Convoy PQ-17

PQ-17 was a World War II convoy carrying war matériel from Britain, Canada and the USA to the USSR. PQ-17 sailed in June-July 1942 and suffered the heaviest losses of any Russia-bound (PQ) convoy, with 25 vessels out of 36 lost to enemy action.

Background

On the northern route, Allied losses to German aircraft and U-boats had been increasing. In May PQ-16 had lost seven ships, but PQ-17 was the largest and most valuable convoy to date, with military equipment valued at over $700 million at that time. The Germans were prompted by Allied success with PQ-16 to reinforce their efforts to break the convoy route to Archangelsk and Murmansk and Operation Rösselsprung was the assembling of naval surface forces to achieve this.

There was some Allied argument to postpone the convoy until the autumn or winter but political considerations over-ruled the caution and the convoy departed on 27 June 1942.

The convoy

The 35 merchant ships and escorts had assembled at Hvalfjordur, Iceland and were bound for Murmansk, under the command of Commodore John Dowding. The close escort was the First Escort Group (EG1) under Commander Jack Broome and included four destroyers, ten corvettes or armed trawlers and two anti-aircraft auxiliaries. In a more distant covering role was the First Cruiser Squadron (CS1) under Rear Admiral Hamilton, of four cruisers and four destroyers. As further protection the convoy was to be tracked at about convert|200|mi|km by the Home Fleet battleships HMS "Duke of York" and USS "Washington", two cruisers, eight destroyers, and the aircraft carrier HMS "Victorious" until it was past North Cape. The route took the convoy close to Svalbard, north of Bear Island (Norway), and skirted the edge of the ice pack before turning south and following the coast of Novaya Zemlya before turning south-west across the Barents Sea and entering the White Sea, turning almost due south.

One ship suffered mechanical failure just out of port and was forced to turn back. Another, SS "Exford", turned back after ice damage. The convoy was sighted and tracked by the submarine "U 456" shortly after it entered the open sea. This was augmented by Luftwaffe BV 138s from 1 July. The Luftwaffe began its attacks during the evening of the next day. SS "Christopher Newport" and SS "William Hooper" were the first losses, on 4 July.

That night the Admiralty received intelligence that German capital ships "Tirpitz", "Admiral Scheer" and "Admiral Hipper" with some destroyers had left Trondheim to intercept the convoy. First Sea Lord Sir Dudley Pound, after agonising for several hours, eventually made the fateful decision to scatter the convoy, reasoning that "Tirpitz", with its high speed and 15 inch (380 mm) guns, would be capable of inflicting massive losses on the closely bunched merchant ships. Pound was at that time operating under enormous stress and suffering from the final stages of the brain tumour that would lead to his death in 1943.

The German naval force was ordered to sea the following day but was then ordered to return to port, unknown to the Allies. With the majority of the escorts ordered to return to Scapa Flow, only the close escort of anti-aircraft auxiliaries, corvettes, minesweepers and armed trawlers was left to attempt to protect the scattered convoy, leaving it easy prey to "U-boats" and aircraft. On 5 July six merchant ships, including SS "Fairfield City" and SS "Daniel Morgan", were sunk by the Luftwaffe, and six more by four "U-boats". Among the losses that day were U.S. merchant ships "Pan Kraft", "Washington", SS "Carlton", SS "Honomu", "River Afton" and SS "Peter Kerr".

On 6 July SS "Pan Atlantic" was sunk by the Luftwaffe, and SS "John Witherspoon" by "U 255". On 7 July-8 July five more ships were sunk — two by "U 255" — including SS "Olapana" and SS "Alcoa Ranger". The remaining escort vessels withdrew into the Arctic Ocean on 9 July but the merchant ships suffered no more that day. The last losses were SS "Hoosier" and SS "El Capitan" on 10 July. The Luftwaffe had flown 202 sorties against the convoy.

Aftermath

Two surviving ships made port at Archangelsk on 10 July. Another nine arrived there or at Murmansk over the following week, having been rounded up by Commodore Dowding, who, despite having been rescued from a raft with two other crew members after his ship was torpedoed, immediately set out up the coast of Novaya Zemlya to look for stragglers. 142,500 tons of shipping had been sunk and 153 sailors killed; material losses included 3,350 motor vehicles, 200 bombers, 430 tanks and around 93,316 tons of other cargo. Two of the surviving ships, SS "Silver Sword" and SS "Bellingham", were sunk on the return journey. One of them became the fifth victim of "U 255".

Despite Soviet protests the sailing of the next convoy, PQ-18, was postponed until September. Despite having over forty escorts, thirteen ships were sunk, and convoys were then suspended until the darkness of the polar winter. Convoy PQ-19/JW-51 sailed in December 1942.

References

* [http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq104-2.htm U.S. Naval Historical Center account of PQ-17]

ee also

* "HMS Ulysses" (1955), a novel by Alistair MacLean, who served on HMS "Royalist" on Arctic convoys & against German battleship "Tirpitz".

External links

* [http://www.bismarck-class.dk/tirpitz/history/tiroperrosselsprung.html Description of "Rösselsprung"]
* [http://lib.aldebaran.ru/author/pikul_valentin/pikul_valentin_rekviem_karavanu_pq17 The Requiem on Convoy PQ-17] , Russian novel by Valentin Pikul
* [http://www.naval-history.net/WW2Memoir-PQ17-Carswell.htm Memoirs of Chief Steward Horace Carswell DSM, MM, BEM during Convoy PQ.17]
* [http://www.naval-history.net/WW2Memoir-RussianConvoyCoxswain.htm Coxswain Sid Kerslake of armed trawler "Northern Gem" in PQ.17]
* [http://www.pq17.eclipse.co.uk/ Convoy PQ.17] , a primary source diary and supporting material by Jack Bowman, ERA aboard HMS "La Malouine".