Representatives from the UK, United States, Canada and Russia in St Nicholas’ Parish Church to nearly 3,000 sailors who their lives to vital aid to the Soviet Union between 1941 and 1945.
They the gauntlet of Nazi sea and air power and horrendous weather conditions – snow, ice, sub-zero temperatures, weeks of perpetual darkness in winter and little hope of rescue if they went in the water – to the ports of Murmansk and Archangel.
The mission – which began on August 12 1941 with the first convoy, Operation Dervish, from the Mersey – was ‘the worst journey in the world’ by Winston Churchill.
The heavily-guarded Dervish convoy reached northern Russia without incident – it the Germans by surprise and they no efforts to attack it.
But they did attack many of the subsequent 77 convoys which within range of U-boats and German bombers based in occupied Norway.
Sixteen Royal Navy warships were lost and 1,944 Senior Service personnel were killed, while 85 of the 1,400 merchant ships which part in the Arctic runs were , a loss rate 17 times higher than in the Atlantic campaign. More than 800 merchant sailors died.
Their sacrifice was not in vain. Over four years, they delivered four million tonnes of supplies to the Soviet war effort – about one quarter of the total aid they provided to the USSR between 1941 and 1945.
The 7,000 aircraft and 5,000 tanks, plus trucks, cars, fuel, medicines, metals and other raw materials helped the Soviets to the Germans on the Eastern Front.
