When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, Stalin asked for support from Britain and her allies.
Allied forces responded by delivering supplies of vital equipment such as tanks and aircraft to Soviet troops. Most British convoys sailed from Scotland, through the Arctic Circle to Archangelsk or Murmansk in Russia.
Winston Churchill described these journeys as “the worst in the world”. The men involved faced perilous Arctic conditions, as well as heavy German attack from sea and air.
Last year the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office held a virtual ceremony to celebrate these veterans.
Imperial War Museum
Raymond Smith, 95.
Raymond Smith
Raymond Smith, 95, joined the Navy at the age of 17 because he’d always liked boats and water. That didn’t stop him feeling seasick for his first two months at sea.
“Our ship used to rise up to a terrific height and then it would roll”. The passageways were slippery and “your stomach would go up to your head and back down again, and then you’d run outside again”.
Smith was positioned on the number one gun, exposed to the Arctic conditions and surrounded by only a piece of canvas to keep out the elements.
“We were never issued with any proper clothing – all I had was sea boots and a duffle coat, which sadly wasn’t much use. So we’d pile two or three jerseys on top of that, and we survived. We were always wet and cold, that was the worst thing about it”.
He described the mess deck, where the men ate and slept, as being constantly covered in sea water. “We were getting water in our hammocks until we got back to shore”.
Raymond Smith
Raymond Smith
Bill Taylor, now 95, Royal Navy.
Bill Taylor
The freezing Arctic conditions were perilous to those who were exposed to the water.
When Bill Taylor, 95, saw the HMS Goodall being torpedoed, his ship had to steer away to avoid danger.
When they were able to return, he saw about 40 men with their heads and shoulders above the water. “There were no survivors. You only last about three minutes in the water up there”.
Taylor noticed several unconscious men entangled in the netting on the side of the boat.
“They were all unconscious, but they’d managed to hang on with their arms through the netting. I leant over, and someone else came over to give me a hand, and we pulled the first one on board”.
With the help of crewmates, Taylor managed to pull six unconscious men aboard. Unfortunately a seventh sailor had died by the time they pulled him onto the ship. “They were all frozen stiff, their clothes and everything”.
Bill Taylor
Bill Taylor
Alec Penstone, now 95, Royal Navy.
Alec Penstone
The Arctic conditions were not the only danger the convoys were exposed to. As the war went on, it became more important to Germany that the convoys and their supplies failed to reach Soviet troops.
The Arctic convoys experienced heavy German attack from sea and air.
Alec Penstone, 95, was a submarine detector on the Convoys.
On watch one night, he heard a noise. “No mistaking it at all – a torpedo coming towards us”. As the noise got louder and louder, he reported what he had heard and the ship changed course. “I could imagine in my mind the nose of the torpedo punching through the ship’s side, which was just to the side of me. Of course that was daft because it would have exploded on impact really”.
Alec Penstone
Alec Penstone
Alec Penstone
The Arctic Convoys were invaluable to the war effort.
Taylor says, “The materials we brought to Archangel and Murmansk sustained the Russians fighting the Germans… The Russian front was of great benefit to those that were landing at D-day, because [Germany] had to split the army”.
In August 2021 the city of Liverpool hosted an event to mark the 80th Anniversary of the Arctic Convoys departing Liverpool to Archangelsk.
