her hull was launched two and a half years later. Work was completed in February 1941, when she was commissioned into the German fleet. Like her sister ship, Bismarck, Tirpitz was armed with a main battery of eight 38-centimetre (15 in) guns in four twin turrets. After a series of wartime modifications she was 2000 tonnes heavier than Bismarck, making her the heaviest battleship ever built by a European navy.

Luftwaffe

Luftwaffe

The Luftwaffe was the aerial-warfare branch of the German Wehrmacht before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the Luftstreitkräfte of the Imperial Army and the Marine-Fliegerabteilung of the Imperial Navy, had been disbanded in May 1920 in accordance with the terms of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles which banned Germany from having any air force.

Kriegsmarine

Kriegsmarine

The Kriegsmarine was the navy of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war Reichsmarine (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches, along with the Heer and the Luftwaffe, of the Wehrmacht, the German armed forces from 1935 to 1945.

Drift ice

Drift ice

Drift ice, also called brash ice, is sea ice that is not attached to the shoreline or any other fixed object. Unlike fast ice, which is "fastened" to a fixed object, drift ice is carried along by winds and sea currents, hence its name. When drift ice is driven together into a large single mass, it is called pack ice. Wind and currents can pile up that ice to form ridges up to dozens of metres in thickness. These represent a challenge for icebreakers and offshore structures operating in cold oceans and seas.

Notable convoys

A British wartime poster about the Arctic convoys
A British wartime poster about the Arctic convoys

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Hvalfjörður

Hvalfjörður

Hvalfjörður is situated in the west of Iceland between Mosfellsbær and Akranes. The fjord is approximately 30 km long and 5 km wide.

Arkhangelsk

Arkhangelsk

Arkhangelsk, also known in English as Archangel and Archangelsk, is a city and the administrative center of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on both banks of the Northern Dvina near its mouth into the White Sea. The city spreads for over 40 kilometres (25 mi) along the banks of the river and numerous islands of its delta. Arkhangelsk was the chief seaport of medieval and early modern Russia until 1703, when it was replaced by the newly-founded Saint Petersburg.

Merchant ship

Merchant ship

A merchant ship, merchant vessel, trading vessel, or merchantman is a watercraft that transports cargo or carries passengers for hire. This is in contrast to pleasure craft, which are used for personal recreation, and naval ships, which are used for military purposes.

Commodore (Royal Navy)

Commodore (Royal Navy)

Commodore (Cdre) is a rank of the Royal Navy above captain and below rear admiral. It has a NATO ranking code of OF-6. The rank is equivalent to brigadier in the British Army and Royal Marines and to air commodore in the Royal Air Force. Commodore has only been a substantive rank in the Royal Navy since 1997. Until then the term denoted a functional position rather than a formal rank, being the title bestowed on the senior officer of a fleet of at least two naval vessels comprising an independent command.

HMS Halcyon (J42)

HMS Halcyon (J42)

HMS Halcyon was the lead ship in her class of minesweepers built for the Royal Navy in the 1930s. The vessel was launched on 20 December 1933 and was used as a convoy escort and during the landing operations during the Invasion of Normandy during World War II. The ship was sold for scrapping in 1950.

Destroyer

Destroyer

In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy, or battle group and defend them against powerful short-range attackers. They were originally developed in 1885 by Fernando Villaamil for the Spanish Navy as a defense against torpedo boats, and by the time of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, these "torpedo boat destroyers" (TBDs) were "large, swift, and powerfully armed torpedo boats designed to destroy other torpedo boats". Although the term "destroyer" had been used interchangeably with "TBD" and "torpedo boat destroyer" by navies since 1892, the term "torpedo boat destroyer" had been generally shortened to simply "destroyer" by nearly all navies by the First World War.

HMS Electra (H27)

HMS Electra (H27)

HMS Electra was a one of nine E-class destroyers built for the Royal Navy during the 1930s. Sunk in the Battle of the Java Sea, Electra was a witness to many naval battles, including the Battle of the Denmark Strait and the sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse. The ship's wreck was discovered in 2003 and had been badly damaged by illegal salvagers by 2016.

HMS Active (H14)

HMS Active (H14)

HMS Active, the tenth Active, launched in 1929, was an A-class destroyer. She served in the Second World War, taking part in the sinking of four submarines. She was broken up in 1947.

HMS Impulsive (D11)

HMS Impulsive (D11)

HMS Impulsive was an I-class destroyer built for the Royal Navy during the 1930s. She saw service in World War II before being scrapped in 1946. She has been the only ship of the Navy to bear this name.

Naval trawler

Naval trawler

Naval trawlers are vessels built along the lines of a fishing trawler but fitted out for naval purposes; they were widely used during the First and Second World Wars. Some—known in the Royal Navy as "Admiralty trawlers"— were purpose-built to naval specifications, others adapted from civilian use. Fishing trawlers were particularly suited for many naval requirements because they were robust vessels designed to work heavy trawls in all types of weather, and had large clear working decks. A minesweeper could be created by replacing the trawl with a mine sweep. Adding depth charge racks on the deck, ASDIC sonar below, and a 3-inch (76 mm) or 4-inch (102 mm) gun in the bow equipped the trawler for anti-submarine duties.

