The Goderich Signal-Star, 1970-08-20, Page 16iv-, �+�y �t SIG
OA' 91g, RICH SUi NA
•
P �
1.111111RSDAY, At `GUST 2Q,� 1910
D-'
Convoy PQ 1
BY G. MacLEOD ROSS summer. Permanent daylight
pervaded the north. Both Stalin
Convoy. PQ 17 carrying . and Roosevelt • Were pressing
enough war material to Rus a. to, ,Churchill to deliver.' The former
equip 50,000 men was caught by because his shortages were aeute
; enemy forces and 16s0 23 `out of and, the latter because the stores
35 .ships and 1.53 merchant were piling up in Iceland, the
+seatpen, in July 1942. • delivery point of American
The 'reaso'ns why it. is said gores and the starting point for
with truth: '"The defence forces the coiv oys to hltsrcnaarsk.
'always prepare for the last war"
are several. First the official
histories seldom tnever''l tell the
' ruth. Second, •in peacetime the
defence forces become the
caprice of polities. 'In, the resaalt-,
the Lesson is never learned and
-' never being .learnt, it is newer
taught so that it never reaches
' the budding •soldier, sailor or. The British effort to secure
airman. When blame rests, on oar ane NorA egian route had failed:
commander's error, it is unlikeiw too :ittie and uro :ate: the
to be published for fear of libel. terrnarts gio: in ahead of •asp
for war is an art not a science tioww we Aad. to fulfil pur
Nevertheless • there is usuail. a undetak:ng :u 7,t.aiin under
minority which spreads its rderf:.:, condition
findings ,by word of mouth. sat k_ondyt:ur.,, at ,w ti ci Stalin
that it gets around unof it rail^, st-r(ffed r o:.r so alternat:re
that General X, or Admtrai 1 . +)r h if: ; ! rpt- ,,purring of a sE-cund
Air Marshal W made a bloomer. e)n: .r ranc-e which our
Yet man is•onl}' human and :t J. -preparedness made an e en
should .be accepted that _u grea.rr "a,: and
divulge the truth is not to .:iif:. s tur inteihgenee knew t ;at
the commander. but for tile e
^'r trer'.';ic.�', ?nonce, consisted of
beneficial education of tsar' fir,,, .arra raft urthe North
service involved. Sometimes. et Cape: i -boat pal ks clustered
takes years to probe the reason betty i'n tat- t ape 'and
Why'. Sometimes. to �^ r rr +r :i :he '•ras
consequenreti a commander dies '
"` `7 • c'rc' .: t! o("r. a n G..
maligned and only after •f1) y ears {'r,e-_(-r - the p� •..t•: battlesh"p'.
does someone apse and clear his `witi: 1.1 inch ��r.>. the eight isle'':
.,.a1i1 . _froom :. ,. ' -.
�,"^ �;-r. l f s Y pr r and flrrei: s
peace because the relati+e '.a.lue}a
Cj#"ifa)'. i at:
_
placed on lite and m.ateriai ,aria:. • air. •aaridht'r~ the
vary, 'o that human rife ma'."T T it 't1., 6�ii,2 fiE' d + b�. irct
have to take seeo-rod: plate and be +,dr ra : :r e most formidable
saerlfiee4-t-o enemy rust
to save the material. - -
The release cif statin papers
and the interrogation ref enemy
authorities and those pirinc:ipal
actors who surwiwe' have ail
'assisted in the 'present
investigatian,, undertaken - be. a
`Stndav - Timers' Insight teani
which ranged from l urope to
America in ' search,. of to
.surviving principals.
• The , Arctic route was further
impaired at this season because
the pack lee forced shipping to
pass within 250 .riles of the
Norwegian coast from 1616 hieh
they ,could be , ib ected to 24
hour attach, from aircraft and
na-' ai e, els hidden m the e f ords.
THE MISE EN SCENE
Winston -Churchill in his
"Hinge of Fate- i pages 253-273)
devotes several pages of apologia
to the 40e\ of.. this .ill-fated
convoy. • Mean% hile historians
have accepted -the. myth that the
First Sea Lord. • Admiral Sir
D,udey Pound, made a mistake.
that he ignored , the report- of
two British -agents in Nor' t'
that the German battleship
Tir:pit 'was NOal' sailing• for the
British cortvov.
During 1911 the only vti ay
America and Britain could help
Stalin against Hitler's onslaught
fr was with weapons ,and war
material.. Lord Beaverbrook •
agreed with : Stalin as to the
latter's requirements and it «,,as
he who agreed that• the material.
should be landed 'at, Murmansk,
although .the. British Admiralty
favoured the southern, though
.longer, route via Persia. However
the fact remains that this latter
rdute .relied on a single track
railway which would have been
inadequate to, carr' the, huge
quantities of.veaponih„v which
the - Western Allies made'
available. r
The northern route round the
North Cape of Norway was
feasible in the • dark of winter
and convoy PQ 16 had got
through with small loss. One
Might say in the callous language
of, war: With acceptable loss.
