Arctic convoys
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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. The image was taken during the twilight of the arctic winter - the short time each day that the sun is seen during winter near the pole. In the foreground is the silhouette of a lookout using a telescope.

The Arctic convoys of World War II travelled from the United Kingdom and the United States to the northern ports of the Soviet Union - Archangel and Murmansk. There were 78 convoys between August 1941 and May 1945 (although there were two gaps with no sailings between July and September 1942, and March and November 1943). About 1400 merchant ships delivered vital supplies to the Soviet Union under the Lend-Lease program. 85 merchant vessels and 16 Royal Navy warships (2 cruisers, 6 destroyers, 8 other escort ships) were lost. The Germans lost a number of vessels including one battlecruiser, three destroyers and at least 30 U-boats as well as a large number of aircraft.

Convoy organization

Ice forms on a 20-inch signal projector on the cruiser HMS Sheffield while she is helping to escort an Arctic convoy to Russia.

The Arctic convoys ran in two series, following the first convoy, which was un-numbered but code-named “Dervish”.

The first series, PQ (outbound) and QP (homebound), ran from September 1941 to September 1942. These convoys ran twice monthly, but were interrupted in the summer of 1942 when the series was suspended after the disaster of PQ17 and again in the autumn after the final convoy of the series, PQ18.

The second series, JW (outbound) and RA (homebound) ran from December 1942 until the end of the war, though with two major interruptions in the summer of 1943 and again in the summer of 1944.

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

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 German surface ships, such as Tirpitz. These 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 was around occupied Norway to the Soviet ports and was particularly dangerous due to the proximity of German air, submarine and surface forces and also because of 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, and the alternation between the difficulties of navigating and maintaining convoy cohesion in constant darkness or being attacked around-the-clock in constant daylight.

Notable convoys

Several convoys are particularly notable:

• The "Dervish" convoy assembled at Hvalfjörður and sailed on 21 August 1941. It arrived at its destination, Archangel, ten days later. The convoy was relatively small and consisted of only six merchant ships: Lancastrian Prince, New Westminster City, Esneh, Trehata, the elderly Llanstephan Castle, the fleet oiler Aldersdale and the Dutch freighter Alchiba. The Commodore was Captain JCK Dowding RNR. The escorts comprised the ocean minesweepers HMS Halcyon, Salamander and Harrier, the destroyers HMS Electra, Active and Impulsive and the anti-submarine trawlers HMS Hamlet, Macbeth and Ophelia. As evidence of Churchill's astute mastery of propaganda, on board Llanstephan Castle were two journalists and the artist, Felix Topolski.

• On 30 May, 1942, the surviving ships of Convoy PQ 16 arrived, most ships to Murmansk and 8 ships to Archangel; the convoy was such a success in terms of the war stores delivered that the Germans made greater efforts to disrupt the following convoys. The heavy lift ships from PQ17 including Empire Elgar stayed at Archangel and Moltovosk (now Severodvinsk) unloading convoys for over 14 months.
• In July 1942, convoy PQ 17 suffered the worst losses of any convoy in the Second World War. Under attack from German aircraft and U-boats, the convoy was ordered to scatter, following reports that a battle group, which included the battleship Tirpitz, had sailed to intercept the convoy. Only 11 of the 35 merchant ships in the convoy succeeded in running the gauntlet of U-boats and German bombers. This Convoy is said to have inspired Author Alistair Maclean to write his first Fictional Novel H. M. S. Ulysses.
• The Battle of the Barents Sea: In December 1942, German surface forces, including the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper and pocket battleship Lützow sailed to intercept convoy JW51B. The German force was driven off by a combined force of destroyers and cruisers.
• The Battle of the North Cape: In December 1943, convoy JW55B was attacked by the Scharnhorst. HMS Duke of York and her escorts sank the battlecruiser in a night action.

List of Arctic Convoys

To be completed

1941

1942

1943

1944

1945

Strategic impact

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 Vaagso, 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, centred on the battleship Tirpitz, be sent to Norway. The Channel Dash was partly undertaken for this reason.

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. However, as the air gap over the North Atlantic closed, 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 World War II in Norwegian fjords. She was penned in and repeatedly attacked until she was finally sunk in Tromsø fjord on 12 November 1944 by the RAF. The other Kriegsmarine capital ships never got to Norway (eg. Gneisenau), were chased off, or were sunk by superior forces (eg. 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.

Leningrad under the siege was one of important destinations for supplies from the convoys. American and British food and munition supplies helped civilians struggling to survive in the Siege of Leningrad.^{citation needed} 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 (which managed to sink one (1) barge during its operation time²) 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.

Role of intelligence

ULTRA intelligence gained from the cracking of the Enigma code at Bletchley Park played an important part in the eventual success of these convoys. Pre-emptive action was not always possible, but the intelligence did allow the Royal Navy to prepare for battle and convoys could be given appropriate escorting forces. The interception and consequent sinking of Scharnhorst by HMS Duke of York was greatly assisted by ULTRA intercepts.³

Literary depictions

At least two well-known novels were written about the Arctic Convoys: in 1946 HMS Ulysses by Scottish writer Alistair MacLean, considered a classic of naval warfare literature in general, and in 1967 The Captain by Dutch author Jan de Hartog. The two books are very different from each other in style, characterisation and underlying philosophy (de Hartog was a pacifist, which cannot be said about MacLean). Still, they both convey vividly the atmosphere of combined extreme belligerent action and inhospitable nature, pushing protagonists to the edge of endurance and beyond. Both books are evidently inspired by the fate of Convoy PQ-17, though not following its course in detail.

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.

Other supply convoys

About half of all the lend-lease aid to the USSR went by the Pacific route; by convoy from the US west coast to the Soviet Far East, via Vladivostok and the Trans-Siberian railway, see [1]. After America’s entry in the war, only Soviet (or Soviet-flagged) ships were used, and there was some interference by Japan with them. The Persian Corridor via Iran was also used.

See also

• Rösselsprung ("Knight's Move") — German naval campaign to sink Arctic convoys
• Operation Wunderland

External links

• MOD veterans' agency
• German account of Rösselsprung
• Soviet account on the war in Arctic and the convoys (by Admiral Nikolai Gerasimovich Kuznetsov)
• Naval History.net
• The Quiet Courage of Chief Steward Horace Carswell DSM, MM, BEM during Convoy PQ.17
• Coxswain Sid Kerslake of armed trawler "Northern Gem" and the Russian Convoys
• Convoy PQ.17, a primary source diary and supporting material by Jack Bowman, ERA aboard HMS La Malouine.
• Lend-Lease, Northern Convoys from the Voice of Russia website

References