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Posted on 06/29/2005 3:03:31 AM PDT by SAMWolf
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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| Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support. The FReeper Foxhole hopes to share with it's readers an open forum where we can learn about and discuss military history, military news and other topics of concern or interest to our readers be they Veteran's, Current Duty or anyone interested in what we have to offer. If the Foxhole makes someone appreciate, even a little, what others have sacrificed for us, then it has accomplished one of it's missions. We hope the Foxhole in some small way helps us to remember and honor those who came before us.
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As their escorts turned away, the ships of the doomed Allied convoy followed orders and began to disperse in the Arctic waters.  Starting Point - Hvalfjord, Iceland Originally, an informal agreement provided for the delivery of all goods to Soviet ships at British and American ports. The responsibility for ferrying supplies back to the Soviet Union would then rest entirely with the Soviets. But there were not enough ships in the Soviet navy to handle such a monumental task, and eventually the convoys to the Soviet Union came to consist mainly of British and American ships. Axis domination of the Mediterranean left only two Allied supply routes to the Soviet Union open. One, through Iran, required a sea journey of more than 13,000 miles. The second was a more practical northern route of less than 2,500 miles, but it crossed the cruelest sea of all, the Arctic Ocean. This Arctic route became known as the Murmansk Run. Sailing around the northern tip of Norway, the convoys would be exposed to one of the largest concentrations of German U-boats, surface raiders and aircraft anywhere in the world. Attacks by more than a dozen subs and literally hundreds of planes at one time would not be uncommon. Strict orders forbade the halting of any ship for even a moment for fear of being attacked by prowling German U-boats, and individuals who fell overboard or survivors seen adrift on the waters had to be ruthlessly ignored. In the first two years of the run, more than one-fifth of the supplies sent to Murmansk would be lost.  Admiral Sir Dudley Pound - who cast PQ17 to the wolves Late in August 1941 a small, unnumbered convoy of seven ships made the trip from Iceland to the Soviet port of Archangel in 10 days without incident. The convoy, which had been hurriedly assembled, made the trip both as an experiment and as a gesture of good faith. That September a military mission was sent to work out a formal aid program for the beleaguered Soviets. Negotiations at first were difficult. The Soviets dismissed all discussion concerning aid and demanded the immediate opening of a second front. They were convinced that only an offensive somewhere else could reduce the pressure the Germans were putting on them. Several times the talks broke up after bitter disagreement. Marshal Josef Stalin often pointed out that while the Soviet Union was saddled with the burden of carrying 90 percent of the war, all the British were offering was "the loss of a few ships in support of the common cause." It was only after it looked as if the negotiations would break down altogether that the Soviets were finally willing to listen to aid proposals. The British and American representatives agreed to furnish all the planes, tanks and other war materiel that the Soviets felt they needed. For an industrial giant like the United States, the manufacturing would be the easy part; getting the goods safely halfway around the world would prove more difficult.  Originally, the Allied convoys went unnamed and unnumbered. After several round trips were successfully completed, a coding system was established. All convoys bound for the Soviet Union were designated "PQ," and those returning were designated "QP." At first the Germans had to ignore the Allied crossings because they had few warships available to track the supply convoys. By the end of 1941, seven convoys had delivered 750 tanks, 800 planes, 2,300 vehicles and more than 100,000 tons of general cargo to the Soviet Union. Convoy PQ-8 was attacked by a U-boat but safely reached Murmansk on January 19, 1942. By early February 1942, 12 northbound convoys including 93 ships had made the journey with the loss of only one ship to a U-boat. Although the early convoys encountered little German opposition, they still had to traverse the treacherous Barents Sea, part of the Atlantic Ocean. Winter brought nearly four months of unbroken darkness, which helped conceal the convoys from the enemy but made navigation difficult. Polar ice also pushed down from the north, forcing all ships to make a closer voyage to German-held Norway. The subzero winds howling off the polar cap could easily reach hurricane velocity and whip waves to a height of 70 feet. At such temperatures, sea spray froze immediately and created a top-heavy covering on anything exposed to it. The ice had to be chipped away to prevent the Allied ships from capsizing. Binoculars iced up, as well as guns and torpedoes. Freezing decks could become mirror-smooth, making it impossible for the crewmen to walk on them.  Any man who fell into the sea during the Arctic winter was as good as lost. On January 17, 1942, the British destroyer Matabele was torpedoed and sunk. Although a rescue ship arrived on the scene within minutes, only two survivors out of a crew of 200 were safely pulled from the water. The rest had all frozen to death. Visibility was also frequently a problem. When the warmer waters of the Gulf Stream blended with the frigid Arctic waters, the result was often an unimaginably thick fog and occassionally blinding snow. Ships had to drastically reduce speed to prevent collisions. Escorting or intercepting the convoys became even riskier.