The original plan had been for
convoys of 25 to 35 ships to sail
every two months. with the
••',.,,.Russians •
pending the ships.
However '', . mass of material
spewed out of the arsenal of
democracy resulted in the
Russians being unable to rand
sufficient shipping so that it fell
to the British and"Americans to
provide ships as well as the
escorts.
But now it was 1.942 and
4`840/41 -OR
' OW4/G grow'..,
MAT $4T71ER$
"NO 80SS ft!
, . 4,.
JoE'5aP,i
pim a .*..44 4 t1F J.'c* "` `'! 'r 41, 4
fit'
Service ttatfon
411' Huron Rd., Goderich
488fl.+ ..
warship at11oat Just a.. -',ear.
before- iter sister -,trip. the
Bismarck ,had ,unk the Hood •in
four rninutew. Til , 'formidable
forte ens+:,r€d that '-tner'e .wo4Id
either to a st-(-(.end (,f
.Juttarad. or the. ' :r.rst God -a.. t
r;i`.d,ie'r :r) ()lard of int•'sk_.
X1,1.-. ...r.. fry..
SAIL AND 5E DAMNED!
..17 `Tla', 1942 ?rime ,l::i.ster
to (ie'rlerah. lk1'naw for t ''' t'! s a>`
.staff ...the ,'claw. ought r,, sail
on the 1Sth. The operation is
justified if half gets through ..1
share "your mis;iiings but I feet
it is a matter of duty " 1 rt,
the convoy' of; 34 merchant ships
sailed- from Iceland " for
A -t'h agel d Jrsale ,; tfi"
escorted by six destroyers. two
anti --aircraft ships. two
suhmannes and 11 smaller craft.
In support were two cruisers and
three destroyers under Admiral
-Hamilton. while nine submarines
were' disposed along the route.
charged with attacking. or at
least giving warning of the
Tirpitz' approach.
Admiral 'Pound had warned:
"The whole thing is a most
unsound` operation," and 'in`'an
effort to sahage something from
a hopeless situation. the
/V
Admiralty:worked out elaborate
plans% for using the convoy as a
bait to Satre out the Tlrpitz to a
prsition where the Home' Fleet
could overwhelm her. But by the
brine the convoy sailed the
nforrnation was . that Tirpitz
planned her assault on' the
convoy fat to the east and..quite
beyond the reach of the Hoare
Fleet. When consideration was
given to the •question' 9f taking
the Fleet into the, . Arctic' and
1616 ithi'n . t'f:nge of 'the German
bombers, Churchill vetoed it; no
doubt recalling the •fate of the
Pnnee of Wales an& Repulse off
Malaya • in . the preeedi,ng
December 1941. Not jtist that, -
for there was a whole list of
ships damaged. For example
Edinburgh: a six-inch cr':iser:
.tin:dad under repair 'at
Murmansk; King George V in
collision with the destroyer
Punjabi 'which sank. while her
depth. charges exploding
damaged the bins tit -urge V.
�lr
John To'.ew . e•romrnanding..
t'r Home Fleet vs.arstt d that
tri „ sere
loses must - be
e\pet'ted; losses which mt„ht
we.l reach a point where their
r'aa n n ing bet„ame an
'.tneconomicai proposition.-- But
``Cairn was de°per.ett for supplies
"ho:'kw.er unec-uriornical." .and
herr- 1616 26 a' eon-. t e, %w i t h a
prorii s' of eguipt,ient enough to ,w
0.()1ill !net! c -Coss 'the
\LALic ijj , ww ail :iott�e"well,.
..' ^a•i're34t.$r• ">ti.at� 1 rti; .�.+fit}tan
r::ati-rta' Ohre ..p ;n Iceland.
+ th )(his! po:i,a/_s had taken ,,
'n'a- le It i.a•a¢.4:seof " t> arid,
,
be da^�i ne'd' -
THE -CONVOY SAILS
was newer e%en, considered by
the Admiralty.
Only if . Tirpitz and the
German fleet was absent would
it be safe to escort the convoy:
The convoy on the other hand,
being capable of only very slow
speed, could do little to ‘save
itself other than to scatter and
present ' the most dispersed
tareeC u ' .
Pound returned to his room
after ,seeing Denning. Later he
went to a meeting 'to discuss
action, which lasted two 'hours.
Admiral Sir Henry- MoDre, then
Viee Chief of the Naval Staff.
recalls this fateful affair. It *as
assumed .the Tirpitt 16was' already
at sea. On what this was based
h does not know and there is
nothing ort ecord. At the time
Moore thought it a mistake, The
pcxssibtli't\ of . turning back '-the'
cunt oy w' as can16 asseed but that
would n•1(rr*9 the Russians would
get no material and in an) event.
itb-w+ doubtful if the convo:.
carried c nuu;;h fuel to make a
return' trip..So the die was ca_s:
and the deducti('made that
I'iroitr_ 16%xs at large.
