大象传媒

On Feb 6th 1945 the destroyer Zealous (on which I was a radar operator), joined a convoy of some thirty U S merchant ships on route for Kola Bay in North Russia. On Feb 7th, we were attacked by 48 Torpedo Bombers and on the 10th there was a further Torpedo Bomber attack. On the 13th we were in action against 11 U-Boats. 2 merchant ships and a corvette were lost. On arrival at Kola Inlet 4 destroyers were dispatched to Soroy Island in North Norway to rescue Norwegians, who were being attacked. I volunteered to go ashore in one of the boats to help pick up the 500 refugees, some of whom came skiing down the hills. The decks were very crowded on the way back to Murmansk, where the "guests" were distributed among the homeward -bound ships.
Shortly afterwards, the London papers carried graphic accounts of a daring rescue by British Destroyers in North Norway.

On February 17 th the convoy of some 50 ships including escorts left Kola Bay, 2 escorts and a freighter were torpedoed at the outset. The Corvette Bluebell blew up with only one survivor. The Admiralty Report states that the weather that followed could be described as "the Great Gale" - other convoys had suffered severe weather but none so bad as this. The convoy was greatly scattered but the escorts reassembled by February 20th when 25 enemy aircraft attacked. Further hurricane force winds scattered the convoy again. There were more torpedo bomber attacks which sunk one straggler with a loss of 26 crew. The weather was horrific, the ship would rise to the crest of a wave, shudder, and then drop into the next trough with tons of water crashing onto the fo'c'stle - then the ship would rise again and start the whole process again. We were days late, at one time it was said that we were steaming full steam ahead and drifting backwards. Everything had to be lashed down lest it took off. We had nearly run out of food.
I was never a hungry person but I noted that on February 21st that there was no bread and few potatoes.
I was quite glad to find an old crust in a locker. On arrival back in Britain, 12 destroyers were docked with weather damage. We arrived at Greenock on March 1st.

Several years later I received a medal, recognising the work of the convoys, from the Russian Government!!

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