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Morning Sam...this is gonna be a shorts and tank top day here in Memphis...98 is the promised high...already 78...hummidty 96 with no rain in sight...burn bans over in some AK counties.
As a youngster, I was hooked on all things maritime when I first read the Hornblower books..Forrester is a wonderful writer, and the Brit series a few years ago was a very faithful rendition. Best DVD set I ever bought. I do hope they do a few more of them. Can't understand how many say that Patrick O'Brian ("Master and Commander") is BETTER than Forrester...No way..
One of, if not the first, books David Irving ever wrote [and one of the most factually accurate] was "The Destruction of Convoy PQ-17".
The Royal Navy did some brilliant ops in WW II, but their mistakes were humongous. PQ-17 was one of them.
Hump day bump for the Freepr Foxhole
No work on the Pigeon Pad yesterday as we had an unexpected rain shower yesterday morning and I had to work last night.
Will hopefully get to work on it this afternoon, would like to get the slide fabricated and mounted to see if that will help with some of the instabilty I am having.
BTW snippy, in one of my previous lives I ran a Winchell's Donut House. Chopsticks make very good donut turning sticks :-)
TTFN
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
Morning U S Army EOD.
I read one of the old Ballentine books called "The Murmansk Convoys" that the convoys were more "politically motivated" than anything else and that once the ships reached Russia the crews were treated miserably. No gratitude from the Commies at all, just demands for more.
Morning Feather.
Don't miss that weather at all.
Morning Alfa6.
Morning PzLdr.
The stories of the Brit and US Merchant Marines are really amazing.
I can't access it from this site..might be worth checking out...please report..regards
Morning PE.
Took your recommendation...just ordered it on Amazon...spent a big $1.25..BTW, have you read Arthur Herman's "To Rule the Waves"?..just marvelous....
DURN!!
Atomized F4, and a standing wall.
Vey cool.
On This Day In History
Birthdates which occurred on June 29:
1801 Frederic Bastiat (d.1850), French free-market economist, born in Bayonne.
“The state is the great fictitious entity in which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else.”
1805 Hiram Powers US sculptor (Greek Slave)
1831 William Thomas Clark, Bvt Mjr General (Union volunteers), died in 1905
1858 George Washington Goethals engineer (built Panama Canal)
1861 William James Mayo surgeon/co-founder Mayo clinic in Minnesota
1863 James Harvey Robinson Ill, historian (Ordeal of Civilization)
1865 Shigechiyo Izumi achieved oldest authenticated age (120 y 237 d)
1876 Nellie Taylor Ross, 1st woman to serve as a gov (Wyoming, 1925-27)
1901 Nelson Eddy actor/baritone (Great Duets with Jeanette MacDonald)
1911 Prince Bernhard Germany, (Constort to Queen Juliana of Netherlands)
1912 John Toland, US, political writer (Rising Sun, Pulitzer 1971)
1919 Slim Pickens Kingsburg Calif, actor (Dr Strangelove, Blazing Saddles)
1929 Peter George US, light middleweight (Olympic-gold-1952)
1936 Harmon Killebrew baseball player (Minnesota Twins)
1944 Gary Busey Goose Creek Tx, actor (Buddy Holly Story, Star in Born)
1948 Fred Grandy Sioux City Iowa, actor (Gopher-Love Boat)/(Rep-R-Iowa)
1949 Dan Dierdorf NFL(dirtiest player in football), sportscaster (Monday Night Football)
1959 Larry Parham 4th victim of NYC's Zodiac killer (1st to die)
1972 Samantha Smith Houlton Mo, actress (Elizabeth-Lime Street)
1977 Tania Joy Gibson, Lake Barrington Ill, Miss America-Illinois (1997)
1993 Angela and Amy Lakeberg, US Siamese twin (separated on Aug 20th)
2002 Rosemary Clooney (74), Girl Singer "Come on-a My House"
2003 Buddy Hackett (78), comedian / film actor (It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963)
2003 Katharine Hepburn (b.1907), actress, dies ("Morning Glory" (1933); Pat and Mike (1952) "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" (1967); "The Lion in Winter" (1968); Rooster Cogburn (1975))
Thanks for the review..I'll check it out tonight..
Some here have always considered you a little unstable
/cheapshot :-)
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