80th Anniversary of the First Arctic Convoy

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 20 August 2021

⏱️ 27 minutes

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Summary

As the Soviet Union reeled from the shock of the German invasion in 1941 it asked for aid from Britain and its allies and the arctic convoys was a key part of the response. Desperate to keep the Soviets in the war and fighting the Nazi war machine Winston Churchill agreed to deliver massive amounts of material aid. Massive naval and merchant fleet operations carried material through the frigid waters north of Norway from Britain to Murmansk. This was an extremely perilous journey though and one that Churchill described as “the worst in the world”. The weather was frequently abysmal with ships covered in ice or totally exposed by the midnight sun, the Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine had almost constant access to the convoy route and some of Germany's most powerful surface units, as well as submarines, lay in wait for the convoys. But, despite the difficulties and setbacks, the bravery of the merchantmen and their naval counterparts enabled many millions of tonnes of vital war supplies to be delivered to the Soviet Union and help keep its war effort alive. Dan is joined by Nick Hewitt, Head of Collections and Research at The National Museum of the Royal Navy, to remember the vital work of the Arctic Convoys.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everybody, welcome to Dan Snow's history. Just earlier this month was the 80th anniversary
0:05.9	of the first Arctic convoy. First convoy that left British ports headed up over the
0:12.2	top of Norway into the Arctic to keep the Soviet war effort supplied as their armies
0:18.0	fell back, reeling a further German onslaught in the summer and autumn of 1941.
0:25.2	This was Winston Churchill's response to Soviet pleas for assistance. Stalin had a pretty
0:31.3	extensive shopping list when Churchill approached him after Operation Barbarossa began.
0:36.4	Stalin had the British might be able to open a second front, the British would be able
0:39.5	to send troops to the Soviet Union. Or mountains and supplies. Well, this was Churchill's
0:46.2	first offer, this convoy carrying vital war material to help the Soviet war engine rebuild
0:52.2	itself and eventually drive back the Germans. The Arctic convoys were described as Churchill
0:58.4	as the worst journey on earth. Dark, freezing cold, terrible weather, in near constant
1:05.0	range of German submarines and aircraft based in Norwegian bases and ports and in the winter
1:11.5	months that journey had to be completed in almost total darkness. It could be terrifying
1:17.5	and thankless. For the anniversary of the Arctic convoys we've got a documentary going
1:21.6	out in HistoryHit.tv. It's our digital history channel. It's like Netflix, but just for
1:27.1	history documentaries. No messing around with other stuff. We want to watch other stuff.
1:31.2	Someone came up to me on the street that day and they said how much they love watching
1:34.6	HistoryHit.tv but their partner was less happy because their partner was not a history
1:39.8	fan. I said, your partner will be after a few more months of exposure of brainwashing.
1:45.0	They would join the revolution as well. Anyway, if you're a history fan, you need to get
1:49.0	to HistoryHit.tv. You can watch the Arctic convoys documentary. You can watch any of
1:53.7	that other hundreds of documentaries we've got on there stretching all the way back to
	...

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