Convoy Catastrophe The Destruction of PQ-17 to North Russia in July, 1942 by Lt. Commander Harold J. McCormick, USNR (Ret)
The battle for effective command of sea catastrophic loss of shipping occurred communications, on which Allied vic- within sight of bathing beaches from tory depended in World War II, was far Florida to New Jersey. At the other end of the Atlantic from resolved in mid-1942. The lightning strike of American carrier-borne artery, the ships of PQ-17 were bound dive bombers at Midway on June 6 had north around Norway to the Arctic sunk four Japanese fleet carriers (re- RussianportofMurmanskinJuly 1942, sulting in the loss of all their aircraft laden with supplies for Soviet armies and crews), shattering Japan 's oceanic fighting to turn back the German invaoffensive capability. This mid-ocean sion of their country launched a year battle took place a month after the Battle before. Two thirds of these ships never of the Coral Sea, where the Japanese made it. Here, fifty years later, NMHS memonslaught had been slowed for the first time since Pearl Harbor, in the turning ber Hal McCormick looks back on this back of an invasion destined for south- scene with his wartime enemy, Captain ern New Guinea. A long, hard road lay Jurgen Oesten, who commanded the ahead, but after these battles the tide of German U-boats involved. PS war had turned in the Pacific. Not so in the Atlantic, the most important theater ofthe war. The survival Fifty years ago this summer, on June 27, of both Britain and Russia, and the 1942, Allied Convoy PQ-17, consisting preservation of the coalition that fi- of 35 merchant ships, mosti y American, nally crushed Nazi Germany in 1945, escorted by British and US naval vessels, depended absolutely on the vital North sailed from Hvalfjord, Iceland, on a voyAtlantic convoys of ships laden with age to deliver military materiel to the everything from food and fuel for Al- Russian armies through the northern ports lied forces, to American troops, tanks of Murmansk and Archangel. It was desand aircraft to swing the balance ofthe tined to be the most ill -fated maritime battle ashore. The first six months of undertaking of WWII, the Allies losing 1942 brought a heavy setback through 24 merchant vessels to attacks by Gerthe net loss ofsome three million tons of man U-boats and Luftwaffe planes. I became interested in this catastrophic Allied shipping (that is, losses in excess of replacements through new build- story through a friendship formed many ing)-a deficit it would take over a year years later with Kriegsmarine Comto make up. Due to lack ofUS prepared- mander Jurgen Oesten, a veteran Gerness for the war, much of this near- man U-boat captain who, after holding
two successful commands (U-61 and U106), was named to direct a flotilla ofUboats based in Norway, and who oversaw the U-boat action against PQ-17. I became acquainted with Commander Oesten in 1980 while researching the torpedoing and sinking of the Liberty ship William Gaston, on which I served as US Naval gunnery officer. I learned that our adversary had been U-861, commanded by Oesten. For the past twelve years Oesten and I have been in periodic communication and have exchanged visits to each other's homes. In a 1991 letter, Oesten wrote me about his role in the attack on PQ-17: Regarding your intention to write something about the convoy PQ 17, I would like to answer your questions. I was in charge of submarine operations in these northern waters from March 1942 until July 1943 belonging to the staffofthe so-called Admiral Nordmeer. We were working and livingfirst aboard the ÂŁ-boat mothership Tanga in Kirkenes (northern Norway), later on board the yacht Grille in Narvik. Both these ships had good wireless stations and sufficient accommodations for staff. Grille was designed to be Hitler' s yacht and I had, for about a year, the cabin of Minister von Ribbentrop of Foreign Affairs. About 15 to 20 submarines were at my disposal for operations against the PQ and QP convoys. They had their flotillas and shipyardfacilities in Bergen
A merchant ship in convoy, weathering heavy North Atlantic seas.
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SEA HISTORY 62, SUMMER 1992