Convoy PQ 16

Convoy PQ 16

Convoy PQ 16 was an Arctic convoy of British, United States and Allied ships from Iceland to Murmansk and Archangelsk in the Soviet Union during the Second World War. The convoy was the largest yet and was provided with a considerable number of escorts and submarines. QP 12, a return convoy, sailed on the same day

Crane vessel

Crane vessel

A crane vessel, crane ship or floating crane is a ship with a crane specialized in lifting heavy loads, typically exceeding 1,500 t for modern ships. The largest crane vessels are used for offshore construction.

List of Arctic convoys

1941

Outbound Homebound
Dervish departed Hvalfjörður, Iceland, August 21;
arrived Arkhangelsk, Russia, August 31
PQ 1 departed Hvalfjörður September 29;
arrived Arkhangelsk October 11
QP 1 departed Arkhangelsk September 28;
arrived Scapa Flow, Scotland, October 10
PQ 2 departed Liverpool, England, October 13;
arrived Arkhangelsk October 30
PQ 3 departed Hvalfjörður November 9;
arrived Arkhangelsk November 22
QP 2 departed Arkhangelsk November 3;
arrived Kirkwall, Scotland, November 17
PQ 4 departed Hvalfjörður November 17;
arrived Arkhangelsk November 28
PQ 5 departed Hvalfjörður November 27;
arrived Arkhangelsk December 13
QP 3 departed Arkhangelsk November 27;
dispersed, arrived December 3
PQ 6 departed Hvalfjörður December 8;
arrived Murmansk, Russia, December 20
QP 6
arrived Scapa Flow, Scotland, December 29
PQ 7a departed Hvalfjörður December 26;
arrived Murmansk January 12, 1942
QP 4 departed Arkhangelsk December 29;
dispersed, arrived January 9
PQ 7b departed Hvalfjörður December 31;
arrived Murmansk January 11

1942

Outbound Homebound
PQ 8 departed Hvalfjörður January 8;
arrived Arkhangelsk January 17
QP 5 departed Murmansk January 13;
dispersed, arrived January 19
Combined PQ 9 and PQ 10 departed Reykjavík, Iceland February 1;
arrived Murmansk February 10
QP 6 departed Murmansk January 24;
dispersed, arrived January 28
PQ 11 departed Loch Ewe, Scotland February 7;
departed Kirkwall February 14;
arrived Murmansk February 22
QP 7 departed Murmansk February 12;
dispersed, arrived February 15
PQ 12 departed Reykjavík March 1;
arrived Murmansk March 12[11]
QP 8 departed Murmansk March 1;
arrived Reykjavík March 11
PQ 13 departed Reykjavík March 20;
arrived Murmansk March 31
QP 9 departed Kola Inlet, Russia March 21;
arrived Reykjavík April 3
PQ 14 departed Oban, Scotland March 26;
arrived Murmansk April 19
QP 10 departed Kola Inlet April 10;
arrived Reykjavík April 21
PQ 15 departed Oban April 10;
arrived Murmansk May 5
QP 11 departed Murmansk April 28;
arrived Reykjavík May 7
PQ 16 departed Reykjavík May 21;
arrived Murmansk May 30
QP 12 departed Kola Inlet May 21;
arrived Reykjavík May 29
PQ 17 departed Reykjavik June 27;
dispersed, arrived July 4
QP 13 departed Arkhangelsk June 26;
arrived Reykjavík July 7
(August sailing postponed) (August sailing postponed)
PQ 18 departed Loch Ewe September 2;
arrived Arkhangelsk September 21: first convoy with aircraft carrier escort (HMS Avenger)
QP 14 departed Arkhangelsk September 13;
arrived Loch Ewe September 26
(PQ cycle terminated ) QP 15 departed Kola Inlet November 17;
arrived Loch Ewe November 30
Operation FB sailings by independent unescorted ships (QP cycle terminated )
JW 51A departed Liverpool December 15;
arrived Kola Inlet December 25
JW 51B departed Liverpool December 22;
arrived Kola Inlet January 4, 1943;
see Battle of the Barents Sea
RA 51 departed Kola Inlet December 30;
arrived Loch Ewe January 11

1943

Outbound Homebound
JW 52 departed Liverpool January 17;
arrived Kola Inlet January 27
RA 52 departed Kola Inlet January 29;
arrived Loch Ewe February 9
JW 53 departed Liverpool February 15;
arrived Kola Inlet February 27
RA 53 departed Kola Inlet March 1;
arrived Loch Ewe March 14
(cycle postponed through summer) (cycle postponed through summer)
JW 54A departed Liverpool November 15;
arrived Kola Inlet November 24
RA 54A departed Kola Inlet November 1;
arrived Loch Ewe November 14
JW 54B departed Liverpool November 22;
arrived Arkhangelsk December 3
RA 54B departed Arkhangelsk November 26;
arrived Loch Ewe December 9
JW 55A departed Liverpool December 12;
arrived Arkhangelsk December 22
RA 55A departed Kola Inlet December 22;
arrived Loch Ewe January 1, 1944
JW 55B departed Liverpool December 20;
arrived Archangel December 30;
see Battle of the North Cape
RA 55B departed Kola Inlet December 31;
arrived Loch Ewe January 8

