page_title: Operation Benedict
section_title: Voyage
hierarchical_section_title: Operation Benedict / Background / Voyage
context_page_description: Operation Benedict was the establishment of Force Benedict with units of the Soviet Air Forces in north Russia, during the Second World War. The force comprised 151 Wing Royal Air Force, with two squadrons of Hawker Hurricane fighters. The wing flew against the Luftwaffe and the Suomen Ilmavoimat from Vaenga in the northern USSR and trained Soviet pilots and ground crews to operate the Hurricanes, when their British pilots and ground crews returned to Britain.
  Twenty-four Hurricanes were delivered by Operation Strength, flying direct to Vaenga from the aircraft carrier HMS Argus but Operation Dervish, the first Arctic convoy, was diverted from Murmansk to Archangelsk, another 400 mi on. The fifteen Hurricanes for 151 Wing, delivered in crates, had to be assembled at Keg Ostrov airstrip. Despite primitive conditions, the Hurricanes were readied in nine days, with excellent co-operation from the Russian authorities; the aircraft flew to Vaenga on 12 September.
  In five weeks of operations, 151 Wing claimed 16 victories, four probables and seven aircraft damaged.
context_section_description: The Main Party, the majority of the 2,700 men of 151 Wing, including fourteen pilots was embarked on the troopship SS Llanstephan Castle together with 15 Hurricanes packed in crates, at the Scapa Flow anchorage in the Orkney Islands. The ships departed from Scapa Flow on 17 August 1941 with the Dervish Convoy and headed towards the Svalbard Archipelago and the midnight sun, to circle as far north around Norway as possible. Also embarked were Vernon Bartlett MP, an American newspaper reporter Wallace Carrol, Feliks Topolski, the Polish expressionist painter travelling as an official British and Polish war artist, a Polish Legation, a Czechoslovak commission and Charlotte Haldane a noted feminist and member of the Communist Party of Great Britain, who lectured on Domestic life in Russia as part of an impromptu course laid on by the civilian passengers. The danger of Luftwaffe attacks on Murmansk led to the ships being diverted at Archangelsk, another 400 mi (640 km) to the east. As the Llanstephan Castle sailed upriver to dock, rifle shots were heard and a member of the crew was hit in the arm, the gunfire coming from people onshore who mistook the British uniforms for German ones.
  The ship anchored about 50 ft (15 m) from the dock and workers began to build a wooden dock outwards towards them, a race against time before the waters froze; the passengers being surprised to find that most of the dockworkers were women. Ramsbottom-Isherwood had made a plan in case a British liaison party from Moscow failed to arrive and intended to use the 151 Wing transport to travel to Vaenga, only to be surprised to find that no roads to Murmansk existed. The liaison party led by Air Vice-Marshal Basil Collier did arrive and discussions ensued as to the whereabouts of the Advance Party which had travelled ahead with equipment and stores. The pilots on Argus were due to arrive at Vaenga in a few days' time and he also needed the fifteen dismantled and crated Hurricanes carried by Dervish, to make up the wing complement of 39 Hurricanes. It had been intended to transport the wing by train but the Kandalaksha–Murmansk railway had been bombed by the Luftwaffe. A small party of signallers were sent to Keg Ostrov (island) airfield outside Arachangelsk and a party of 200 men with the wing commander were to travel by sea in the destroyers HMS Electra and Active in two days' time. Two days later a group was to travel by tramp steamer to Kandalaksha, thence by train to Vaenga and two parties were to follow by rail, once the line had been repaired.
caption: Preserved Hurricane Mk IIB Z5140
exif: {"Image Make": "HP", "Image Model": "HP psc1600", "Image XResolution": "200", "Image YResolution": "200", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ReferenceBlackWhite": "[0, 255, 128, 255, 128, 255]", "Image ExifOffset": "186", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "898", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5755", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2005:07:02 19:15: 3", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1173", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "778", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF DeviceSettingDescription": "[1, 0, 19, 0, 32, 32, 32, 48, 65, 48, 32, 32, 32, 55, 65, 48, 32, 32, 32, 56, ... ]"}