Convoy Dervish
Dervish was the official name of an Allied Arctic convoy that set out at the end of August 1941 to transport supplies for the Red Army from Iceland to Arkhangelsk through the Arctic Ocean. The convoy was the first allied northern sea convoy and was the only one to have a name, while all later convoys were given an alphanumeric identifier.
Line up and departure
Requirement
After the attack on the Soviet Union , the anti-Hitler coalition was formed , which decided to deliver war equipment and war material to the Soviet Union within the framework of the lending and leasing law. In the so-called Moscow Conference , the delivery of 200 aircraft by June 1942 was agreed in the first protocol. Although the Soviet representatives had requested modern Spitfire fighter planes , these planes were not available due to the losses from the Battle of Britain and so the British government decided to send planes of the somewhat older Hawker Hurricane model to the Soviet Union first. The first delivery was to be sent by ship to Soviet ports in the North Sea so that the aircraft could be deployed on site with British crews as part of "Operation Benedict". In particular, they should secure the port facilities against German air strikes from Finland in order to enable future convoy trains to unload safely.
Ground crew, some of the pilots, spare parts and 16 dismantled aircraft were to be transported with the "Dervish" convoy, 24 other aircraft were launched from the aircraft carrier HMS Argus on September 7th in the North Sea and flew independently to their new base in Waenga near Severomorsk.
composition
The escort ran from Liverpool on August 12, 1941, the escort consisted of the anti-aircraft ship Pozarica , the anti- submarine trawlers HMT St. Cathan and HMT Le Tigre and the mine -hunting trawlers HMT Celia , HMT Hamlet , HMT Ophelia and HMT Macbeth . The ships reached Scapa Flow on August 15 , where the destroyers HMS Electra , HMS Impulsive and HMS Active joined. The ships ran from there to Reykjavík and were accompanied by the light cruiser HMS Aurora until August 18 .
The core of the convoy was made up of six cargo ships under the command of Commodore JCK Dowding :
- Llanstephan Castle , British, 11,348 GRT
- Trehata , British, 4,817 GRT
- New Westminster City , British, 4,747 GRT
- Alchiba , Dutch, 4,427 GRT
- Esneh , British, 1,931 GRT
- Lancastrian Prince , British, 1,914 GRT
the fleet tanker RFA Aldersdale with 8,402 tons was added.
leak
The convoy left Hvalfjörður on August 21, 1941, protected by the local security from HMS Electra, HMS Active, HMS Impulsive, the mine sweepers HMS Halcyon , HMS Harrier , HMS Salamander of the Halcyon class , as well as the mine trawlers HMT Hamlet, HMT Macbeth and HMT Ophelia .
Remote security was up to 30 August with a combat group with the aircraft carrier HMS Victorious , the heavy cruisers HMS Devonshire and HMS Suffolk, and three destroyers.
Arrival of the convoy
The convoy "Dervish" was not discovered by the German reconnaissance and reached Arkhangelsk on August 31, 1941 without losses . The merchant ships delivered:
- 16 fighter aircraft type Hawker Hurricane
- 534 Royal Air Force soldiers (pilots and ground crew)
- 10,000 tons of rubber and tin
- 3,800 depth charges
Evidence and references
literature
- Richard Woodman : Arctic Convoys. 1941-1945. Pen & Sword Maritime, Barnsley 2007, ISBN 978-1-84415-611-5 .
- Richard Woodman: The allied convoy system 1939-1945. Its organization, defense and operation. Chatham Publishing, London 2000, ISBN 1-86176-147-3 .
- Harry C. Hutson: Arctic Interlude. Independent to North Russia (= Merriam Press. Monograph Series. 219). Merriam Press, Bennington, Vermont 1997, ISBN 1-57638-059-9 .
Web links
- Report on the celebrations - Dervish celebrations in Arkhangelsk ( Memento from August 31, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) from August 30, 2011 on ukinrussia.fco.gov.uk
- Convoy DERVISH on convoyweb.org.uk
Individual evidence
- ^ Richard Woodman: The allied convoy system 1939–1945. Its organization, defense and operation. P. 17.
- ↑ a b c Mark Sheppard: RAF Hurricanes in Russia , sighted June 1, 2012
- ↑ a b The first convoy of allies, "Dervish" to remember in St. Petersburg on bakutoday.net, viewed on June 2, 2012 ( memento of the original from February 6, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Roger Williams: Arctic Convoys of World War Two: 70 years since Britain went to the Soviet Union's aid. dated September 21, 2011 on telegraph.co.uk, viewed June 2, 2012
