What Is an Arctic Front?

The Arctic Escort War refers to a route opened by the Allies in the Arctic Ocean in support of the Soviet Red Army to resist the German offensive in World War II. From 1941 to 1944, the Allies transported a large number of Soviet ships through this route. Weapons and ammunition gave the Soviet Union maximum support for the anti-fascist war. Germany also sent U-boats and the Nazi Air Force to continue bombing the Allied fleet. More than 100 ships were sunk, and nearly 3,000 navy soldiers lost their lives. Former British Prime Minister Churchill once called the route "the worst journey in the world."

Arctic escort battle

Arctic escort war means

In 1941,

In August 1941, the British Navy organized a codename "

The loss of the Allied forces was staggering. Two-thirds of the frigates were lost. 24 of them were sunk, 8 were sunk by German submarines, 8 were sunk by aircraft, and 8 were wounded by German aircraft. Finally, Sunk by a German submarine.

210 bombers, 430 tanks, 3350 trucks and about 100,000 tons of munitions were destroyed.

In 1941, the unprecedented brutal battle of World War II was intensifying. In the Arctic Ocean, yet to be burned

In the sea area, a fleet of British merchant ships escorted by battleships are frequently sailing.

Tanks and various types of guns and ammunition.

This fleet departs from the port of Iceland and sails in the Arctic Ocean with an area of 1301 square kilometers.

The oncoming icebergs trudged hard. The merchant fleet's destination was the northern port of the Soviet Union.

Mansk and Arkhangelsk. Weapons and ammunition carried by the merchant fleet gave the Soviet anti-fascist battlefield very

With great support, the cargo supplies on the Arctic route alone exceeded one-fourth of the supplies provided by the entire Confederate.

This is an extremely arduous voyage. During a voyage of about 2,200 nautical miles, you must not only avoid the occasional flow.

Passing icebergs, reefs, and the German Air Force, surface ships and submarines based in Norway

Threat. To this end, in August 1941, the British Navy organized a code-name "Devon"

A contingent of contingents, this convoy is composed of aircraft carriers: 'Victory', 'Args', heavy

The cruiser Devonshire, Suffolk and 6 destroyers. British navy loads cargo from Iceland

The convoy fleet was named PQ, and the empty fleet returned from the Soviet Union was called the QP fleet.

In the first few voyages, the British contingent did not attract the attention of the German garrison of Norwich. German naval general Dunnitz stared deadly on the merchant fleet of the allies in the Atlantic. The bad news of German submarines sinking allied merchant ships continued to be heard, but the British convoy convoy guarded its fleet nervously. By the end of 1941, a total of 7 escorts slipped under the nose of the German occupation forces in Norway. A cargo ship was sunk by drift ice. A total of 750 tanks, 800 fighter jets, 1,400 trucks and 100,000 tons of munitions were transported by seven fleets, which provided great support to the Soviet Red Army fighting in Moscow and Leningrad. The long winter has arrived, which has brought great difficulties to the task of the convoy. The already arduous voyage has increased the danger. The Arctic region is brought to winter, and the sun is hard to reach the end of the earth. In the long dark night, only the North Star flashed a dim light in the sky, and the roaring winds caught the heavy snow, which made the entire Arctic Ocean sea area gray all day long. Sailors are really struggling on the death line on this dim course. In the spring of 1942, the long Arctic night finally came to an end. The glory of the sun was shining longer and longer in the Arctic Ocean. Melt into the clear water. The German naval forces in Norway finally discovered the British convoy in a routine patrol, and the Nazi German base camp was annoyed that the Soviet Union was constantly receiving war supplies from the Allies. Hitler was determined to cut off the Arctic maritime routes, instructing Dunnitz to transfer German submarines and heavy-duty pageant submarines operating in the North Atlantic to the Norwegian Gulf port, and was ordered to patrol the Arctic to intercept and destroy British convoys.

On January 2, 1942, three U-134, U-454, and U-584 German submarines searched for contingent convoys in the southern part of the Sea Bear Island in the Malentes. At noon, the U-134 submarine found the British cargo ship "Live Zlistan" belonging to the PQ-7A fleet. Just listening to the bang, the torpedo exploded in the "Live Zlistan". The fire gradually led to ammunition in the cargo compartment, causing a series of deafening explosions. The "Live Zlistan" disappeared in the Atlantic. This was the first victim of a British convoy, and the Arctic escort war kicked off. On January 17, the German submarine discovered another eight merchant ships in the PQ-8A fleet. During the exchange of fire, the merchant ship "Hamterith", which was escorted by the escort commander, was hit, and the British destroyer "Matabil" was sunk.

The news that the convoy was frustrated in the Arctic reached the United Kingdom. Admiral Tovi, commander of the British home fleet, immediately commissioned Admiral Maro to take the cruiser "Nigeria" to the Soviet port Murmansk, demanding the Soviet Red Army Northern Fleet He also served as a escort, and the PQ-9, PQ-10, and PQ-7 fleets arrived safely at their destinations under the escort of the Navy soldiers on both sides.
In early 1942, Hitler's intelligence agency learned that the Allied forces would capture Norway. This inaccurate information made Hitler fiercely strengthen the military forces in the Arctic Ocean. 3. Collect 21 submarines at the bases of Bergen and Trondheim, while mobilizing the heavy cruiser "Prince Eugen" and the pocket battleship "Admiral Sher"; The 20,000-ton Bismarck-class battleship, the Tirpitz, was also dispatched to Norway. In February, the German Fifth Air Force flew to Norway like a wasp. On the snowy Norwegian airport. Different types of German aircraft were parked, and on the surface of the Arctic Ocean floating from time to time, cruised different types of German ships. All this constitutes a great threat to the actions of the convoy.

On March 1, 1942, the fog was thick near the sea near Iceland, the capital port of Reykjavik was heavily guarded, and British soldiers with live ammunition blocked all passages through the port. In order to prevent German spies from spying on intelligence, the loading of military supplies was carried out under extremely confidential conditions; similarly, the days when the fleet set sail were kept secret. In this severe atmosphere, the PQ-12 fleet quietly anchored. On the same day, the QP-8 fleet returned from the port of Murmansk, USSR.