![]() The first convoy was due at Murmansk around 12 October and the next convoy was to depart Iceland on 22 October. In October 1941, after Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the USSR, which had begun on 22 June, the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, made a commitment to send a convoy to the Arctic ports of the USSR every ten days and to deliver 1,200 tanks a month from July 1942 to January 1943, followed by 2,000 tanks and another 3,600 aircraft more than already promised. Main articles: Arctic convoys of World War II and Home Fleet The area is in perpetual darkness in winter and permanent daylight in the summer which makes air reconnaissance almost impossible or easy. In winter, polar ice can form as far south as 50 mi (80 km) of the North Cape and in summer it can recede to Svalbard, forcing ships closer to Luftwaffe air bases or being able to sail further out to sea. ![]() The mingling of cold Arctic water and warmer water of higher salinity generates thick banks of fog for convoys to hide in but the waters drastically reduced the effectiveness of ASDIC as U-boats moved in waters of differing temperatures and density. Ī northern stream goes north of Bear Island to Svalbard and the southern stream following the coast of Murmansk into the Barents Sea. ![]() The cold Arctic water was met by the Gulf Stream, warm water from the Gulf of Mexico, which became the North Atlantic Drift, arriving at the south-west of England the drift moves between Scotland and Iceland. The cold water and air made spray freeze on the superstructure of ships, which had to be removed quickly to avoid the ship becoming top-heavy. Around the North Cape and the Barents Sea the sea temperature rarely rises about 4° Celsius and a man in the water would probably die unless rescued immediately. The convoy sailed from Archangel in Russia to Loch Ewe in Scotland.īackground Arctic Ocean īetween Greenland and Norway are some of the most stormy waters of the world's oceans, 890 mi (1,440 km) of water under gales full of snow, sleet and hail. It was one of a series of convoys run to return Allied ships from Soviet northern ports to home ports in Britain. QP 14 (13–26 September 1942) was an Arctic convoy of the QP series which ran during the Second World War. ![]()
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