Convoy PQ 1

Convoy PQ 1 was the first of the Arctic Convoys of the Second World War to have the code prefix PQ, which was chosen from the initials of Commander Phillip Quellyn Roberts, an operations officer in the Admiralty. The Western Allies used the Arctic route to supply the Soviet Union after the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion, which began on 22 June 1941.

The convoy sailed from Hvalfiord in Iceland on 29 September 1941 and arrived at Archangelsk on 11 October 1941. To protect return convoys and sweep for mines, a British naval force of ocean-going Halcyon-class minesweepers, which accompanied the convoy, that had the speed, armament and anti-submarine capacity similar to that of Flower-class corvettes, to be established at the Kola naval base.

The fleet oiler , which had accompanied the first Arctic convoy, Operation Dervish (21–31 August 1941), was at Kola to refuel ships for the return journey. Soviet destroyers at Polyarnoe could reinforce convoy escorts for the last part of the journey.

Background

Lend-lease

After Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the USSR, began on 22 June 1941, the UK and USSR signed an agreement in July that they would "render each other assistance and support of all kinds in the present war against Hitlerite Germany". Before September 1941 the British had dispatched 450 aircraft, of rubber, 3,000,000 pairs of boots and stocks of tin, aluminium, jute, lead and wool. In September British and US representatives travelled to Moscow to study Soviet requirements and their ability to meet them. The representatives of the three countries drew up a protocol in October 1941 to last until June 1942.

Signals intelligence

Ultra

The British Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) based at Bletchley Park housed a small industry of code-breakers and traffic analysts. By June 1941, the German Enigma machine Home Waters (''Heimish'') settings used by surface ships and U-boats could quickly be read. On 1 February 1942, the Enigma machines used in U-boats in the Atlantic and Mediterranean were changed but German ships and the U-boats in Arctic waters continued with the older ''Heimish'' (''Hydra'' from 1942, Dolphin to the British). By mid-1941, British Y-stations were able to receive and read '' Luftwaffe'' W/T transmissions and give advance warning of ''Luftwaffe'' operations. In 1941, naval ''Headache'' personnel with receivers to eavesdrop on ''Luftwaffe'' wireless transmissions were embarked on warships.

''B-Dienst''

The rival German ''Beobachtungsdienst'' (''B-Dienst'', Observation Service) of the ''Kriegsmarine'' ''Marinenachrichtendienst'' (''MND'', Naval Intelligence Service) had broken several Admiralty codes and cyphers by 1939, which were used to help ''Kriegsmarine'' ships elude British forces and provide opportunities for surprise attacks. From June to August 1940, six British submarines were sunk in the Skaggerak using information gleaned from British wireless signals. In 1941, ''B-Dienst'' read signals from the Commander in Chief Western Approaches informing convoys of areas patrolled by U-boats, enabling the submarines to move into "safe" zones.

Arctic Ocean

Between Greenland and Norway are some of the most stormy waters of the world's oceans, of water under gales full of snow, sleet and hail. The cold Arctic water was met by the Gulf Stream, warm water from the Gulf of Mexico, which became the North Atlantic Drift. Arriving at the south-west of England the drift moves between Scotland and Iceland; north of Norway the drift splits. One stream bears north of Bear Island to Svalbard and a southern stream follows the coast of Murmansk into the Barents Sea. The mingling of cold Arctic water and warmer water of higher salinity generates thick banks of fog for convoys to hide in but the waters drastically reduced the effectiveness of ASDIC as U-boats moved in waters of differing temperatures and density.

In winter, polar ice can form as far south as off the North Cape and in summer it can recede to Svalbard. The area is in perpetual darkness in winter and permanent daylight in the summer and can make air reconnaissance almost impossible. Around the North Cape and in the Barents Sea the sea temperature rarely rises about 4° Celsius and a man in the water will die unless rescued immediately. The cold water and air makes spray freeze on the superstructure of ships, which has to be removed quickly to avoid the ship becoming top-heavy. Conditions in U-boats were, if anything, worse the boats having to submerge in warmer water to rid the superstructure of ice. Crewmen on watch were exposed to the elements, oil lost its viscosity, nuts froze and sheared off. Heaters in the hull were too demanding of current and could not be run continuously.

Prelude

''Kriegsmarine''

German naval forces in Norway were commanded by Hermann Böhm, the . Two U-boats were based in Norway in July 1941, with five destroyers and numerous smaller craft. There were four U-boats in September, five in December and four in January 1942. By mid-February twenty U-boats were anticipated in the region, with six based in Norway, two in Narvik or Tromsø, two at Trondheim and two at Bergen. Hitler contemplated establishing a unified command but decided against it. The German battleship ''Tirpitz'' arrived at Trondheim on 16 January, the first ship of a general move of surface ships to Norway. British convoys to Russia had received little attention since they averaged only eight ships each and the long Arctic winter nights negated even the limited effort that was available.

