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The heavy losses of PQ-17 and the follow-up PQ-18 in September caused convoys to the Soviet Union to be suspended until December 1942. The men of the US Merchant Marine and US Naval Armed Guard fought against long odds during the Battle of the Atlantic.
Jun 12, 2006 · Unknown to the men of PQ-17, details of the convoy’s size and importance were already in the hands of German Intelligence. The patrolling submarine U-456 spotted the convoy as soon as it reached open water. Early on July 1, 1942, a German reconnaissance plane arrived just as PQ-17 was passing a returning convoy, QP-13.
- The Origin of The Name “pq 17”
- The German Plan to Decimate Allied Merchant Fleets
- An Attack of 25 Albacore Torpedo Planes
- Success Emboldens The Nazi Navy
- Plans to Destroy The Entire Convoy to The Very Last Ship
- Beginning Operation Rosselsprung
- Radio Transmission from An Allied Traitor
- Decision Day For The German Admiral
- Secret-Most Immediate
- Two Vessels Sunk by The Ice Devils Before Breakfast
The decision to dispatch Convoy PQ 17 at all had been controversial. (P.Q. was the designation given to the Iceland-to-North Russia convoys, and were so called because Commander P.Q. Richards had the job of writing assembly and operations orders for them.) There was no sound military reason to continue the terrible losses being sustained by the Nor...
The dire situation allowed Stalin to demand everything and concede nothing. He continued to press for the dispatching of the PQ convoys, but refused to provide air cover over the Barents Sea. He also refused to furnish destroyer escort from the Russian side of the North Cape to the Kola Inlet, or to allow the British to set up a command post north ...
On March 1, 1942 Convoy PQ 12 composed of 16 ships departed Iceland en route to Murmansk. Five days later Germans spotted the convoy nearing Jan Mayan Island and the Tirpitz was alerted. She sortied within 12 hours along with three destroyers but was detected almost at once by a British submarine on patrol, which reported her course and speed to Wh...
U-boat activity was also ordered increased, and the famed Eis Teufel (Ice Devil) squadron was formed up to operate exclusively in the Barents Sea. On March 21, the new heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper completed her trials and left the Baltic to join Tirpitzat Trondheim. The next Russia-bound convoy in the series, PQ 13, was attacked on March 28 by thre...
The Admiralty did not agree but was bound to do as ordered. They decided, however, not to risk any more of their dwindling cruiser forces within the Luftwaffe air power circle or the Ice Devil operating area. The destroyers, corvettes, and trawlers would have to do the job alone. PQ 16, dispatched on May 20, comprised 35 merchant vessels and the la...
Convoy PQ 17 departed Iceland on June 27. It comprised 34 freighters and tankers, six destroyers, two submarines, two antiaircraft vessels, and 11 tugs, trawlers, and sweepers. A covering force of two British and two American cruisers along with their destroyer screen was to hover just out of sight in much the same manner used for PQ 16, where they...
Later that evening, RAF reconnaissance discovered that the heavy ship berths at Trondheim and Narvik were empty. The Admiralty then notified Admiral Sir John Tovey that Turpitz, Hipper, Scheer, and Lutzowwere at sea. Accordingly, Tovey set a course for Bear Island, to put Home Fleet in a better position to cover the convoy against heavy surface att...
For General Admiral Rolf Carls, head of the German Naval Group North at Kiel, it was decision day. He must know the whereabouts of the allied heavy ship forces, and in particular, the aircraft carriers. If the Luftwaffe could not locate them with certainty, he must at the very least be sure that they were not in the vicinity of the area in which he...
Spirits were high after this latest action in which the convoy had come through well considering the forces arrayed against it. Then, shortly after 9, three bombshells of another type burst on the bridges of the command ships: signals from the Admiral. The first arrived 9:11 pm. “SECRET-MOST IMMEDIATE. Cruiser force withdraw to westward at high spe...
“The convoy is to be dispersed,” he announced as he wrote out the message and signed it. Then he took it personally to the Communications Room and had it coded and transmitted. When he returned to his office, Admiral Moore had a thought. The message had said “dispersed,” which in the Mersigcodebook meant to break formation and proceed at best speed...
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23 merchant ships sunk. 5 aircraft. PQ 17 was the code name for an Allied Arctic convoy during the Second World War. On 27 June 1942, the ships sailed from Hvalfjörður, Iceland, for the port of Arkhangelsk in the Soviet Union. The convoy was located by German forces on 1 July, after which it was shadowed continuously and attacked.
- 27 June-10 July 1942
- German victory
- Arctic Ocean
Twenty-two of the 24 confirmed ships sunk were big freighters, 14 of them American. Of the cargo dispatched, the Soviets received only 896 vehicles, 164 tanks, 87 aircraft, and about 57,000 tons of military cargo. The tight formation of Convoy PQ-17 before the order to scatter was received is visible below a high-flying German Junkers Ju-88 bomber.
May 10, 2019 · The ordeal of one crew, featured in the following vignette, was repeated tenfold: With each passing hour Sailors of the U.S. Navy Armed Guard on the freighter Washington watched in horror as more and more ships in their convoy, PQ 17, fell victim to German submarines and aircraft. Thirty-five merchantmen, a third of them American, escorted by ...
Twelve freighters made it to Murmansk and the remaining eight to Archangel. As terrible as the PQ-16’s losses were, the next convoy would suffer an even worse fate. In late June 1942, the 37-ship convoy PQ-17, the largest and most valuable convoy to date, formed at Hvalfjord, Iceland, and began to make its run to Murmansk and Archangel ...
