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The Russian Convoys
The Russian (or 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 1,400
merchant ships delivered vital supplies to the Soviet Union. 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 battleship, three destroyers and at least 30 U-boats as well as a
large number of aircraft.
Convoys
At first, the convoys sailed from Iceland but after September 1942 they
assembled and sailed from
Loch Ewe in Scotland. 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 severe weather.
Each convoy had two name-number identifiers, PQ <number> or JW <number>
for the journey to Russia, and QP <number> or RA <number> for the return
journey, except for the first convoy which was codenamed "Dervish".
The "Dervish" convoy assembled at Hvalfjord in Iceland and sailed on 21
August 1941. It arrived at its destination, Archangelsk, 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 Halcyon, Salamander and
Harrier, the destroyers Electra, Active and Impulsive and the
anti-submarine trawlers 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.
Links to Arctic Convoy Video Footage
Notable Convoys
On 30 May, 1942, the surviving ships of Convoy PQ-16 arrives, 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 unloading
convoys for over 14 months.
In July 1942, convoy PQ-17 was ordered to scatter following reports that
German battleships and cruisers had sailed to intercept the convoy.
However, although the German ships were part of Rösselsprung, they were
merely changing port and abandoned their sortie the morning after the
dispersal order was given. Only 11 of the 36 merchant ships in the
convoy succeeded in running the gauntlet of U-boats and German bombers.
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
Refer to Convoy Numbers page.
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 Soviet
Russia, 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 commerce raiding in the Atlantic. The success of Gneisenau and
Scharnhorst in 1941 had shown the potential German damage. 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 Spitzbergen in September 1943, Tirpitz was sent to spend most of
World War II in Norwegian fjords. She was penned in and successively
attacked until she was finally sunk in Tromsř fjord on 11 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.
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.
This article is licensed
under the GNU Free Documentation License
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