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Battle of the Arctic: the Maritime Epic of World War Two
THE PLOT
This book profiles the spinetingling drama, outstanding courage and heartbreaking tragedy that came to the fore during the Arctic convoys. They - and the multifaceted Battle of the Arctic that had to be fought to get them through to Russia during World War 2 - remain one of the war’s most undercelebrated feats.
The Arctic convoys involved the western allies carrying arms and other supplies to Russia during World War 2 while repulsing attacks by the Germans in their aircraft, U-boats and surface fleet. Previous books about the Arctic convoys have tended to focus on the deeds of the Royal Navy, or they focus on the elements, and the resulting discomfort for sailors forced to steam their ships through mountainous seas in freezing gales.
But the Battle of the Arctic also involves the forgotten heroes of the Arctic convoys: the officers, armed guards and the ordinary civilian seamen, mostly from Britain and America, but also from other countries including Holland, Norway, Poland, and Russia, condemned to carry on steaming their merchant ships slowly through the icy waters to and from Russia, even though they knew that at any moment they might be sunk.
Avoiding that fate at any cost was paramount given that the Arctic seas were so cold that a man could die after just five minutes of immersion. Yet the defence of the convoys was complicated by terrific storms, snow, ice, fog, whales and Arctic mirages.
Men on the ships that went down perished one by one in lifeboats, and as castaways on deserted Arctic islands where they were stalked by polar bears. Frostbitten seamen ended up in primitive Russian hospitals where amputations were carried out without general anaesthetics. Others were stranded for months in the communist state they were aiding, experiencing the murky worlds of the NKVD, and the gulag, as well as famine and prostitution.
However this book shows how the early disasters experienced by the western allies resulted in lessons being learned, and when more suitable resources were made available, in particular aircraft carriers, which led to the convoy escorts being bolstered by air superiority, the supplying of the aid, if not quite routine, eventually became a good bet.
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