Arctic naval operations of World War II

The Arctic Circle defining the "midnight sun" encompasses the Atlantic Ocean from the northern edge of Iceland to the Bering Strait. The area is often considered part of the Battle of the Atlantic or the European Theatre of World War II. Pre-war navigation focused on fishing and the international ore trade from Narvik and Petsamo. Soviet settlements along the coast and rivers of the Barents Sea and Kara Sea relied upon summer coastal shipping for supplies from railheads at Arkhangelsk and Murmansk. The Soviet Union extended the Northern Sea Route past the Taymyr Peninsula to the Bering Strait in 1935.[1]

Map of the area of greatest naval activity.

The Winter War opened the northern flank of the eastern front of World War II. Arctic[2] naval presence was initially dominated by the Soviet Northern Fleet of a few destroyers with larger numbers of submarines, minesweepers, and torpedo cutters supported by icebreakers. The success of the German invasion of Norway provided the Kriegsmarine with naval bases from which capital ships might challenge units of the Royal Navy Home Fleet. Luftwaffe anti-shipping aircraft of Kampfgeschwader 26 (KG 26) and Kampfgeschwader 30 (KG 30) operated intermittently from Norwegian airfields, while routine reconnaissance was undertaken by Küstenfliegergruppen aircraft including Heinkel He 115s and Blohm & Voss BV 138s.[3] To support the Soviet Union against the German invasion, the Allies initiated a series of PQ and JW convoys bringing military supplies to the Soviet Union in formations of freighters screened by destroyers, corvettes and minesweepers. Escorting cruisers typically maneuvered outside the formation, while a larger covering force including battleships and aircraft carriers often steamed nearby to engage Kriegsmarine capital ships or raid their Norwegian bases.

The Soviet Union and Germany employed smaller coastal convoys to maintain the flow of supplies to the Soviet arctic coast, transport strategic metal ores to Germany, and sustain troops on both sides of the northern flank of the eastern front. Soviet convoys hugged the coast to avoid ice while German convoys used fjords to evade Royal Navy patrols. Both sides devoted continuing efforts to minelaying and minesweeping of these shallow, confined routes vulnerable to mine warfare and submarine ambushes. German convoys were typically screened by minesweepers and submarine chasers while Soviet convoys were often protected by minesweeping trawlers and torpedo cutters. A branch of the Pacific Route began carrying Lend-Lease goods through the Bering Strait to the Soviet Arctic coast in June, 1942. The number of westbound cargo ship voyages along this route was 23 in 1942, 32 in 1943, 34 in 1944, and 31 after Germany surrendered in 1945. Total westbound tonnage through the Bering Strait was 452,393 in comparison to 3,964,231 tons of North American wartime goods sent across the Atlantic to Soviet Arctic ports.[4] A large portion of the Arctic route tonnage was fuel for Siberian airfields on the Alaska-Siberia air route.[5]

1939

Soviet Northern Fleet destroyer Grozny.

Invasion of Norway

Destroyers Diether von Roeder and Wolfgang Zenker landing troops at Narvik.
HMS Warspite supporting Allied troops at Narvik.
Burning fish oil tanks on Lofoten viewed from HMS Legion during Operation Claymore.
Soviet Northern Fleet submarine K-21.

Invasion of the Soviet Union

PQ convoys

Tirpitz waiting in Norway for another Allied convoy.
HMS Edinburgh during the battle for convoy QP 11.
HMS King George V with bow damage from collision with HMS Punjabi.
KG 26 He 111 torpedo planes attacked convoys PQ 15, 16 and 17.
U-255, painted white for arctic camouflage, returning to base after attacking convoy PQ 17.
Convoy PQ 18 under attack by KG 30.
Baku crossed the Arctic Ocean to reinforce the Soviet Northern Fleet.

JW convoys

SBD Dauntless dive bomber from USS Ranger during the Bodø airstrike.
Aircraft carriers of Operation Tungsten preparing for an airstrike on Tirpitz.

German reinforcements from French bases

USCG cutter Northland operating off Greenland.
Soviet Northern Fleet ships carrying landing parties for the Petsamo–Kirkenes Offensive.

