Convoy PQ 18

Battle for Convoy PQ 18

Part of: Second World War

date	September 2 to September 21, 1942
place	North Sea and Barents Sea
output	controversial

Parties to the conflict
German Empire	United Kingdom and Commonwealth
Commander
Oskar Kummetz Karl Dönitz Hans-Jürgen Stumpff	Bruce Fraser Stuart Bonham Carter Robert Burnett
Troop strength
Combat group: 1 heavy cruiser 1 ironclad 1 light cruiser 5 destroyers 11th flotilla: 12 submarines Air fleet 5 : about 100 planes	* 39 merchant ships "Ocean Escort": 3 destroyers 4 corvettes 2 anti-aircraft ships 4 armed trawlers 3 minesweepers 2 submarines Carrier group: 1 escort aircraft carrier (13 planes) 2 destroyers "Fighting Escort": 1 light cruiser 16 destroyers "16. Cruiser Squadron ": 3 heavy cruisers 2 destroyers Heavy coverage group: 2 battleships 1 light cruiser 6 destroyers Submarines: 8 British 1 Norwegian 6 Soviet
losses
3 submarines 33 airplanes 225 dead and missing	13 merchant ships (75,657 GRT) 1 submarine (SU) 14 aircraft at least 170 dead 5 prisoners

PQ 18 was the name of an Allied Northern Sea convoy that transported supplies for the Red Army from Iceland and Scotland to Arkhangelsk through the Northern Sea in September 1942 . As a result of the heavy losses suffered by the previous escort, PQ 18 was heavily secured by numerous warships and was the first northern sea convoy to be accompanied by an aircraft carrier. Both the convoy and the attackers suffered considerable losses. PQ 18 was the last Allied convoy with a "PQ" identifier.

Planning and composition

Planning

After convoy PQ 17 , which was prematurely disbanded in July 1942 because of the possible threat from German surface ships and subsequently suffered heavy losses, there was initially a pause in the formation of convoys through the North Sea.

Although the British fleet had been strengthened by new battleships, a significant part of the British warships were assigned to Operation Pedestal from August 1942 and were not available to secure another Northern Sea convoy against a possible renewed threat from heavy German warships. Furthermore, they initially did not want to send a convoy through the Arctic Ocean as long as the arctic summer with its daylight would have allowed German air strikes from air force bases in Norway almost without a break.

Admiral John Tovey , as Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet, also responsible for the establishment and route planning of convoy trains, was under pressure from Prime Minister Churchill to resume escorting to the allied Soviet Union. Tovey, largely correctly informed about the composition of the German naval forces in Norway, decided that a large convoy with about 40 merchant ships was the best solution. This made it possible to provide a maximum number of security ships and supporting aircraft and submarines for use instead of distributing these resources over many small convoy groups. The security ships could also cover the returning convoy QP 14 , which was supposed to set sail at the moment PQ 18 reached its destination.

So far, the light security ships had always picked up the escort returning home near Bear Island , so that at that time they still had enough fuel to leave the danger zone before they had to refuel. That was no longer possible with the plan for PQ 18, so a refueling point had to be set up near Spitzbergen .

Formation and composition of the escort

Freighter Mary Luckenbach

Empire Baffin freighter

The convoy was to contain 40 merchant ships under the command of Commodore E. K. Boddam-Whetham (Rear Admiral dR), plus two fleet tankers , one regular tanker and a rescue ship.

The US freighter Beauregard had to turn back due to engine problems, so that 39 merchant ships remained:

