Convoy PQ 18

[Pelican]

One of the most important convoys of WWII remembered during operations in the Barents Sea

During a patrol of the Arctic, Royal Navy sailors paid tribute to those lost during one of the most important convoys of the Second World War.
Plymouth-based frigate HMS Northumberland joined tanker RFA Tiderace and Norwegian frigate HNoMS Thor Heyerdahl in the Barents Sea.

It is a high north patrol which the Royal Navy carries out fairly regularly, with HMS Lancaster and HMS Kent ranging similarly far north in recent times.

Northumberland is no stranger to Arctic waters, either, having taken part in the region’s largest military exercises for some 30 years, known as Cold Response 22, in March.

During a brief pause in operations, the task group held a memorial service to mark the 80th anniversary of the PQ18 Arctic Convoy – a perilous voyage made in September 1942 from Loch Ewe in Scotland to Archangel in the northern Soviet Union.

One in three of the 40 ships were lost as the convoy came under intense attack by the Nazis from above and below the waves as they attempted to deliver vital supplies for the Soviet war effort on the Eastern Front.
Continues at - https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-and-l ... arents-sea