Notes

  1. Drent, Jan Commercial Shipping on the Northern Sea Route p. 4
  2. Wartime navigation over the ocean within the Arctic Circle should not be confused with the Arctic Ocean as it may have subsequently been defined to exclude areas within the Arctic Circle.
  3. 1 2 Wood & Gunston pp. 64–75
  4. Vail Motter pp. 481&482
  5. "Arming the Soviets". Columbia Magazine. Retrieved 2012-07-13.
  6. Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 3
  7. Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 8
  8. Grove pp. 7–35
  9. Brown p. 31
  10. Brown p. 32
  11. Rohwer & Hummelchen pp. 21&22
  12. Kemp pp. 65–67
  13. Muggenthaler pp. 54–59
  14. Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 30
  15. Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 29
  16. Cressman p. 29
  17. Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 32
  18. Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 39
  19. Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 53
  20. Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 58
  21. Rohwer & Hummelchen pp. 62&71
  22. Rohwer & Hummelchen pp. 70&71
  23. Ruge p. 222
  24. 1 2 Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 73
  25. 1 2 Brown p. 48
  26. 1 2 3 Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 75
  27. Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 76
  28. Rohwer & Hummelchen pp. 76&77
  29. 1 2 Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 77
  30. Brown p. 49
  31. "Patrols by U-571". Guðmundur Helgason. Retrieved 2012-07-04.
  32. "ShCh-422". Retrieved 10 October 2014.
  33. Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 87
  34. Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 90
  35. 1 2 Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 89
  36. "ShCh-402". Retrieved 10 October 2014.
  37. Rohwer & Hummelchen pp. 93&96
  38. 1 2 Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 101
  39. Rohwer & Hummelchen pp. 97&101
  40. "K-3". Retrieved 10 October 2014.
  41. Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 103
  42. "M-174". Retrieved 10 October 2014.
  43. Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 106
  44. Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 111
  45. Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 110
  46. Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 114
  47. "S-102". Retrieved 10 October 2014.
  48. Brown p. 56
  49. Irving pp. 4–6
  50. Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 117
  51. Rohwer & Hummelchen pp. 120&123
  52. Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 123
  53. Rohwer & Hummelchen pp. 121&125
  54. Grove pp. 117–121
  55. 1 2 Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 131
  56. Kemp p. 237
  57. 1 2 3 Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 134
  58. 1 2 Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 137
  59. "M-171". Retrieved 10 October 2014.
  60. Brown p. 61
  61. Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 139
  62. Morison p. 166
  63. "11th Flotilla". Guðmundur Helgason. Retrieved 2012-06-24.
  64. Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 140
  65. Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 141
  66. Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 143
  67. Brown p. 65
  68. Irving
  69. Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 151
  70. Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 152
  71. Ruge p. 275
  72. Brown p. 68
  73. Macintyre pp. 292–312
  74. Macintyre pp. 312–317
  75. Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 173
  76. Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 174
  77. Brown p. 75
  78. Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 178
  79. Stephen pp. 179–197
  80. Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 185
  81. Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 189
  82. Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 191
  83. 1 2 Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 195
  84. Cressman p. 152
  85. "M-122". Retrieved 10 October 2014.
  86. Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 201
  87. "S-101". Retrieved 10 October 2014.
  88. Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 205
  89. 1 2 "S-55". Retrieved 10 October 2014.
  90. 1 2 "S-56". Retrieved 10 October 2014.
  91. "13th Flotilla". Guðmundur Helgason. Retrieved 2012-06-24.
  92. Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 221
  93. 1 2 3 Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 225
  94. Stephen p. 198
  95. Grove pp. 123–131
  96. Cressman p. 185
  97. Stephen pp. 198–218
  98. Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 256
  99. Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 257
  100. 1 2 Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 262
  101. Brown p. 105
  102. 1 2 Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 264
  103. 1 2 Grove pp. 131–136
  104. Rohwer & Hummelchen pp. 272–273
  105. Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 276
  106. Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 279
  107. Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 285
  108. Brown (1977), p. 37
  109. Grove p. 137
  110. Brown p. 118
  111. 1 2 Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 299
  112. 1 2 3 Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 298
  113. 1 2 Ruge pp. 286&287
  114. Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 296
  115. Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 303
  116. Brown pp. 122&123
  117. Taylor p. 142
  118. Brown p. 124
  119. "S-104". Retrieved 10 October 2014.
  120. Brown p. 125
  121. Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 309
  122. Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 313
  123. Grove p. 139
  124. 1 2 Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 318
  125. Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 322
  126. "14th Flotilla". Guðmundur Helgason. Retrieved 2012-06-24.
  127. Brown p. 138
  128. Brown p. 139
  129. 1 2 3 Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 334
  130. Brown pp. 139&140
  131. Macintyre p. 444
  132. Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 348
  133. Rohwer & Hummelchen p. 350

References

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