Pound turned to his Director
of signals and at 9:11
orders v% ent oiot to the escort toithdr3w•'. 'fit 9:'23 p.m. the
A: 1 p : o:. June h - 7th PQ
tE•ft Iceland a°'d,s:'hen ddw, vary r.
north of \hrw a•. !;l'r - an,
-prank, the,, ;rad,
.ldr:: tra' 1''. .,.;d `,:,& u,�.'.. •).r .
rt,p,) s rtiia '«r Iraa+ kin2,
r.,'o,.'rnar-•.• „ifif enehtv shrfa+
Craft
hmat:";• ���,, r .
)enninv "'ad ,was t'.nat at !:2
p' !`i tl 1:ti 3rd a ``pi:f-ire 'had
found 7..rcondheirn Ford erupt
TBrpltt' had ailed. 8: trzw'
afternoon Of -Jut\ 'th i rnT rg-
?ra.. c-errai,n that
tne (, erm a -r, l• I, q-.•' -,w , -
.AIie nfiord I'+('clod p stcd '3t.'
.Can rat- t at rp4'
IC still 31 ar;a 3Or ,r hi,erifforri
De'nnir" r ptI -d s i ,n.:
ha:e f:r ;nfur;-•at:(,r: (.:...
u+hi n ' !rpiti has eft
If ' Iaeri .i.ri '. as nght and
Tirpit/ a/ was at anchor in
:",ltenfjtird. she c'oufd emerge or.
the conwoy at anti moment. If
Denning were 'wrong Tirpitz
couid•he nearing the convoy at
that •very .moment. There www
yet anothef coairse open to the.
Germans: To hold Tirpitz and
the fleet in Altenfjord. but this
wa.s so fatitastie• an idea that it
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Offices in principal chits acrcrssC'anada
a•
he °+7F
signal: "Owing to surface ships
convoy. is to disperse and
proceed to Russian ports. This.
w% as followed at 9:36 p.m. with:
"Convoy is to scatter."
Historians have claimed that
the Intelligence • rei.-eived by
Denning and given to Pound was
'Al'. 'which means it was air
e' e' itness account from -British
obsein.ers at Altenford. ;Deitiiing'
\16 Ill only grade the information
he gave as ' 'B3', which is
confirmed by former :Norwegian
agents' iwho claim that in July
1942 there were no British
agents in the Fjord. The German
Naw a1 historian. Dr. Ernest
Rohw•er, now says too that
Pound's deduction was.. correct:
that ,he made an accurate reading
of the intention of the German
Natial Staff. 131'T...:.Tirpitz did
not sail from Altenfjord for; 24
hours and when she finally
emerged at 3 p.m. on'Juty 5th.
l' -boat -and ' aircraft had
:?ia_ssacred the eonwoy, so that
:here •,w as nothing to, attack. PQ
17 lost 2.3 ships out of 35. which
meant the - loss of some 3.:50
.chicles: 430 tanks -1 \1 1:\''
engined 1616 iii' G.M.C:
tvw in -diesels► 217 aircraft .and
100,000 ►0,000 tons of other warlike
material AND 153 merchant
•
stamen.
e
After • steaming for seven
hours Tirpitz returned to •
Altenfjord.—Why 'vas shb yeld
up? For the same reason which
seried to ensure the defeat of
Germany in Russia and Europe.
fitter intervened! By the time
he• got around to . approving-
Tirpitz' 'foray;, the bird had been
despatched by other forces Had
Tirpitz steamed on for. another
hour she " would have met
Britain's most powerful
submarine, Trident, , whose
torpedoes were armed with a
special magnetic fuse set to,
detonate under Tirpitz' keel.
It is now clear that•Pound and
the Admiralty Staff were hound
to lose whichever assumption
they made. Had he divined the'
hold-up of ,Tirpitz and allowed
the escort to remain, it would
have ensured that both convoy
and escort were destroyed, but a
little nearer Murmansk. As
pound warned before the
convoy sailed, it was a political
scapegoat. Once it was
"tolerably certain- that Tirpitz
was at targe on the high seas. the
convoy was doomed. The only
way for Pound to cut his Losses
was to .sae,v�th;e, escort and
support vessels which alone had
the speed to avoid Tirpitz.
Itis always distasteful to have
to jettison your comrades,, yet
the same conditions pertained in
the case of every convoy, once it
was committed to sail. It was
invariably dpomed '/to
decimation if and when a
+German battleshipappeared.
=1. The Hinge of Fate. Page 261.
awerir,4
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