Africander , Panamanian, 5,441 GRT Andre Marti , Soviet, 2,352 GRT * Atheltemplar , British, 8,892 GRT Black Ranger (3,417 GRT), tanker Campfire , American, 5,671 GRT Charles R. McCormick , American, 6,027 GRT Copeland , British, 1,526 GRT, rescue ship Dan-Y-Bryn , British, 5,117 GRT Empire Baffin , British, 6,978 GRT Empire Beaumont , British, 7,044 GRT	Empire Morn , British, 7,092 GRT, CAM ship Empire Snow , British, 6,327 GRT Empire Stevenson , British, 6,209 GRT Empire Tristram , British, 7.167 GRT Esek Hopkins , American, LS , 7,191 GRT Exford , American, 4,969 GRT * Goolistan , British, 5,851 GRT Gray Ranger , British, 3,313 GRT, tanker Hollywood , American, 5,498 GRT John Penn , American, 7,177 GRT	Kentucky , American, 5,446 GRT Komiles , Soviet, 3,962 GRT * Lafayette , American, 5,887 GRT Macbeth , Panamanian, 4,941 GRT Mary Luckenbach , American, 5,049 GRT Meanticut , American, 6,061 GRT Nathanael Greene , American, LS , 7,177 GRT Ocean Faith , British, 7,173 GRT Oliver Ellsworth , American, 7,191 GRT Oregonian , American, 4,862 GRT	Patrick Henry , American, 7,191 GRT Petrovsky , Soviet, 3,771 GRT * Sahale , American, 5,028 GRT Schoharie , American, 4,971 GRT St. Olaf , American, 7,191 GRT Stalingrad , Soviet, 3,559 GRT * Sukahona , Soviet, 3,124 GRT * Tibilisi , Soviet, 7,169 GRT * Temple Arch *, British, 5,138 GRT Virginia Dare , American, 7,176 GRT	Wacosta , American, 5,432 GRT White Clover , Panamanian, 5,462 GRT William Moultrie , American, LS , 7,177 GRT

Support measures

In addition to various fighter planes, the British had wanted to move other air forces to Russian air bases near Murmansk and Arkhangelsk. They consisted of nine Catalina flying boats of the “210. Squadron ”for long-range reconnaissance, four Spitfire photo reconnaissance vehicles and 32 Handley-Page-Hampden bombers of the 144th  RCAF and 455th  RAAF squadron for operations against German bases and ships in Norway. The permission to transfer the planes came so late from the Soviet side that in bad weather the planes had to take off from Sumburgh on the Shetland Islands on the evening of September 4th and fly over Norway. The association with the Hampden bombers suffered heavy losses. Six machines ran out of fuel as a result of navigation errors, one aircraft was mistakenly shot down by Soviet fighters, another by German fighters, and one machine fell victim to anti-aircraft fire from a German flak trawler near Vardø on September 5, 1942 . The crew of the machine, consisting of five Australians, was taken prisoner of war . In the wreck of the aircraft, German troops found documents about PQ 18 which, together with decoded Soviet radio messages, gave them information about the escort's schedule.

List and composition of the security forces

Protection of group one and group two freighters

The direct protection of the freighters, which sailed directly from Loch Ewe to Arkhangelsk, was ensured by the local security under Commander Russell from 7 to 21 September with the destroyers Malcolm , Achates and Amazon . There were also the anti-aircraft ships Alynbank and Ulster Queen , the corvettes Bergamot , Bryony , Bluebell and Camellia as well as four armed trawlers and the mine sweepers Harrier , Gleaner and Sharpshooter .

The freighters of the Reykjavík - Archangelsk group, which joined forces with the rest of the Loch Ewe escort, were accompanied by the destroyers Campbell , Eskdale , Farndale , Mackay , Montrose , Echo , Walpole and five armed trawlers until the merger . The group disbanded after the handover of the freighters to the main escort and three destroyers joined the remote security in Akureyri on Iceland with the heavy formation of Vice Admiral Bruce Fraser .

What was unusual was the addition of two submarines that were supposed to accompany them on the surface. The idea was that their discovery by German scouts should deter an enemy commander from using heavy surface ships. On September 8th, boats P614 and P615 joined the convoy for this purpose .

The escort aircraft carrier Avenger with its two destroyer escorts of the Hunt class , Wheatland and Wilton , joined the escort on September 9 and initially drove in the last row of the merchant ship formation. His main task was to use his twelve Sea Hurricane Mk.I fighters to push away German reconnaissance planes and to use his three Swordfish Mk II bombers to search for submarines that are moving over water at high speed outside the Tried to set sight of the ships in front of the convoy.

A fast group of heavy destroyers called "Fighting Escort" under Rear Admiral Robert Burnett was assigned to the association. This was a novelty that significantly enhanced the anti-aircraft and anti-submarine capabilities of the convoy. It consisted of the light cruiser Scylla and the 16 destroyers Ashanti , Eskimo , Faulknor , Fury , Impulsive , Intrepid , Marne , Martin , Meteor , Milne , Offa , Onslaught , Onslow , Opportune , Somali and Tartar . Shortly after the merger, these ships formed a defensive ring around the convoy and Burnett took over command of the entire operation from the Scylla .

