Thirty five set off, eleven arrived
Published: Fri, 02/07/14
I love books and I have got a lot of them. But I don't buy
books all that often, sometimes but usually books seem to find me
rather than me go looking for them. For example at Christmas I was
staying in a big house and there were a lot of books around.
Downstairs lots of reference books and contemporary novels. But on
the staircase to the attic another set of bookshelves with, well I
guess you would call it the nearly forgotten stuff. Lots of old
children's books, maps and travel guides and nautical books
which must have belonged to the man who originally bought the
house. He died a few years ago but apparently served in the royal
navy during world war two and always had an interest in the sea. I
was actually looking for a local map but I soon got sidetracked
onto the collection of old books on the next shelf up. I can never
say exactly why I end up with one particular book in a situation
like that. That is part of the mystery of how books find me.
There were plenty of volumes to choose from but I found myself
examining a hardback book still with its original blue dust jacket.
The title was simply "P.Q.17" and the subtitle is 'A
Story of a Ship'. The author was a journalist turned seaman by
the name of Godfrey Winn. From the inscription in the book it
seems to have been given as a Christmas present in 1947.
Godfrey Winn seems to have managed to get himself aboard Royal Navy
Ships while they actually saw active service. I think these days
we call writers and journalists in similar situations
'embedded'. This particular book was written in the first
part of 1946 and tells the story of a ship called the Pozarica and
her participation in the notorious P.Q.17. I have always had an
interest in World War Two and thought I was quite well up on the
history but this episode was new on me. The Russians and the
Americans both joined in the Second World War in late 1941 or early
1942, the Russians because of the German offensive launched in June
1941 and the Americans after Pearl Harbour in December 1941. The
Americans were supplying war materials to the Russians but the only
route was via the Barents Sea along the edge of the Arctic ice pack
and into the port of Archangel in Northern Russia. So the Royal
Navy was tasked with escorting these convoys from a rendezvous in
Hvalfjord in Iceland all the way to Northern Russia. Each convoy
had a P.Q. code name and P.Q.17 left Iceland on the 24th of June
and the Pozarica arrived on the 12th of July. The convoy started
with 35 merchant ships and 11 arrived at Archangel, the rest were
sunk by the Luftwaffe and the Uboat fleet. The reason for the
disaster was that the Admiralty ordered the convoy to scatter so
that the escorting ships could hunt down and engage the major
German Battleships which were believed to be in the area. The
unprotected merchant ships were then attacked, and in many cases
sunk by aircraft and submarines.
One of the reasons this episode is so little known is that all
discussion was censored in the UK for the rest of the way. In the
immediate aftermath of the conflict it was believed that people had
had enough war news and were more interested in the future than the
past. Godfrey Winn had made a promise to the crew of the Pozarica
that he would tell their story so, using his diaries and notes, he
wrote it up. Then 66 years later I find the story and read it. It
is a fascinating piece of reportage from someone who was right
there in the centre of the action.
This was going to be a lead in to another book from the 1940s I am
reading at the moment which has some fascinating ideas I want to
share with you. But that will have to wait. So nothing really
about Stav specifically but a reminder that life is full of
delightful surprises if you are open to finding them.
regards
Graham
PS If you are interested in reading more about P.Q.17 there is
quite a good entry on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PQ17
Godfrey Winn seems to be out of print these days although second
hand copies of his books, including this one are available on
Amazon.