PQ 17 the Most Controversial Arctic Convoy of World War II
By: Karthick Nambi
Tags: History, War, World War II, Russia, Europe

PQ 17 the Most Controversial Arctic Convoy of World War II

The fear of the battleship Tirpitz left 32 merchant ships of convoy PQ 17 without an escort in Luftwaffe and German U-boat infested waters.

Attack on PQ 17. Source-Free Encyclopedia

Luftwaffe aircraft hunted down merchant ships off the course of Norway. It was a golden opportunity for Luftwaffe and U-boats as they found a group of merchant ships headed to the USSR without an escort.

A Junkers J88 dived into one of the merchant ships. The J88 aborted the dive after it noticed an unusual structure in the deck of the vessel.

It was a Sherman tank, and it aimed its 75 mm barrel at the Junkers. The innovative idea saved this merchant ship, but the others ended up at the bottom of the sea. Churchill quoted this incident as

“One of the most melancholy naval episodes in the whole of the war.” -Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill

The idea of convoy:

After Operation Barbarossa, USSR joined the Allies and requested help from the USA and UK to tackle Germany.

British Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill assured a new convoy line would be available to help the USSR via the Arctic Ocean from Iceland to Arksengel in the far north of the USSR. The initial commitment was that the convoys would reach a US or UK navy base from where Russian ships will take the materials to the USSR.

Due to the unavailability of Soviet ships, the USA and UK decided to haul the materials to a Russian port.

Convoy PQ 17:

Convoy PQ 17.Source-Wikipedia

The convoys from the UK to the USSR began in August 1941. The most important convoy was PQ17.

On 27 June 1942, a convoy of 32 Merchant ships escorted by the Royal Navy and US Navy started on a journey from Iceland to USSR. The convoy was escorted by six destroyers, two submarines, and six auxiliary ships.

PQ17 was the largest convoy assembled by Britain and started without any incident from Iceland. On 2 July, German U-boats; German submarines, tailed the convoy, and the Luftwaffe; German Air Force, began to harass the convoy with their Heinkel bombers. U-boats torpedoed the escorting ships, and the intensity of attacks gradually increased.



The German navy‘s biggest warship the battleship Tirpitz and other essential warships of the Kriegsmarine were lurking the Norway waters to attack convoys.

The Admiral Scheer, a heavy cruiser, also accompanied the Tirpitz which increased the threat in the region. Germany even tried to sneak three destroyers from France to German right under the nose of Britain in Operation Cerberus.

The Tirpitz was called the Beast by Winston Churchill. Tirpitz had the state of the art ammunition. The British Navy arsenal didn’t even have a single ship to match Tirpitz.

The Tirpitz could sink a British warship even before it could be detected as its main gun range was 18 miles. The Admiralty in London was keenly watched for Tirpitz’s movements in the region.

Tirpitz . Source-Wikipedia

On 2 July, due to an increase in German attack and increased radio traffic, The British Admiralty thought that theTirpitz might be nearby the convoy.

The British Admiralty gave the most controversial order of World War II, “Convoy Scatter.” Britain was not ready to risk its precious destroyers to safeguard the convoys, so they asked the entire convoy to return to Britain.

The scatter convoy order left the 32 merchant ships vulnerable to -boats and Luftwaffe bombers. The merchant ships went down one after another as they had no means of defending themselves from the German onslaught.

Out of the 34 merchant ships, only 11 made to Arkhangelsk and 150 sailors perished.

Aftermath:

Location of sinking. Source-Wikipedia

Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin accused Britain of faking the sinking of convoys as he was not able to understand why Britain asked the escorts to return home.

The convoy transport was on hold until September. Churchill, after the PQ17 incident, told the Royal Air Force (RAF) that the Tirpitz is the most critical target of Britain, and needs to be sunk. The Tirpitz didn’t even fire a shell, but its fear sunk so many merchant ships.

Thirty-five attempts didn’t bring the Tirpitz down, and at last, the Tirpitz saw the end of the day by the famous Dam Busters squadron. The threat to the Arctic convoys was over. Unfortunately they did not sink the Tirpitz until November 1944, by then the Allies had ended the German Naval threat by occupying France after D-Day.