Remote backup groups

The remote security for the first part of the voyage was the responsibility of a heavy unit of the Home Fleet under Vice Admiral Fraser with the battleships Anson and Duke of York , the light cruiser Jamaica and the destroyers Bramham , Broke , Campbell , Keppel , Mackay and Montrose . The association ran from Akureyri in Iceland on September 11th and cruised near the island of Jan Mayen in order to be able to intervene in the event of German ships running out. After the convoy had passed the site, there was no sign of the enemy ships leaving and British eavesdropping specialists in Bletchley Park deciphered the radio message from a German reconnaissance aircraft reporting the battleships to Jan Mayen, Vice Admiral Fraser saw his task as fulfilled. He had secured the escort and created the illusion of a heavy cover group for the rest of the enemy’s journey. So he took advantage of a bad weather zone to get away - undetected by German aircraft - and returned to Akureyri with his ships on the 14th. His heavy ships could not risk getting within range of the German warplanes.

Securing against possible attacks by surface ships for the second part of the voyage was the responsibility of a second cover group under Vice Admiral Stuart Bonham Carter . He commanded the heavy cruisers Norfolk , London and Suffolk and the destroyers HMS Bulldog and Venomous . His fleet crossed west of Svalbard and had taken the opportunity to supply the small Allied garrison near Barentsburg with supplies.

Refueling group and submarine reconnaissance group

The heavy cruiser Cumberland , the light cruiser Sheffield and the destroyers Eclipse , Windsor , Worcester , Cowdray and Oakley were kept in reserve near Spitsbergen in order to secure a point in the "Bellsundet" for refueling the escorts from the fleet tankers Oligarch and Blue Ranger .

A group of Allied submarines monitored the likely approach routes of possible German warships. They were located near Lofoten and off the Norwegian coast: the T-class boats Tribune , Tigris , the U-class boats Unique , Unrivaled , Unshaken and the Norwegian Uredd as well as the two S-class boats Shakespeare and Sturgeon were parked for this purpose .

In addition, the Soviet Navy was supposed to support PQ 18 by storing four destroyers as additional security for the last part of the voyage and also positioning submarines on interception positions in front of German bases in northern Norway for the duration of the escort. The submarines K-1 , K-2 , K-21 , Shch-422 and M-174 received corresponding orders, whereby K-2 probably got into the German mine lock "Sperre III" or "Karin" in front of the Tanafjord and on September 9 was destroyed. The entire crew of 68 sailors went down with the boat.

Formation and composition of the German forces

Surface combat group

After the knowledge gained, it was clear on the German side that the Allies would send another convoy to the Soviet Union. The majority of the heavy operational surface ships of the Kriegsmarine lay in Narvik , from where they could either be set off against the feared Allied invasion of Norway or against convoys. With the battleship Tirpitz and the armored ship Lützow , which were still being repaired, the following surface ships under the command of Oskar Kummetz were available for operations against the convoy:

Ironclad Admiral Scheer	Destroyer Z 4 Richard Beitzen
Heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper	Destroyer Z 16 Friedrich Eckholdt
Light cruiser Cologne	Destroyer Z 23
	Destroyer Z 27
	Destroyer Z 29
	Destroyer Z 30

In preparation for the attack, the heavy ships and two of the destroyers had to move to the Altafjord on September 10 , where they joined the other destroyers. The ironclad Admiral Scheer was attacked unsuccessfully by the British submarine HMS Tigris . However, since Admiral Scheer had serious machine problems and, according to German information, the British battleships were at sea, the risk of deploying against PQ 18 was assessed as too high and Grand Admiral Erich Raeder , who was not allowed to lose the valuable capital ships on Hitler's instructions, broke the company on the 13th for good.

Submarines

It remained the Navy only the 11th U-boat Flotilla of the submarine force under Commander Hans Cohausz that their base in Bergen had. Five of their submarines were already set up in the “Ice Palace” pack near Bear Island . Including them, 15 submarines and seven boats that were to be added to the Atlantic Fleet were set in motion against the escort. Only twelve of the submarines reached the area in time and came within range to attack PQ 18 or the returning QP 14 and were set up in three search strips:

1st group	2nd group	3rd group
U 88	U 377	U 703
U 403	U 408	U 378
U 405	U 589	U 435
-	U 592	U 457
-	-	U 456

They were combined with the group "Ice Palace".