1944

Outbound Homebound
JW 56A departed Liverpool January 12;
arrived Archangel January 28
JW 56B departed Liverpool January 22;
arrived Kola Inlet February 1
RA 56 departed Kola Inlet February 3;
arrived Loch Ewe February 11
JW 57 departed Liverpool February 20;
arrived Kola Inlet February 28
RA 57 departed Kola Inlet March 2;
arrived Loch Ewe March 10
JW 58 departed Liverpool March 27;
arrived Kola Inlet April 4
RA 58 departed Kola Inlet April 7;
arrived Loch Ewe April 14
(escorts only to Murmansk) RA 59 departed Kola Inlet April 28;
arrived Loch Ewe May 6
(cycle postponed through summer) (cycle postponed through summer)
JW 59 departed Liverpool August 15;
arrived Kola Inlet August 25
RA 59A departed Kola Inlet August 28;
arrived Loch Ewe September 5
JW 60 departed Liverpool September 15;
arrived Kola Inlet September 23
RA 60 departed Kola Inlet September 28;
arrived Loch Ewe October 5
JW 61 departed Liverpool October 20;
arrived Kola Inlet October 28
RA 61 departed Kola Inlet November 2;
arrived Loch Ewe November 9
JW 61A departed Liverpool October 31;
arrived Murmansk November 6
RA 61A departed Kola Inlet November 11;
arrived Loch Ewe November 17
JW 62 departed Loch Ewe November 29;
arrived Kola Inlet December 7
RA 62 departed Kola Inlet December 10;
arrived Loch Ewe December 19
JW 63 departed Loch Ewe December 30;
arrived Kola Inlet January 8, 1945
RA 63 departed Kola Inlet January 11;
arrived Loch Ewe January 21

1945

Outbound Homebound
JW 64 departed Clyde, Scotland February 3;
arrived Kola Inlet February 15
RA 64 departed Kola Inlet February 17;
arrived Loch Ewe February 28
JW 65 departed Clyde March 11;
arrived Kola Inlet March 21
RA 65 departed Kola Inlet March 23;
arrived Loch Ewe April 1
JW 66 departed Clyde April 16;
arrived Kola Inlet April 25
RA 66 departed Kola Inlet April 29;
arrived Clyde May 8
JW 67 departed Clyde May 12;
arrived Kola Inlet May 20
RA 67 departed Kola Inlet May 23;
arrived Clyde May 30

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Hvalfjörður

Hvalfjörður

Hvalfjörður is situated in the west of Iceland between Mosfellsbær and Akranes. The fjord is approximately 30 km long and 5 km wide.

Arkhangelsk

Arkhangelsk

Arkhangelsk, also known in English as Archangel and Archangelsk, is a city and the administrative center of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on both banks of the Northern Dvina near its mouth into the White Sea. The city spreads for over 40 kilometres (25 mi) along the banks of the river and numerous islands of its delta. Arkhangelsk was the chief seaport of medieval and early modern Russia until 1703, when it was replaced by the newly-founded Saint Petersburg.

Convoy PQ 1

Convoy PQ 1

Convoy PQ 1 was the second of the Arctic Convoys of World War II by which the Western Allies supplied material aid to the Soviet Union in its fight with Nazi Germany. The convoy sailed from Hvalfiord in Iceland on 29 September 1941 and arrived at Archangelsk on 11 October 1941.

Convoy QP 1

Convoy QP 1

Convoy QP 1 was an Arctic convoy of the PQ/QP series which ran during the Second World War. It was one of a series of convoys run to return Allied ships from Soviet northern ports to home ports in Britain. It sailed in late September 1941, reaching Allied ports in mid-October. All ships arrived safely.

Convoy PQ 2

Convoy PQ 2

Convoy PQ 2 was the third of the Arctic Convoys of World War II by which the Western Allies supplied material aid to the Soviet Union in its fight with Nazi Germany. The convoy sailed from Liverpool on 13 October 1941 and arrived safely at Archangelsk on 30 October 1941.

Convoy PQ 3

Convoy PQ 3

Convoy PQ 3 was the fourth of the Arctic Convoys of World War II by which the Western Allies supplied material aid to the Soviet Union in its fight with Nazi Germany. The Convoy sailed from Hvalfjord, Iceland on 9 November 1941 and arrived at Archangelsk on 22 November 1941.

