The Russian and North Atlantic convoys
I asked my grandpa is he had any memories of my great-grandpa George Irvine who was in the Navy in World War Two. This is what he wrote:
"Your great-grandpa served as a Chief Signals Officer in the Royal Navy during the war, attached to North Atlantic and Russian Convoys.
After Germany invaded the Soviet Union on 22nd June 1941, the Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin, demanded help and Britain and its allies provided supplies. The most direct route was by sea, around northern Norway to the Soviet ports, principally Archangel and Murmansk.
Thirty-six convoys sailed outward and rather fewer homeward between August 1941 and December 1944. The problem of running convoys to Russia included every danger known to sailors. Geography and climate confined the convoys' tracks to a corridor defined by the Norwegian coastline and the edge of the Arctic ice. U-boats operated on the convoy routes, but to the U-boat menace were added those of German bombers based at Norwegian airfields and of Hitler's surface fleet of battleships, cruisers and destroyers anchored in the deepwater fjords to the North Cape. The convoys could -- and sometimes did -- find themselves under attack simultaneously from air, surface and underwater weapons.
Not even in the Mediterranean did that happen, and there the navies rarely had to regard the weather as an enemy.
This is the citation he received from the Russian Government, but he had to wait until 1991 before he received it. He never wore it because he didn't like wearing it.
On the North Russia run, the weather was a terrible enemy which killed in a few minutes, and your great-grandfather told that anyone immersed in the sea died in minutes. He also mentioned the constant threat to ships of heavy icing making the ships top-heavy, which made almost every voyage a misery of constant motion. The crew spent countless hours chipping at the ice with pick-axes just to keep the ship stable.
On other convoys crossing from New York, USA, and Halifax, Canada, to England, your great-grandfather was torpedoed and on two occasions had to abandon ship in mid-Atlantic, being picked up by another ship after a number of hours."
My great-grandfather's ship. He took this photo from his life raft in 1942. At the time, he was 23 years old. The ship sank soon after this picture was taken.
My Great-Grandpa George was given three days leave for the wedding and then had to go back to his ship. I know, that so short for a wedding and honeymoon!
Shared by Isaac McCloskey, their great-grandson
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