The German "key network Triton" , within which the radio traffic of the German submarines was encrypted, could not be deciphered by the British until December 1942, so that they had no overview of the number of opposing boats that were operating against PQ 18 and wrongly assumed about 30 submarines.

Air fleet 5

Luftflotte 5 of the Luftwaffe was stationed in Norway under Colonel General Hans-Jürgen Stumpff . The combat squadrons 30 and 26 were available for use against convoy trains. They were equipped with the aircraft types Ju 88A and He 111 H6 , a total of 92 torpedo carriers . Coastal Aviation Groups 406 and 906 provided the bulk of the BV 138 reconnaissance aircraft and some older He 115 torpedo bombers . The Ju 88A could carry one air torpedo or bombs , the He 111 H6 two air torpedoes.

Reconnaissance and attack

Departure

Some of the ships of the PQ 18 initially sailed from Loch Ewe in Scotland to Iceland on September 2, 1942 . Near Iceland, the ships united on September 8 with eight other merchant ships and security units that had sailed from Hvalfjörður near Reykjavík on September 7, 1942 .

Approach

On September 2, the Avenger lost its first fighter plane when one of its Hurricanes was washed overboard from the flight deck in heavy seas en route to Iceland.

Long-range reconnaissance aircraft, which searched the route of the convoy for submarines, discovered the boat U 456 on the surface of the water on September 5 , 38 nautical miles from the convoy . The convoy hooked to bypass the boat; a scheduled destroyer attack failed and U 456 was able to escape submerged because the underwater locating devices of the attacking destroyer did not work accurately enough in heavy seas to be able to track the boat. U 456 set off at a high speed to the north and joined one of the German submarine groups that were lying in wait on the course of the convoy.

During the night from 5th to 6th, the carrier Avenger drifted for three hours until the mechanics had repaired a damaged machine.

discovery

On September 14, 1942, a water fountain was thrown up next to the destroyer Wheatland , while the Eskimo can be seen in the foreground.

On September 8, the convoy was discovered by a German Fw-200 long-range reconnaissance aircraft. The German submarines were alerted and tried to approach the convoy.

Around noon on September 11th, Admiral Burnett left the escort with the Scylla and five destroyers to refuel at Spitsbergen.

On September 12, the destroyer Faulknor put the boat U 88 six nautical miles south of the escort and sank it with depth charges . The entire crew, 46 seamen, were killed. The convoy was now almost continuously shadowed by BV-138 long-range reconnaissance personnel, who escaped the attacks by the carrier's fighters several times by diving into the clouds.

On the morning of September 13, shortly before 9 a.m. local time, two submarines attacked and hit the freighters Oliver Ellsworth and Stalingrad with torpedoes . The explosives-laden Stalingrad sank within four minutes and the heavily damaged Oliver Ellsworth with her cargo of ammunition and aircraft was sunk by HMS Harrier after the crew had been removed  . A sailor from Oliver Ellsworth and 21 sailors and passengers from Stalingrad were killed.

Burnett returned to escort on the cruiser Scylla on the morning of the 13th, but was already sighting German Ju-88 fighter planes.

Main attack

A BV-138 maritime reconnaissance aircraft directed bombers and torpedo bombers of Kampfgeschwader 30 and 26 from their airfields Bardufoss and Banak in Norway to the target. At 3 p.m. on September 13, Ju-88-A-4 and He-111-H6 fighter jets attacked the convoy. Initially, 20 Ju 88s of the KG 30 attacked with bombs, scored no hits, but attracted all Avenger's fighters because they were flying high and were recognized early by the radar of the security ships.

44 torpedo bombers of I./KG 26 under Werner Klümper and III./KG 26 under Klaus Nocken flew just above the waves and were only detected by the radar shortly before the line of vision was exceeded. They united their groups shortly before the escort and attacked, now unmolested by the hunting protection, from the starboard side in a single closed formation.