Convoy PQ 4

Convoy PQ 4

Convoy PQ 4 was the fifth of the Arctic Convoys of World War II by which the Western Allies supplied material aid to the Soviet Union in its fight with Nazi Germany. The Convoy sailed from Hvalfjord, Iceland on 17 November 1941 and arrived at Archangelsk on 28 November 1941.

Convoy PQ 5

Convoy PQ 5

Convoy PQ 5 was the sixth of the Arctic Convoys of World War II by which the Western Allies supplied material aid to the Soviet Union in its fight with Nazi Germany. The Convoy sailed from Hvalfjord, Iceland on 27 November 1941 and arrived at Archangelsk on 13 December 1941.

Convoy QP 3

Convoy QP 3

Convoy QP 3 — was one of Arctic convoys of World War II which sailed between the United Kingdom, United States, or Iceland to what was then the USSR.

Convoy PQ 6

Convoy PQ 6

Convoy PQ 6 was the seventh of the Arctic convoys of World War II by which the Western Allies supplied material aid to the Soviet Union in its fight with Nazi Germany. The convoy sailed from Hvalfjörður, Iceland, on 8 December 1941 and arrived at Murmansk on 20 December 1941.

Convoy PQ 7

Convoy PQ 7

Convoy PQ 7 was the eighth of the Arctic convoys of the Second World War by which the Western Allies supplied material aid to the Soviet Union in its fight with Nazi Germany. The convoy was in two parts: PQ 7a sailed from Hvalfjörður, Iceland on 26 December 1941 and arrived at Murmansk on 12 January 1942. PQ 7b sailed from Hvalfjord, Iceland on 31 December 1941 and arrived in Murmansk on 11 January 1942.

Convoy PQ 8

Convoy PQ 8

Convoy PQ 8 was an Arctic convoy of the Western Allies to aid the Soviet Union during the Second World War. The convoy left Iceland on 8 January 1942 and arrived in Murmansk nine days later. Having ignored earlier convoys, the Germans had begun to reinforce their forces in Norway and assembled the first U-boat wolfpack in the Arctic against PQ 8. On 17 January, Wolfpack Ulan damaged the merchant ship SS Harmatris, which was stranded in Russia until Convoy QP 14 and sank the destroyer HMS Matabele with the loss of all but two of the crew.

Purpose and strategic impact

Northern sea convoy on the hike.
Northern sea convoy on the hike.
The ships on Arctic convoy duty.
The ships on Arctic convoy duty.

Cargo included tanks, fighter planes, fuel, ammunition, raw materials, and food.[12] The early convoys in particular delivered armoured vehicles and Hawker Hurricanes to make up for shortages in the Soviet Union.[13] The Arctic convoys caused major changes to naval dispositions on both sides, which arguably had a major impact on the course of events in other theatres of war. As a result of early raids by destroyers on German coastal shipping and the Commando raid on Vågsøy, Hitler was led to believe that the British intended to invade Norway again. This, together with the obvious need to stop convoy supplies reaching the Soviet Union, caused him to direct that heavier ships, especially the battleship Tirpitz, be sent to Norway. The Channel Dash was partly undertaken for this reason.[14]

As a "fleet in being", Tirpitz and the other German capital ships tied down British resources which might have been better used elsewhere, for example combating the Japanese in the Indian Ocean. The success of Gneisenau and Scharnhorst in Operation Berlin during early 1941 had demonstrated the potential German threat. As the Allies closed the air gap over the North Atlantic with very long range aircraft, Huff-Duff (radio triangulation equipment) improved, airborne centimetric radar was introduced and convoys received escort carrier protection, the scope for commerce raiding diminished.

Aside from an abortive attempt to interdict PQ12 in March 1942 and a raid on Spitsbergen in September 1943, Tirpitz spent most of the Second World War in Norwegian fjords. She was penned in and repeatedly attacked until she was finally sunk in Tromsø fjord on 12 November 1944 by the Royal Air Force (RAF). Other Kriegsmarine capital ships either never got to Norway (e.g. Gneisenau), were chased off, or were sunk by superior forces (e.g. Scharnhorst). In particular, the unsuccessful attack on convoy JW-51B (the Battle of the Barents Sea), where a strong German naval force failed to defeat a British escort of cruisers and destroyers, infuriated Hitler and led to the strategic change from surface raiders to submarines. Some capital ships were physically dismantled and armament used in coastal defences.[15]

Members of the crew clearing the frozen fo'c'sle of HMS Inglefield.
Members of the crew clearing the frozen fo'c'sle of HMS Inglefield.

Leningrad under the siege was one of important destinations for supplies from the convoys. From 1941 food and munition supplies were delivered from British convoys to Leningrad by trains, barges, and trucks. Supplies were often destroyed by the Nazi air-bombings, and by Naval Detachment K while on the way to Leningrad. However, convoys continued deliveries of food in 1942, 1943, and through 1944. Towards the end of the war the material significance of the supplies was probably not as great as the symbolic value hence the continuation—at Stalin's insistence—of these convoys long after the Soviets had turned the German land offensive.[16]

It has been said that the main value of the convoys was political, proving that the Allies were committed to helping the Soviet Union at a time when they were unable to open a second front.[2]

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Hawker Hurricane

Hawker Hurricane

The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft of the 1930s–40s which was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. for service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was overshadowed in the public consciousness by the Supermarine Spitfire during the Battle of Britain in 1940, but the Hurricane inflicted 60% of the losses sustained by the Luftwaffe in the campaign, and fought in all the major theatres of the Second World War.

