One man's journey to remember a merchant navy massacre.
By Charlie Morton, Defence Reporter, Plymouth Herald, June 26, 2001.
FOR 59 years the code has been engraved in the minds of every sailor who chanced the waters of the Arctic Circle during World War Two. PQ17.
On June 26, 1942, the largest merchant convoy ever assembled at Reykjavik in Iceland set sail for ports in Russia, loaded with supplies to feed the war effort.
What followed was one of the grimmest tragedies in the history of the merchant navy as, scattered by the threat of a German battleship, the ships were an easy target for U-boat skippers who picked them off one by one, sinking 23 in all.
The horror of the event has haunted retired Lieutenant Commander Gordon Bruty for six decades.
He has sailed from the UK on a journey back to where it all happened, to drop a wreath in the sea in memory of those who died.
In Memory of PQ17 June-July 1942.