Commodore Boddam-Whetham wrote in his notes on the formation of the torpedo planes:

“[…] The latter really did give me cold feet I must say and I thought we'd lose far more. They looked to me like a huge flight of nightmare locusts coming over the horizon. "

"[...] I have to admit that I actually got cold feet with the latter and I thought we were going to lose a lot more. To me they looked like a huge swarm of nightmarish grasshoppers pushing their way over the horizon. "

A He 111 H6 drops one of two air torpedoes; the second torpedo can be seen under the aircraft's left wing.

On September 14, 1942, seafarers observed the explosive cloud from the deck of the carrier Avenger , which marked the position at which the Mary Luckenbach exploded shortly before .

They dropped their torpedoes at the same time around 1000 meters in front of the convoy, flew over the convoy at a low altitude and withdrew. The torpedo attack was ended with minor losses to the attackers of four He 111s of I./KG 26 and one Ju 88 of III./KG 26.

A previously agreed signal from the flagship ordering the ships to change course to avoid the approaching torpedoes was not followed by the crews of all merchant ships, leaving the freighters Empire Stevenson , Empire Beaumont , Wacosta , Oregonian , Africander , Sukahona , Macbeth and John Penn were hit and lost. The entire outer starboard column of the formation was thus sunk, as was the majority of the second column. Only the Empire Stevenson exploded and sank quickly, while the rest of the ships hit slowly sank or even had to be sunk by security ships. The Wacosta was reportedly hit by a torpedo triggered too late, which hit the ship from above and exploded in the hold.

The survivors were picked up by the smaller security ships and transferred to the rescue ship Copeland .

Another attack on the 13th was carried out by a small group of the He-115 slow torpedo bombers. They were forced by strong defensive fire to release their weapons too early and did not score any hits. As the machines retreated, they were pursued by Avenger hurricanes , one of which the torpedo bombers shot down. Your pilot was killed.

At 3 o'clock on the morning of the 14th, U 457 and U 408 broke the escorts' locking ring and one of the boats hit the largest ship in the escort, the tanker Atheltemplar , with a torpedo. Since the engine room was full, the ship had to be abandoned. Three sailors died from their injuries while at sea. On the same day, the destroyer HMS Onslow sank the German U 589 in cooperation with a Swordfish aircraft of the HMS Avenger . 44 sailors died.

In the meantime, British reconnaissance planes had determined that the German battleship Tirpitz was no longer in Narvik. She had only made a short test drive to test her newly refurbished power supply, but since the British were unaware of it, the remnants of the Hampden torpedo bomber squadrons were dispatched to track them down.

At around 2 p.m., the I./KG 26 launched another air raid with the 22 aircraft of the group that were still operational and that actually had the HMS Avenger as its main target. The torpedo bomber formation was attacked by hurricane fighters in preparation for the attack and a coordinated attack was no longer possible.In order to still carry out their command, the He-111 bombers had to search for the carrier in the anti-aircraft fire of the escort, which led to numerous failures . Only the squad leader and his wingman finally dropped their four torpedoes in the direction of the Avenger , but without hitting.

Another He 111 of the group, however, hit the Hog Islander freighter Mary Luckenbach loaded with 1000 tons of TNT . The ship exploded and 64 crew members were killed. One man was thrown overboard and survived. The neighboring freighter Nathanael Greene was hit by numerous debris from the explosion and a sailor went overboard. Four planes were shot down, another had to make an emergency landing.

On September 16, the destroyer Impulsive stopped the boat U 457 and sank it. None of the 45-man crew survived the sinking of the boat.

From the 17th, four Soviet destroyers supported the escort ships and accompanied the escort to Arkhangelsk.

As the last ship of the escort, the Kentucky was lost when she was hit by a torpedo in an air raid on the 18th. The crew disembarked after the first hit, the Sharpshooter minesweeper was parked in order to examine the apparently only slightly damaged ship, on which only a few fires seemed to be smoldering, for a possible salvage. Tugs were called for rescue, but the freighter exploded before they arrived. This last attack was carried out by numerous German aircraft, but the mass of the torpedoes did not hit or their ignition failed on impact.

Arrivals

The convoy reached Arkhangelsk on September 21, 1942, the unloading dragged on until October 20, 1942.

150,000 tons of cargo were delivered, as well as medical goods and explosives, over 270 aircraft and 320  tanks .

Losses and valuation

Allied losses

13 merchant ships were sunk. In addition to raw materials, food, explosives and vehicles, around 40 tanks and 78 aircraft were lost with them.