Operation Archery

Operation Archery

Operation Archery, also known as the Måløy Raid, was a British Combined Operations raid during World War II against German positions on the island of Vågsøy, Norway, on 27 December 1941.

German battleship Tirpitz

German battleship Tirpitz

Tirpitz was the second of two Bismarck-class battleships built for Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine (navy) prior to and during the Second World War. Named after Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, the architect of the Kaiserliche Marine, the ship was laid down at the Kriegsmarinewerft Wilhelmshaven in November 1936 and her hull was launched two and a half years later. Work was completed in February 1941, when she was commissioned into the German fleet. Like her sister ship, Bismarck, Tirpitz was armed with a main battery of eight 38-centimetre (15 in) guns in four twin turrets. After a series of wartime modifications she was 2000 tonnes heavier than Bismarck, making her the heaviest battleship ever built by a European navy.

Channel Dash

Channel Dash

The Channel Dash was a German naval operation during the Second World War. A Kriegsmarine squadron comprising the two Scharnhorst-class battleships, the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen and their escorts was evacuated from Brest in Brittany to German ports. Scharnhorst and Gneisenau had arrived in Brest on 22 March 1941 after the success of Operation Berlin in the Atlantic. More raids were planned and the ships were refitted at Brest. The ships were a threat to Allied trans-Atlantic convoys and RAF Bomber Command attacked them from 30 March 1941. Gneisenau was hit on 6 April 1941 and Scharnhorst on 24 July 1941, after dispersal to La Pallice. In late 1941, Adolf Hitler ordered the Oberkommando der Marine to plan an operation to return the ships to German bases against a British invasion of Norway. The short route up the English Channel was preferred to a detour around the British Isles for surprise and air cover by the Luftwaffe and on 12 January 1942, Hitler gave orders for the operation.

Fleet in being

Fleet in being

In naval warfare, a "fleet in being" is a naval force that extends a controlling influence without ever leaving port. Were the fleet to leave port and face the enemy, it might lose in battle and no longer influence the enemy's actions, but while it remains safely in port, the enemy is forced to continually deploy forces to guard against it. A "fleet in being" can be part of a sea denial doctrine, but not one of sea control.

German battleship Gneisenau

German battleship Gneisenau

Gneisenau was a German capital ship, alternatively described as a battleship and battlecruiser, of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine. She was the second vessel of her class, which included her sister ship, Scharnhorst. The ship was built at the Deutsche Werke dockyard in Kiel; she was laid down on 6 May 1935 and launched on 8 December 1936. Completed in May 1938, the ship was armed with a main battery of nine 28 cm (11 in) C/34 guns in three triple turrets. Plans were approved, once construction had started, to replace these weapons with six 38 cm (15 in) SK C/34 guns in twin turrets, but as this would involve a lot of redesign, construction continued with the lower calibre guns. The intent was to make the upgrade in the winter of 1940–41, but the outbreak of World War II stopped this.

German battleship Scharnhorst

German battleship Scharnhorst

Scharnhorst was a German capital ship, alternatively described as a battleship or battlecruiser, of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine. She was the lead ship of her class, which included her sister ship Gneisenau. The ship was built at the Kriegsmarinewerft dockyard in Wilhelmshaven; she was laid down on 15 June 1935 and launched a year and four months later on 3 October 1936. Completed in January 1939, the ship was armed with a main battery of nine 28 cm (11 in) C/34 guns in three triple turrets. Plans to replace these weapons with six 38 cm (15 in) SK C/34 guns in twin turrets were never carried out.

Mid-Atlantic gap

Mid-Atlantic gap

The Mid-Atlantic gap is a geographical term applied to an undefended area beyond the reach of land-based RAF Coastal Command antisubmarine (A/S) aircraft during the Battle of the Atlantic in the Second World War. It is frequently known as The Black Pit, as well as the Atlantic Gap, Air Gap, Greenland Gap, or just "the Gap". This resulted in heavy merchant shipping losses to U-boats. The gap was eventually closed in May 1943, as growing numbers of VLR Liberators and escort carriers became available, and as basing problems were addressed.

Norway

Norway

Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of Norway. Bouvet Island, located in the Subantarctic, is a dependency of Norway; it also lays claims to the Antarctic territories of Peter I Island and Queen Maud Land. The capital and largest city in Norway is Oslo.

