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ARCTIC CONVOYS — Part 4

Donald Harman

Recognition

I don’t know why we had to wait so long for the Russians to acknowledge our contribution I was amazed when it happened. The British weren’t acknowledging it either for that matter. We didn’t get any commendation from the British government for the Russian convoys, no medal or anything at all. Just all part of the days work. I didn’t think much about it at the time, but looking back I thought the Russians were slow and I think the British were slow.

I can’t think why they suddenly decided to do it, unless there was pressure put on by somebody. I think SAGA had an article about it which started people thinking, and there were letters written and so on, and I was recommended to write to the Russian Embassy by somebody who was on the Russian convoys, and strangely enough I got invited to the ceremony and he just got a medal through the post!

It all was very strange and peculiar to us. There were forty veterans at the ceremony, and I knew none of them. It was a very good ceremony. The Ambassador made an excellent speech, and it was all very well done, and somebody handed us some red tulips and so on. One of the criticisms I might have was that they didn’t mention the name of the ship that each individual had been on, and therefore if anyone had been on the Savage, and I hadn’t recognised them I wouldn’t have known, unless I had met and spoke with them afterwards, and I didn’t meet anybody who had been on a ship that I recognised.

The medal is very Russian, basically red, with three black stripes, and an orange band in a sort of inverted V, with a golden medal underneath 1945 picture of Red Square, Moscow and the Kremlin on there and it says something in Russian, and the citation says The Russian Federation Certificate. To the commemorative medal of the 50th anniversary of the victory in the great patriotic war 1941-1945, which of course we know as the 1939-1945 War.

I would call it the Russian Convoy Medal, that’s what it was for, and that’s what I remember doing to get it. It’s very precious to me.

Looking back on it now it was worth it, you did feel as if you were doing something worthwhile. Undoubtedly we brought some stuff up for them. They didn’t appear to be too grateful at the time, but nevertheless it must have been helpful because they won the battle of Stalingrad with the help. I’m sure with some of the equipment we brought up, and yes we did feel as if we were doing a good job.

(The Battle for Stalingrad which took place between August 1942 and February 1943 was fought in the most unimaginable conditions of a fierce Russian winter. Although the German 6th Army was already surrounded, Hitler refused to give permission for it to surrender. By the time the fighting was over, Stalingrad was little more than a heap of rubble. One hundred and ten thousand German troops had been killed or had died from starvation, and ninety one thousand were taken prisoner. Russian military and civilian casualties were never published.)

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by June Woodhouse of the CSV Action Desk at ´óÏó´«Ã½ Hereford and Worcester on behalf of Donald Harman (author) and has added with his permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

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