My granddad served with the British Navy (radar operator) on the HMS Suffolk and was in the Arctic for some of it - what would they have been doing? I know they chased the Bismarck but what else? Am I correct in thinking some of this would have been in Nazi occupied/aligned territory? How dangerous was this? Is it likely that he would have had contact with Russians?
Thank you
While it wasn't part of those naval operations, one of my favorite forgotten campaigns of World War II was that fought in mostly within the Arctic Circle, over in Greenland. You might find this piece to be of interest.
Suffolk and the RN in general were very active in the Arctic. And the Norwegian cost on particular, both in attempting to contest the initial German invasion, and then in neutralizing German airfields and ships in the fjords.
This is because the route up above Scandinavia was one of the 2 most used routes to get Lend-lease aid to the USSR. Convoys would routinely come under U-boat and aircraft attack. While the threat of major ships such as Tirpitz called for escort from major fleet units for the convoys.