Fjord

Fjord

In physical geography, a fjord or fiord is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Antarctica, British Columbia, Chile, Denmark, Germany, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Montenegro, Iceland, Ireland, Kamchatka, the Kerguelen Islands, Labrador, Newfoundland, New Zealand, Norway, Novaya Zemlya, Nunavut, Quebec, the Patagonia region of Argentina and Chile, Russia, South Georgia Island, Tasmania, Scotland and Washington state. Norway's coastline is estimated to be 29,000 km (18,000 mi) long with its nearly 1,200 fjords, but only 2,500 km (1,600 mi) long excluding the fjords.

Kriegsmarine

Kriegsmarine

The Kriegsmarine was the navy of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war Reichsmarine (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches, along with the Heer and the Luftwaffe, of the Wehrmacht, the German armed forces from 1935 to 1945.

Battle of the Barents Sea

Battle of the Barents Sea

The Battle of the Barents Sea was a World War II naval engagement on 31 December 1942 between warships of the German Navy (Kriegsmarine) and British ships escorting convoy JW 51B to Kola Inlet in the USSR. The action took place in the Barents Sea north of North Cape, Norway. The German raiders' failure to inflict significant losses on the convoy infuriated Hitler, who ordered that German naval strategy would henceforth concentrate on the U-boat fleet rather than surface ships.

British intelligence

Ultra signals intelligence gained from the German Enigma code being broken at Bletchley Park played an important part in the eventual success of the convoys. German documents related to the Enigma coding machine were captured during the commando raids of Operation Archery and Operation Anklet (27 December 1941). The documents enabled the British to read messages on the home waters naval Enigma used by surface ships and U-boats in the Arctic (Heimisch, later Hydra network; Dolphin to the British) for the rest of the war.[17] In January 1942 reinforcements of Luftwaffe bombers, torpedo-bombers and long range reconnaissance aircraft were sent to northern Norway and new command organisations established at Stavanger and Kirkenes, followed by Fliegerführer Lofoten who was charged with the defence of Norway and offensive operations against Allied convoys. The three U-boats in the area were increased to nine and another six were distributed between Bergen, Trondheim and Narvik to reconnoitre and oppose Allied landings. In May, all the U-boats came under Arctic Command and on 23 May, Admiral Scheer and Prinz Eugen joined Tirpitz at Trondheim, followed by Admiral Hipper; by 26 May Lützow had arrived at Narvik.[18]

The British read these moves from Ultra intercepts and traffic analysis from the RAF Y-station at RAF Cheadle, which eavesdropped on communications between Luftwaffe aircraft and ground stations. The reinforcement of the U-boat force in the Arctic to 12 in March and 21 in August (the real number was later found to be 23) was followed, along with the transfer orders to the large German ships, leading to the ambush of Prinz Eugen by the submarine HMS Trident off Trondheim on 23 February. Prinz Eugen was badly damaged by a torpedo and the Admiralty was informed of the hit by an Enigma intercept the next day.[18] The information could not always be acted upon because much of it was obtained at short notice but the intelligence did allow the Royal Navy to prepare for battle and convoys could be given appropriate escorting forces. The interception and sinking of Scharnhorst by HMS Duke of York was greatly assisted by ULTRA intercepts.[19]

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Ultra

Ultra

Ultra was the designation adopted by British military intelligence in June 1941 for wartime signals intelligence obtained by breaking high-level encrypted enemy radio and teleprinter communications at the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park. Ultra eventually became the standard designation among the western Allies for all such intelligence. The name arose because the intelligence obtained was considered more important than that designated by the highest British security classification then used and so was regarded as being Ultra Secret. Several other cryptonyms had been used for such intelligence.

Traffic analysis

Traffic analysis

Traffic analysis is the process of intercepting and examining messages in order to deduce information from patterns in communication. It can be performed even when the messages are encrypted. In general, the greater the number of messages observed, the greater information be inferred. Traffic analysis can be performed in the context of military intelligence, counter-intelligence, or pattern-of-life analysis, and is also a concern in computer security.

Bletchley Park

Bletchley Park

Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes (Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years following 1883 for the financier and politician Sir Herbert Leon in the Victorian Gothic, Tudor, and Dutch Baroque styles, on the site of older buildings of the same name.

Operation Archery

Operation Archery

Operation Archery, also known as the Måløy Raid, was a British Combined Operations raid during World War II against German positions on the island of Vågsøy, Norway, on 27 December 1941.

Operation Anklet

Operation Anklet

Operation Anklet was the codename given to a British Commando raid during the Second World War. The raid on the Lofoten Islands was carried out in December 1941, by 300 men from No. 12 Commando and the Norwegian Independent Company 1. The landing party was supported by 22 ships from three navies.

Woodhead Hall

Woodhead Hall

Woodhead Hall is a country house at Cheadle in Staffordshire. It is a Grade II listed building.

Eavesdropping

Eavesdropping

Eavesdropping is the act of secretly or stealthily listening to the private conversation or communications of others without their consent in order to gather information.

HMS Trident (N52)

HMS Trident (N52)

HMS Trident was a British T class submarine built by Cammell Laird, Birkenhead. She was laid down on 12 January 1937 and was commissioned on 1 October 1939. HMS Trident was part of the first group of T class submarines.

