Convoy PQ-17
PQ-17 was a
World War II convoy carrying war
matériel from
Britain and the
USA to the
USSR. PQ-17 sailed in June-July
1942 and suffered the heaviest losses of any
Russia-bound (PQ) convoy, with 25 vessels out of 36 lost to enemy action.
On the northern route, losses to German aircraft and
U-boats had been increasing. In May
PQ-16 had lost seven ships, but PQ-17 was the largest and most valuable convoy to date with military equipment valued at over $700 million at that time. The Germans were prompted by Allied success with PQ-16 to reinforce their efforts to break the convoy route to
Archangelsk and
Murmansk and
Operation Rösselsprung was the assembling of naval surface forces to achieve this.
There was some argument to postpone the convoy until the autumn or winter but political considerations over-ruled the caution and the convoy departed on
June 27 1942.
The 35 merchant ships and escorts had assembled at
Hvalfjordur,
Iceland and were bound for
Murmansk. The close escort was the First Escort Group (EG1) under Commander
Jack Broome and included four
destroyers, ten
corvettes or armed trawlers and two
anti-aircraft auxiliaries. In a more distant covering role was the First Cruiser Squadron (CS1) under Rear Admiral Hamilton, of four
cruisers and four destroyers. As further protection the convoy was to be tracked at about 200 miles by the
Home Fleet battleships
HMS Duke of York and
USS Washington, two cruisers, eight destroyers, and the
aircraft carrier HMS Victorious until it was past
North Cape. The route took the convoy close to
Svalbard, north of
Bjørnøya, and skirted the edge of the ice pack before turning south and following the coast of
Novaya Zemlya before turning south-west across the
Barents Sea and entering the
White Sea, turning almost due south.
One ship suffered mechanical failure just out of port and was forced to turn back. Another,
SS John Witherspoon, turned back after ice damage. The convoy was sighted and tracked by
U 456 shortly after it entered the open sea. This was augmented by
Luftwaffe BV 138s from
July 1. The
Luftwaffe began its attacks during the evening of the next day. The first losses were not until
July 4 when two ships,
SS Christopher Newport and the
SS William Hooper, were lost.
On the night of the 4th the Admiralty received intelligence that German
capital ships
Tirpitz,
Admiral Scheer,
Lützow and
Prinz Eugen with some
destroyers had left
Trondheim to intercept the convoy.
First Sea Lord Sir Dudley Pound, after agonising for several hours, eventually made the fateful decision to scatter the convoy, reasoning that
Tirpitz, with its high speed and 15 inch (380mm) guns, would be capable of inflicting massive losses on the closely bunched merchant ships.
Tirpitz and her escorts were not in fact heading for the convoy, the movement was merely a change of berth. The British intelligence services became aware of this, but Pound sent the order to scatter nevertheless. Pound was at that time operating under enormous stress and suffering from the final stages of the
brain tumour that would lead to his death in
1943.
The German naval force was ordered to sea the following day, but following reports of the successes of the Luftwaffe and U-boats it was soon ordered back to port. Meanwhile, with the majority of the escorts ordered to return to
Scapa Flow, leaving only the anti-aircraft auxiliary and a few armed trawlers, the scattered merchant ships were easy prey for U-boats and aircraft. Twelve vessels were lost â€" six sunk by the Luftwaffe, including
SS Fairfield City and
SS Daniel Morgan, and four different U-boats sunk the remaining six. Among the losses that day were
U.S. merchant ships
SS Pan Kraft,
SS Washington,
SS Carlton,
SS Honomu, and
SS Peter Kerr.
On
July 6 two more ships were sunk,
SS Pan Atlantic by the Luftwaffe, and
SS John Witherspoon by
U 255. On
July 7-
8 five more ships were sunk â€" two by
U 255 â€" including
SS Olapana and
SS Alcoa Ranger. The remaining escort vessels withdrew into the
Arctic Ocean on
July 9 but the merchant ships suffered no more that day. The last losses were
SS Hoosier and
SS El Capitan on
July 10. The Luftwaffe had flown 202 sorties against the convoy.
Two surviving ships made port at
Archangel on July 10. Another nine arrived there or at Murmansk over the following week. 142,500 tons of shipping had been sunk and 153 merchant men had perished, material losses included 3,350 motor vehicles, 200 bombers, 430 tanks and around 93,316 tons of other cargo. Two of the surviving ships were sunk on the return journey,
SS Silver Sword and
SS Bellingham. One of them became the fifth victim of
U 255.
Despite Soviet protests the sailing of
PQ-18 was postponed until September. Despite having over fifty escorts, sixteen ships were sunk and all future convoys were suspended until the
darkness of winter.
PQ-19/
JW-51 sailed in December 1942.
*
David Irving:
Destruction of Convoy PQ-17 (1968), reprint (1989), St. Martins Mass Market Paper, ISBN 0312911521
*
U.S. Naval Historical Center account of PQ-17*
German account of Rösselsprung