A Soviet submarine with 68 sailors on board was lost from the supporting units. Of the aircraft used, four hurricane fighters were lost in use and one was washed overboard. One pilot died.

Of nine Hampden bombers lost, three were lost over Soviet territory, with one crew member dying. The remaining six fell over Norway or Sweden. A total of 14 RAAF and RCAF crew members of the nine aircraft died, at least four were captured and two temporarily interned in neutral Sweden .

German losses

On the German side, three submarines with a total of 135 sailors were lost.

Combat Squadrons 26 (Groups I and III) and 30 of the Luftwaffe suffered heavy losses, with the determination of the exact losses depending on the method of counting. The British claimed the destruction of 41 aircraft. The number of aircraft shot down is significantly smaller, however, other machines were destroyed by crash landings or accidents.

A total of 86 aircraft losses of various kinds were reported for the German Air Force between November 2nd and 21st for all flight bases in the Scandinavian region. A significant part of this is accounted for by combat operations with Soviet air and ground units in the Murmansk area and over Finland, as well as air accidents. If the count is limited to the recorded failures of the aircraft types whose serial numbers are known and whose units that were used against PQ 18 as well as reconnaissance and rescue aircraft, the following remains:

13.september:	September 14th:	September 18:	September 20th:
2 × Ju 88 A-4 * (III./KG 26)	4 × Ju 88 A-4 * (III./ KG 26)	2 × Ju 88 A-4 * (III./ KG 26)	2 × Ju 88 A-4 (I./KG 30)
4 × He 111 H6 (I./KG 26)	2 × Ju 88 A-4 (III./ KG 30)	1 × Ju 88 A-4 (5th / KG 30)
1 × He 115 B (1./906)	9 × He 111 H6 (I. / KG 26)	1 × He 111 H6 (I. / KG 26)
	4 × He 115 B (1./406 and 1/906)
	1 × He 115 C (1./906)

Thus 33 machines were lost, including 23 torpedo bombers of the types He 111 H6, Ju 88 A-4 * (mod. "A-17" of III./KG 26) and He 115 C. Lost from September 2nd to 11th the Kampfgeschwader 40 from Trondheim four of its FW-200 long distance sea reconnaissance aircraft. If you factor them in, 37 machines were destroyed and 90 crew members died or were considered missing.

rating

On the Allied side, PQ 18 was viewed as a success. On the one hand, 27 fully loaded ships were brought into the port of destination, landing more cargo than all the convoys of 1941 had delivered together and, on the other hand, the enemy suffered heavy losses of aircraft and submarines according to their own assessment. PQ 18 was to remain the last convoy on the Northern Sea route for a long time (until the end of December 1942), as the planned Operation Torch limited the number of escort ships available.

The losses of the Luftwaffe are largely attributed to Hermann Göring and Colonel General Hans-Jürgen Stumpff, with Stumpff's reports confirming the erroneous assessment that the previous convoy PQ 17 had been forced to disband by air strikes, which was not the case. So, when Göring became aware of PQ 18 with the prestigious target HMS Avenger , demanded the most massive air strikes in order to repeat the success, whereby the possibilities of the torpedo bombers were grossly overestimated. It was the last major operation of the Luftwaffe against a Northern Sea escort. The KG 26 was withdrawn from Norway the following month to combat Operation Torch.

Evidence and references

Remarks

1. ↑ Blair counts 22 boats in Hitler's U-Boat War: The Hunted 1942-45 , since the boats set against QP 14 were included.
2. ↑ Blair attributes the sinking of U 589 to the Faulknor in Hitler's U-Boat War: The Hunted 1942-45 and that of U 88 to the Onslow , while the other documents report it the other way round.
3. ↑ The ships were named after Mark Llewellyn Evans: Great World War II Battles in the Arctic. P. 87, loaded with 4,400 vehicles, 835 tanks, 566 aircraft, 11,000 tons of various explosives and 157,000 tons of other goods - but in particular the numbers of tanks and aircraft cannot be reconciled in any way with the significantly lower numbers of the other documents.

literature

• Peter C. Smith: Convoy to Russia. The history of the convoy PQ 18. Motorbuch Verlag, 1995, ISBN 3-87943-705-X
• Mark Llewellyn Evans: Great World War II Battles in the Arctic. Greenwood Pub Group, 1999, ISBN 0-313-30892-6
• Clay Blair : Hitler's U-Boat War: The Hunted 1942-45. Modern Library, 2000, ISBN 978-0-679-64033-2
• Niklas Zetterling, Michael Tamelander: Tirpitz: The Life and Death of Germany's Last Super Battleship. Casemate Publishing, 2009, ISBN 978-1-935149-18-7
• Winston Churchill: The Second World War: Volumes 1-6. Cassell, 1948.

