The Road to Russia

The Road to Russia PDF Author: Bernard Edwards
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 0850528984
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
Bernard Edwards, the formidable naval historian, has researched the fate of Convoys PQ13 and PQ17 bound from Iceland to Northern Russia as well as the westbound Convoy QP13. Attacked relentlessly by aircraft and U-boats, the former lost a total of thirty ships while QP13 ran into a British minefield off Iceland, losing seven vessels. The Road to Russia is an important addition to the bibliography of this bitterly fought campaign.

The Road to Russia

The Road to Russia PDF Author: Bernard Edwards
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 0850528984
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
Bernard Edwards, the formidable naval historian, has researched the fate of Convoys PQ13 and PQ17 bound from Iceland to Northern Russia as well as the westbound Convoy QP13. Attacked relentlessly by aircraft and U-boats, the former lost a total of thirty ships while QP13 ran into a British minefield off Iceland, losing seven vessels. The Road to Russia is an important addition to the bibliography of this bitterly fought campaign.

Arctic Convoys 1942

Arctic Convoys 1942 PDF Author: Mark Lardas
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472852419
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 97

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Book Description
A new history of the most crucial few months of the Arctic Convoys, when Germany's air power forced the Allies to retreat to the cover of winter. Between spring and autumn 1942, Germany was winning the battle of the Arctic Convoys. Half of PQ-15 was sunk in May, PQ-17 was virtually obliterated in July, and in September 30 percent of PQ-18 was sunk. The Allies were forced to suspend the convoys until December, when the long Arctic nights would shield them. Mark Lardas argues that in 1942, it was Luftwaffe air power that made the difference. With convoys sailing in endless daylight, German strike aircraft now equipped and trained for torpedo attacks, and bases in northern Norway available, the Luftwaffe could wreak havoc. Three-quarters of the losses of PQ-18 were due to air attacks. But in November, the Luftwaffe was redeployed south to challenge the Allied landings in North Africa, and the advantage was lost. Despite that, the Allies never again sailed an Arctic convoy in the summer months. Fully illustrated with archive photos, striking new artwork, maps and diagrams, this is the remarkable history of the Luftwaffe's last strategic victory of World War II.

The Allied Convoy System, 1939-1945

The Allied Convoy System, 1939-1945 PDF Author: Arnold Hague
Publisher: US Naval Institute Press
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
Drawn from one of largest collections of convoy records in existence, this book describes the development and operations of Allied convoy systems.

The Royal Navy and the Arctic Convoys

The Royal Navy and the Arctic Convoys PDF Author: Malcolm Llewellyn-Jones
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134730101
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
The book is a masterpiece of operational history, and is written with surprising candour, given that the author was a member of the Naval Staff. The men who took part in these operations were drawn from Britain, Canada, America (particularly for the merchant service). This book provides a detailed account of naval actions (with maps) based on close examination of all relevant documentation and interviews with principal participants.

The Ghost Ships of Archangel

The Ghost Ships of Archangel PDF Author: William Geroux
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0525557474
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
An extraordinary story of survival and alliance during World War II: the icy journey of four Allied ships crossing the Arctic to deliver much needed supplies to the Soviet war effort. On the fourth of July, 1942, four Allied ships traversing the Arctic separated from their decimated convoy to head further north into the ice field of the North Pole, seeking safety from Nazi bombers and U-boats in the perilous white maze of ice floes, growlers, and giant bergs. Despite the risks, they had a better chance of survival than the rest of Convoy PQ-17, a fleet of thirty-five cargo ships carrying $1 billion worth of war supplies to the Soviet port of Archangel--the limited help Roosevelt and Churchill extended to Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin to maintain their fragile alliance, even as they avoided joining the fight in Europe while the Eastern Front raged. The high-level politics that put Convoy PQ-17 in the path of the Nazis were far from the minds of the diverse crews aboard their ships. U.S. Navy Ensign Howard Carraway, aboard the SS Troubadour, was a farm boy from South Carolina and one of the many Americans for whom the convoy was to be a first taste of war; aboard the SS Ironclad, Ensign William Carter of the U.S. Navy Reserve had passed up a chance at Harvard Business School to join the Navy Armed Guard; from the Royal Navy Reserve, Lt. Leo Gradwell was given command of the HMT Ayrshire, a fishing trawler that had been converted into an antisubmarine vessel. All the while, The Ghost Ships of Archangel turns its focus on Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin, playing diplomatic games that put their ships in peril. The twenty-four-hour Arctic daylight in midsummer gave no respite from bombers, and the Germans wielded the terrifying battleship Tirpitz, nicknamed The Big Bad Wolf. Icebergs were as dangerous as Nazis. As a newly forged alliance was close to dissolving and the remnants of Convoy PQ-17 tried to slip through the Arctic in one piece, the fate of the world hung in the balance.