HMS Duke of York (17)

HMS Duke of York (17)

HMS Duke of York was a King George V-class battleship of the Royal Navy. Laid down in May 1937, the ship was constructed by John Brown and Company at Clydebank, Scotland, and commissioned into the Royal Navy on 4 November 1941, subsequently seeing combat service during the Second World War.

Literary depictions

The 1955 novel HMS Ulysses by Scottish writer Alistair MacLean, considered a classic of naval warfare literature and the 1967 novel The Captain by Dutch author Jan de Hartog are set during the Arctic convoys. The two books differ in style, characterisation and philosophy (de Hartog was a pacifist, which cannot be said about MacLean). Both convey vividly the atmosphere of combined extreme belligerent action and inhospitable nature, pushing protagonists to the edge of endurance and beyond. The Norwegian historic account One in Ten Had to Die (Hver tiende mann måtte dø) also 1967 by writer Per Hansson is based on the experience of the Norwegian sailor Leif Heimstad and other members of the Norwegian merchant fleet during World War II. The 1973 Russian novel Requiem for Convoy PQ-17 (Реквием каравану PQ-17) by writer Valentin Pikul depicts the mission of Convoy PQ 17, reflecting the bravery and courage of ordinary sailors in the merchant ships and their escorts, who took mortal risks to provide Allied aid.

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HMS Ulysses (novel)

HMS Ulysses (novel)

HMS Ulysses was the debut novel by Scottish author Alistair MacLean. Originally published in 1955, it was also released by Fontana Books in 1960. MacLean's experiences in the Royal Navy during World War II provided the background and the Arctic convoys to Murmansk provided the basis for the story, which was written at a publisher's request after he'd won a short-story competition the previous year.

Alistair MacLean

Alistair MacLean

Alistair Stuart MacLean was a Scottish novelist who wrote popular thrillers and adventure stories. Many of his novels have been adapted to film, most notably The Guns of Navarone (1957) and Ice Station Zebra (1963). In the late 1960s, encouraged by film producer Elliott Kastner, MacLean began to write original screenplays, concurrently with an accompanying novel. The most successful was the first of these, the 1968 film Where Eagles Dare, which was also a bestselling novel. MacLean also published two novels under the pseudonym Ian Stuart. His books are estimated to have sold over 150 million copies, making him one of the best-selling fiction authors of all time.

Jan de Hartog

Jan de Hartog

Jan de Hartog was a Dutch playwright, novelist and occasional social critic who moved to the United States in the early 1960s and became a Quaker.

Pacifism

Pacifism

Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism or violence. Pacifists generally reject theories of Just War. The word pacifism was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ahimsa, which is a core philosophy in Indian religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. While modern connotations are recent, having been explicated since the 19th century, ancient references abound.

Valentin Pikul

Valentin Pikul

Valentin Savvich Pikul was a popular and prolific Soviet historical novelist of Ukrainian-Russian heritage. He lived and worked in Riga.

Convoy PQ 17

Convoy PQ 17

PQ 17 was the code name for an Allied Arctic convoy during the Second World War. On 27 June 1942, the ships sailed from Hvalfjörður, Iceland, for the port of Arkhangelsk in the Soviet Union. The convoy was located by German forces on 1 July, after which it was shadowed continuously and attacked. The First Sea Lord Admiral Dudley Pound, acting on information that German surface units, including the German battleship Tirpitz, were moving to intercept, ordered the covering force built around the Allied battleships HMS Duke of York and the USS Washington away from the convoy and told the convoy to scatter. Because of vacillation by Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, the Tirpitz raid never materialised. The convoy was the first large joint Anglo-American naval operation under British command; in Churchill's view this encouraged a more careful approach to fleet movements.

Other supply convoys

The Arctic route was the shortest and most direct route for lend-lease aid to the USSR, though it was also the most dangerous. Some 3,964,000 tons of goods were shipped by the Arctic route; 7 percent was lost, while 93 percent arrived safely.[20] This constituted some 23 percent of the total aid to the USSR during the war. The Persian Corridor was the longest route (and the only all-weather route) to the USSR, but was not fully operational until mid-1942. Thereafter it saw the passage of 4,160,000 tons of goods, 27 percent of the total.[20] The Pacific route opened in August 1941, but was affected by the start of hostilities between Japan and the US with the Attack on Pearl Harbor. After December 1941, only Soviet ships could be used and as Japan and the USSR observed a strict neutrality towards each other, only non-military goods could be transported.[21] Nevertheless, 8,244,000 tons of goods went by this route, 50 percent of the total.[20]