5

In mid-1941, (Air Fleet 5) had been re-organised for Operation Barbarossa with (Air Region Norway) headquartered in Oslo. (Air Commander Stavanger) the centre and north of Norway, (Fighter Leader Norway) commanded the fighter force and ( olonelAndreas Nielsen) in the far north had airfields at Kirkenes and Banak. The Air Fleet had 180 aircraft, sixty of which were reserved for operations on the Karelian Front against the Red Army.

The distance from Banak to Archangelsk was and had only ten Junkers Ju 88 bombers of Kampfgeschwader 30, thirty Junkers Ju 87 dive-bombers ten Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters of Jagdgeschwader 77, five Messerschmitt Bf 110 heavy fighters of Zerstörergeschwader 76, ten reconnaissance aircraft and an anti-aircraft battalion. Sixty aircraft were far from adequate in such a climate and terrain where

The emphasis of air operations changed from army support to anti-shipping operations only after March 1942, when Allied Arctic convoys becoming larger and more frequent coincided with the reinforcement of Norway with ships and aircraft and the less extreme climatic conditions of the Arctic summer.

Arctic convoys

A convoy was defined as at least one merchant ship sailing under the protection of at least one warship. At first the British had intended to run convoys to Russia on a forty-day cycle (the number of days between convoy departures) during the winter of 1941–1942 but this was shortened to a ten-day cycle. The round trip to Murmansk for warships was three weeks and each convoy needed a cruiser and two destroyers, which severely depleted the Home Fleet. Convoys left port and rendezvoused with the escorts at sea. A cruiser provided distant cover from a position to the west of Bear Island. Air support was limited to 330 Squadron and 269 Squadron, RAF Coastal Command from Iceland, with some help from anti-submarine patrols from Sullom Voe, in Shetland, along the coast of Norway. Anti-submarine trawlers escorted the convoys on the first part of the outbound journey. Built for Arctic conditions, the trawlers were coal-burning ships with sufficient endurance. The trawlers were commanded by their peacetime crews and captains with the rank of Skipper, Royal Naval Reserve (RNR), who were used to Arctic conditions, supplemented by anti-submarine specialists of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR). British minesweepers based at Archangelsk met the convoys to join the escort for the remainder of the voyage.

Convoy PQ 1

Convoy formation

Voyage

The code prefix PQ was chosen from the initials of Commander Phillip Quellyn Roberts, an operations officer in the Admiralty. The convoy consisted of the British merchant ships ''Atlantic'', ''Blairnevis'', ''Elna II'', ''Harmonic'', ''Gemstone'', whose crew refuse to sail until extra blankets were provided, ''Lorca'', ''River Afton'' and the fleet oiler, ''Black Ranger''; the Panamanian ship ''Capira'' and the Belgian ''Ville d'Anvers'' also sailed. The ships were loaded with raw materials, twenty tanks and 193 crated Hurricane fighter aircraft. The escorts were County-class heavy cruiser , the destroyer and the minesweepers , , and ''Gossamer'', en route to the base at Kola Inlet. Other ships were present at some stages of the voyage. ''North King'' suffered an engine failure but its engine room crew got it going again, despite the stormy conditions. The ships arrived at Arkhangelsk a day early, on 11 October, having sailed through the almost permanent dark of the Arctic winter.

Aftermath

Convoy PQ 1 arrived on 11 October 1941 without loss. The Germans paid scant attention to the first eleven British convoys before March 1942, which averaged only eight ships each. In the winter darkness the ''Luftwaffe'' had great difficulty in finding Allied convoys, which made attacks on Murmansk and the railway south more practical. As the Allied supply effort increased in 1942, the Arctic route carrying 1.2 million tons of supplies of the total of 2.3 million tons, the reinforcement of the ''Luftwaffe'' and ''Kriegsmarine'' led to German countermeasures growing in extent and effect.

To protect return convoys and sweep for mines, the commander of the Home Fleet, John Tovey, established a force of ocean-going, Halcyon-class minesweepers at the Kola naval base, which had the speed, armament and anti-submarine capacity similar to that of Flower-class corvettes. As specialist vessels, the minesweepers usually had experienced career officers. The fleet oiler arrived with Operation Dervish (21–31 August 1941), to stay at Kola to fuel ships for the return journey. Soviet destroyers at Polyarnoe were available to reinforce convoy escorts for the last part of the journey.

Subsequent operations

From Operation Dervish, at the end of August 1941, the first convoy which comprised seven ships, to 20 December, six more convoys (Convoy PQ 1 to Convoy PQ 6) sent 45 ships, all of which reached Archangelsk or Murmansk. German awareness of these and the reciprocal westbound convoys (Convoy QP 1 to Convoy QP 4) was too vague to plan attacks on the convoys by the ''Kriegsmarine'' or the ''Luftwaffe''. On 13 November 1941, the commander-in-chief
of the ''Kriegsmarine'', (Grand Admiral) Erich Raeder, told Hitler that, owing to the extreme weather and the lack of air reconnaissance, the prospects of the small number of U-boats in the Arctic Ocean were poor.

List of ships

Merchant ships

Escorts

Notes

Footnotes

References

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Further reading

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External links

Russian Convoy PQ-1. www naval-history net

{{World War II

PQ 01
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Naval battles of World War II involving the Soviet Union