Forgotten Sacrifice

Forgotten Sacrifice PDF Author: Michael G. Walling
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1782002901
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 365

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Book Description
Award-winning historian Mike Walling captures the essence of the Arctic Convoys of World War II. In 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union in the largest offensive operation ever undertaken. Operation Barbarossa saw defeat after defeat heaped on the Soviet army. With Russia's forces left staggering under the strain and in desperate need of supplies, Britain and the United States launched an ambitious operation to resupply the Soviet Union using convoys sent through the Arctic. Their journey was punctuated by torpedo attacks in freezing conditions, Stuka dive bombers, naval gun fire, and weeks of total darkness in the Arctic winter, with ships disappearing below the waves weighed down by the ice and snow on their decks. Drawing on hundreds of oral histories from eyewitnesses and veterans of the convoys, plus original research into the Russian Navy archives at Murmansk, historian Michael G. Walling offers a fresh retelling of one of World War II's pivotal yet largely overlooked campaigns.

Arctic Convoys, 1941–1945

Arctic Convoys, 1941–1945 PDF Author: Richard Woodman
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1526714264
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 640

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Book Description
The story of Allied merchant ships and crews who braved the frigid far north to extend a lifeline to Russia, filled with “sheer heroism and brazen drama” (Literary Review). During the last four years of the Second World War, the Western Allies secured Russian defenses against Germany by supplying vital food and arms. The plight of those in Murmansk and Archangel who benefited is now well known, but few are aware of the courage, determination, and sacrifice of Allied merchant ships, which withstood unremitting U-boat attacks and aerial bombardment to maintain the lifeline to Russia. In the storms, fog, and numbing cold of the Arctic, where the sinking of a ten thousand–ton freighter was equal to a land battle in terms of destruction, the losses sustained were huge. Told from the perspective of their crews, this is the inspiring story of the long-suffering merchant ships without which Russia would almost certainly have fallen to Nazi Germany.

Convoy is to Scatter

Convoy is to Scatter PDF Author: Jack Broome
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
Beretning om konvojen PQ17s tragiske sejlads fra Island mod Kola-halvøen. Der er et stort indhold af de udvekslede signaler mellem konvojen og hovedkvarteret. En hel del tegninger med humoristisk indhold

Why Me, Lord?

Why Me, Lord? PDF Author: William A. Carter
Publisher: Jabberwocky Books
ISBN: 9780980245714
Category : Naval convoys
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Why Me, Lord? is a firsthand account by a veteran of one of the most tragic chapters in World War II naval history, the infamous PQ 17 convoy across the North Atlantic to north Russia in the summer of 1942. 35 merchant ships carried war materiel to support the Soviet defense against invading Nazi armies before the U.S. and Great Britain opened a second front with the invasion of North Africa late in 1942. After the convoy was abandoned by its American and British naval escort vessels in U-boat-infested waters, 24 of its 35 merchant ships were lost to enemy attack. The author, then a young U.S. Naval officer commanded a Navy Armed Guard contingent aboard the American freighter, S.S. Ironclad, and was awarded the Silver Star for valor as a result of his leadership during combat with attacking German aircraft. He tells the story of his experiences in vivid detail and paints a memorable portrait of both the wartime navy and Soviet Russia's White Sea ports. The book also details the return voyage aboard the U.S. liberty ship, S.S. Richard Bland, which, if anything, was even more harrowing. The Bland was sunk off Iceland after being torpedoed three times north of the Arctic Circle, with its surviving crew members, including the author, being forced into lifeboats in frigid North Atlantic waters. Written more than 60 years after the events it describes, "Why Me, Lord?" is one of the very few, and quite possibly the last, firsthand accounts of this important, though little known, chapters of World War II naval history.

Through Ice and Fire

Through Ice and Fire PDF Author: Leona J. Thomas
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781781554401
Category : Naval convoys
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
On the Russian Arctic convoys in 1942, Leonard H. Thomas kept a secret notebook from which he later wrote his memoirs. These contained many well-observed details of life onboard his ship, HMS Ulster Queen. He detailed observations of the hardships that followed when they endured being at action stations and locked in the engine room, under fire from the skies above and the sea below, and only able to guess at what was happening from the cacophony of sounds they could hear. Thomas tells of how the crew suffered from an appalling lack of food, the intense cold, and the stark conditions endured for weeks on end berthed in Archangel in the cold of the approaching Russian winter. There are also insights about the morale of the men and lighter moments when their humor kept them going. These stories can now be told as his daughter has edited them into an account that illustrates the fortitude and bravery of the men who sailed through ice and fire to further the war effort so far from home.