WHAT’S THE STORY?

A MEMORIAL event will be held in Scotland on May 16 to mark the service of the brave sailors of the Royal Navy and Merchant Navy who took part in the Arctic Convoys to supply the Soviet Union with material to fight Hitler’s Nazis during the Second World War.

The event, at Loch Ewe in Wester Ross, will mark the 75th anniversary of the final maritime missions to supply Russia with food and weapons. The loch is where a great many of the Allied ships gathered to sail into the frozen seas.

There were 78 such convoys in all, with some leaving from the USA and Iceland, although the majority set off from Scotland. More than 3000 men lost their lives on the 85 merchant ships and 16 Royal Navy warships that were sunk.

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WHO IS ORGANISING THE MEMORIAL?

THE Russian Arctic Convoy Project, based at Aultbea on Loch Ewe is trying to contact surviving veterans and their families for the event. John Casson is one of the chief organisers. He said: “We aim to contact as many veterans or their families as possible and hope they will be able to attend.”

Veterans or their families wishing to attend can contact Casson at johncasson@johncasson.com

WHAT WAS SCOTLAND’S ROLE IN THESE CONVOYS?

AFTER Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Winston Churchill and US president Franklin D. Roosevelt promised Stalin help and support, even though Britain, in particular, could ill-afford it.

After 1942, the convoys all left from Loch Ewe after gathering in the Firth of Clyde and heading north.

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By 1945, the convoys had transported four million tons of supplies and munitions on a route north of Norway to Murmansk and Archangel which Churchill described as “the worst journey in the world”.

The bravery of the men who served on the convoys was not recognised with a medal until almost 70 years later when they were awarded the Arctic Star. Russia has also recognised the sailors’ service with a medal.

HAVE WE ANY PERSONAL TESTIMONY AS TO WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO SERVE ON THE CONVOYS?

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YOU could do a lot worse than read Alistair MacLean’s debut novel HMS Ulysses. The man who wrote the Guns of Navarone, Where Eagles Dare and Fear is the Key, among others, depicts the horrors of the Arctic Convoys in unforgettable fashion and no wonder, as he served in them.

For a more recent and personal account, you can turn to the late, great footballer and manager Eddie Turnbull. He was a member of Hibernian’s Famous Five and manager of both Aberdeen and Hibernian, where his Turnbull’s Tornadoes are fondly remembered.

In his memoirs, Having A Ball, Turnbull recalls his days as an Able Seaman on the destroyer HMS Bulldog. He writes: “We sailors were only too aware of the casualty rate. I would soon learn the feeling in the pit of my stomach that every sailor got – when you left Greenock, you wondered if you would make it to Murmansk, and when you left Murmansk you wondered if you would make it to Greenock.

The National: Eddie Turnball, the late footballer and manager, said leaving on the voyages left him "with a pit in his stomach" and wondering if he would make it back aliveEddie Turnball, the late footballer and manager, said leaving on the voyages left him "with a pit in his stomach" and wondering if he would make it back alive

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“Every voyage was fraught with danger. You lived in the constant knowledge that underneath you could be men in submarines trying to kill you, and every sight of an airplane might be your last. But there was another killer – the cold.

“My first experience of the sheer cold we would experience on the convoys is something I will never forget.

It hit home to me just how cold life aboard ship would be when I found I was unable to get warm even deep within the ship.

“We would be wearing sheepskins, duffel coats, sou’westers, gloves and sea boots but even in a supposedly warm hammock we would still be freezing, our lips chattering with the chill as we tried to sleep.

“Norway was filled with the occupying German forces and their air force seemed determined to attack us on a regular basis. They had dive bombers and torpedo bombers, and even when the Luftwaffe let up, there was the constant threat of the U-boats lurking silently below us.

“We really were under the cosh round the clock. Every single person on the ship had to be alert to the dangers that were all around us. Every individual member of the crew had his part to play when the ship went into action or came under fire, and you knew that not only might your life depend on the man next to you, his might equally depend on you.

“There were several occasions on Bulldog and on later ships when I thought we were done for. The worst were when we were attacked by torpedo bombers coming out from Norway. You could see them approaching and dropping their weapon, and sometimes you would see the track of the torpedo heading for the ship.

“All you could do was watch and wait and hope that the captain was taking the correct evasive action. Thankfully he did. One direct hit and we would have been killed outright or thrown into the sea, and I’m sure none of us would have survived.

“As a torpedo loader, I got the chance to fire a few ‘tin fish’ back at the enemy over the years, and I can still recall the ‘whoosh’ that they made as they left the tube and headed into the distance. I don’t think any of my torpedoes hit anything but at least we fired back!

“On the side of the ship were scrambling nets. We diverted to try and pick up survivors, but the men who grabbed the scrambling nets were doomed in any case, as their fingers froze to the nets and they became trapped on the side of the ship until it was too late.

“But more than anything I remember the cold. Later in life when I worked at Aberdeen FC, visiting teams and their supporters would moan about the cold wind blasting off the North Sea into Pittodrie Stadium. I would just shake my head – they had no idea what cold really was.”