Web links

• Defense of convoy PQ-18 on naval-history.net (English)
• PQ-18 on uboat.net (English)
• PQ-18 on convoyweb.org (English)
• Sea War in September 1942 on wlb-stuttgart.de (German)
• PQ 18 on halcyon-class.co.uk

Individual evidence

1. ^ Roskill: Royal Navy. P. 208.
2. ^ Roskill: Royal Navy. P. 209.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Royal Air Force 1939–1945 Chapter IV at ibiblio.org, viewed June 21, 2012
4. ↑ ^{a b} Movements of the "Duke of York" on naval-history.net, viewed on June 20, 2012
5. ↑ ^{a b} Seasons 144 and 455 on ktsorens.tihlde.org, viewed on June 21, 2012
6. ↑ ^{a b c} Clai Blair: Hitler's U-Boat War: The Hunted 1942-45. Paragraph: "The Arctic: Convoys PQ 18 and QP 14".
7. ↑ Winston Churchill The Second World War - The Hinge Of Fait. Houghton Mifflin, 1950, p. 508.
8. ↑ ^{a b c} List on wlb-stuttgart.de, viewed on June 21, 2012
9. ↑ K-2 on deepstorm.ru, viewed June 28, 2012
10. ^ Mark Llewellyn Evans: Great World War II Battles in the Arctic. P. 94.
11. ↑ Seefliegerverband on wlb-stuttgart.de, viewed on June 19, 2012
12. ↑ U 88 on uboat.net, viewed on June 12, 2012
13. ↑ ^{a b} PQ 18 at halcyon-class.co.uk, viewed on June 16, 2012
14. ↑ Oliver Ellsworth at uboat.net, viewed June 16, 2012
15. ↑ Stalingrad at uboat.net, viewed on June 16, 2012
16. ↑ Niklas Zetterling, Michael Tamelander: Tirpitz: The Life and Death of Germany's Last Super Battleship. P. 156.
17. ↑ after Peter C. Smith: Arctic Victory: Story of Convoy PQ18. P. 75.
18. ↑ ^{a b} PQ 18 on ibiblio.org, viewed on June 20, 2012
19. ↑ The number of kills that the anti-aircraft riflemen claimed for themselves on various ships exceeded the total number of German aircraft involved in the attack on September 13th.
20. ↑ Atheltemplar at uboat.net, viewed on June 16, 2012
21. ↑ U 589 at uboat.net, viewed on June 16, 2012
22. ↑ Niklas Zetterling, Michael Tamelander: Tirpitz: The Life and Death of Germany's Last Super Battleship. P. 157.
23. ^ ^{A b} Niklas Zetterling, Michael Tamelander: Tirpitz: The Life and Death of Germany's Last Super Battleship. P. 159.
24. ↑ Nathanael Greene on uboat.net, viewed on June 18, 2012
25. ↑ U457 at uboat.net, viewed on June 16, 2012
26. ↑ Geleizugsystem on rusemb.org.uk, viewed on July 1, 2012
27. ↑ Winston Churchill: The Second World War: Volume 1-6.
28. ^ Walter Scott Dunn: The Soviet Economy and the Red Army, 1930-1945. Greenwood Press, 1995, ISBN 0-275-94893-5 , p. 70 - total losses PQ 17 and 18 minus individual losses PQ 17.
29. ↑ ^{a b} Roskill: Royal Navy. P. 210.
30. ↑ Losses of the Air Force in Norway on luftwaffe.no, viewed on June 28, 2012 ( memento of the original from May 20, 2012 on WebCite ) 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. 
31. ↑ Internet presence of the Russian Embassy in South Africa , viewed on July 1, 2012 ( Memento of the original from May 14, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
32. ^ Cajus Bekker : The Luftwaffe War Diaries: The German Air Force in World War II. Da Capo Press, 1994, ISBN 0-306-80604-5 , p. 274.