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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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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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I like cream filled ones. Thanks Snippy!
Well actually when sailors are uncouth, it is not an act.
I like cream filled ones. Thanks Snippy!
LOL. Will do. I'll also be baking breads, muffins and bagels. :-)
You Army guys are soooo jealous of the sailors, admit it.
They may have had good reasons for not trying it, but I have never run across them. It may have been that the Russians didn't want to provoke the Japanese. If they had done it, Germany probably would have tried to force the Japanese to let them operate some subs out of Japanese ports.
After the PQ 17 fiasco shut down the north Atlantic runs, you would have thought that someone would have tried it.
050626-N-5345W-115 Atlantic Ocean (June 26, 2005) - A T-45A Goshawk trainer aircraft, assigned to Training Air Wing Two (TW-2), makes an arrested landing on the flight deck aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75). The T-45A Goshawk is used for intermediate and advanced portions of the Navy pilot training program for jet carrier aviation and tactical strike missions. Truman is currently at sea conducting carrier qualifications. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate 3rd Class Kristopher Wilson (RELEASED)
B-1 commemorates its 20th at Dyess
DYESS AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- The first operational B-1B Lancer in the Air Force, also known as the Star of Abilene, sits on display here. The base celebrated the bomber's 20th anniversary June 29. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Alan Garrison)
U.S. Marine Corps aircraft maintainers, ordnance Marines and the crew who pilot the aircraft prepare another F/A-18 Hornet for takeoff, June 23, 2005. Marine All-Weather Fighter Attack Squadron 224 at Al Asad, Iraq, flew 24 sorties (day and night) in support of Operation Spear, which began June 17, 2005, and lasted four days. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Alicia M. Garcia
What? you don't use them to get "jump started" in the mornings?
Shipping to Vlad would have meant sailing within 100 miles of the main Japanese island of Honshu. During the early part of the war, and up until 1944, no allied NAVAL vessel or even battle group dared come that close, let alone merchantmen.
NO allied captain with a hint of ship safety would have obeyed an order to sail there.
Poznan, 1956
In March of 1956, just a month after Khrushchev's "Secret Speech" denouncing Stalin, Polish Communist Party leader Bolesav Bierut died of natural causes. He was replaced by Edward Ochab.
In April of that year the Polish government announced its plans to release 30,000 political prisoners -- including Wladyslaw Gomulka, the former Party chief who had lost a power struggle with Bierut in 1951.
The reforms instituted by Ochab also brought pressure for more change in Poland. Events reached a boiling point in the city of Poznan, where workers had been striking for better wages, increased reforms and the withdrawal of Soviet troops. In June, while Poznan was hosting an international trade fair, the workers rioted.
Ochab sent in the Polish Army to put down the Poznan uprising. The troops opened fire; more than 50 people were killed, and hundreds more were injured.
The events in Poznan enflamed reformers in the Polish Communist Party. In October, without consulting the Kremlin, they elected Gomulka as their party head.
Soon thereafter, Nikita Khrushchev unexpectedly flew to Warsaw, where he met with Gomulka -- and informed him that Soviet tanks were advancing on the Polish capital. After a series of meetings, Gomulka and Khrushchev agreed that Poland would be given more control of its own affairs -- so long as it remained loyal to Moscow, and within the Warsaw Pact.
YEEEEEE-HAAAAAAAAAAAA!!
Imagine what Doenitz could have done with 300 U-Boats in 1939,1940.
IIRC, the Trans-Siberian Railroad was a single track line for most if it's length.
Hey!! We can be as uncouth as sailors! We just don't get to travel all around and do it in every city in the world. :-)
Thanks for all the "Current News" pics,Excuse_My_Bellicosity
Any time. The Foxhole has such great history bits, I love to visit.
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