A branch of the Pacific Route began carrying goods through the Bering Strait to the Soviet Arctic coast in June 1942. From July through September small Soviet convoys assembled in Providence Bay, Siberia to be escorted north through the Bering Strait and west along the Northern Sea Route by icebreakers and Lend-Lease Admirable class minesweepers. A total of 452,393 tons passed through the Bering Strait aboard 120 ships.[22] Part of this northern tonnage was fuel for the airfields along the Alaska-Siberia Air Route. Provisions for the airfields were transferred to river vessels and barges on the estuaries of large Siberian rivers.[23] Remaining ships continued westbound and were the only seaborne cargoes to reach Archangel while J W convoys were suspended through the summers of 1943 and 1944.[22]

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Long ton

Long ton

The long ton, also known as the imperial ton or displacement ton, is the name for the unit called the "ton" in the avoirdupois system of weights or Imperial system of measurements. It was standardised in the 13th century. It is used in the United Kingdom and several other Commonwealth of Nations countries alongside the mass-based metric tonne defined in 1799, as well as in the United States for bulk commodities.

Persian Corridor

Persian Corridor

The Persian Corridor was a supply route through Iran into Soviet Azerbaijan by which British aid and American Lend-Lease supplies were transferred to the Soviet Union during World War II. Of the 17.5 million long tons of U.S. Lend-Lease aid provided to the Soviet Union, 7.9 million long tons (45%) were sent through Iran.

Attack on Pearl Harbor

Attack on Pearl Harbor

The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, just before 8:00 a.m. on Sunday, December 7, 1941. The United States was a neutral country at the time; the attack led to its formal entry into World War II the next day. The Japanese military leadership referred to the attack as the Hawaii Operation and Operation AI, and as Operation Z during its planning.

Bering Strait

Bering Strait

The Bering Strait is a strait between the Pacific and Arctic oceans, separating the Chukchi Peninsula of the Russian Far East from the Seward Peninsula of Alaska. The present Russia-United States maritime boundary is at 168° 58' 37" W longitude, slightly south of the Arctic Circle at about 65° 40' N latitude. The Strait is named after Vitus Bering, a Danish explorer in the service of the Russian Empire.

Northern Sea Route

Northern Sea Route

The Northern Sea Route (NSR) is a shipping route officially defined by Russian legislation as lying east of Novaya Zemlya and specifically running along the Russian Arctic coast from the Kara Sea, along Siberia, to the Bering Strait.

Icebreaker

Icebreaker

An icebreaker is a special-purpose ship or boat designed to move and navigate through ice-covered waters, and provide safe waterways for other boats and ships. Although the term usually refers to ice-breaking ships, it may also refer to smaller vessels, such as the icebreaking boats that were once used on the canals of the United Kingdom.

ALSIB

ALSIB

ALSIB was the Soviet Union portion of the Alaska-Siberian air road receiving Lend-Lease aircraft from the Northwest Staging Route. Aircraft manufactured in the United States were flown over this route for World War II combat service on the Eastern Front.

Source: "Arctic convoys of World War II", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2023, March 17th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_convoys_of_World_War_II.

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See also
References

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b "Telegraph". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 2000-12-19.
  2. ^ a b "Imperial War Museum: "Arctic Convoys"". iwm.org.uk.
  3. ^ Hill, Alexander (2007). "British Lend Lease Aid and the Soviet War Effort, June 1941-June 1942". The Journal of Military History. 71 (3): 773–808. doi:10.1353/jmh.2007.0206. JSTOR 30052890. S2CID 159715267.
  4. ^ "How Much of What Goods Have We Sent to Which Allies? | AHA". www.historians.org. Retrieved 2021-09-01.
  5. ^ "Milestones: 1937–1945 - Office of the Historian". history.state.gov. Retrieved 2021-08-23.
  6. ^ E., D. P. (1945). "Lend-Lease and Reverse Lend-Lease Aid: Part II". Bulletin of International News. 22 (4): 157–164. ISSN 2044-3986. JSTOR 25643770.
  7. ^ "How Much Help Do We Get Via Reverse Lend-Lease? | AHA". www.historians.org. Retrieved 2021-09-01.
  8. ^ Woodman 2004, pp. 33–43.
  9. ^ Woodman 2004, p. b14, 35–36, 44, 56.
  10. ^ Woodman 2004, p. 36.
  11. ^ Hill, 2006 p727–738
  12. ^ "Arctic Convoys". Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  13. ^ Hill, 2007 p773–808
  14. ^ Woodman 2004, pp. 63–64.
  15. ^ Woodman, pp. 329–330.
  16. ^ Woodman 2004, pp. 443–445.
  17. ^ Sebag-Montefiore 2001, p. 229.
  18. ^ a b Hinsley 1994, p. 144.
  19. ^ Sebag-Montefiore, pp. 293–303.
  20. ^ a b c Kemp p235
  21. ^ Sea routes of Soviet Lend-Lease:Voice of Russia Archived 2012-04-01 at the Wayback Machine Ruvr.ru. Retrieved: 16 December 2011
  22. ^ a b Motter 1952, pp. 481–482.
  23. ^ "The Unknown World War II in the North Pacific" Alla Paperno Retrieved: 13 July 2012.

Bibliography

Further reading
External links

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