The Forgotten Convoy refers to a number of Allied merchant ships and escorts that were forced to remain in Soviet ports by the cessation of convoy sailings on the Arctic route in the summer and autumn of 1943. Most of these ships had arrived in Russia as part of Convoy JW53. This departed Loch Ewe in Scotland on the 15th February 1943, and consisted of 11 British, 10 American and three Russian ships, as well as one Panamanian, one Norwegian, one Polish and one Dutch ship. It had a heavy escort, with thirteen destroyers, four corvettes, two minesweepers and a trawler providing close escort. These were supported by three British cruisers positioned to the north of the convoy, while two battleships and a cruiser from Home Fleet provided a distant escort in case of a sortie by the heavy German ships from Norway. Such a sortie failed to manifest. Instead, the main enemy faced by JW53 was the weather; strong winds and high waves lashed the convoy. Six ships from the convoy were forced to turn back by the weather, to prevent damage to their deck cargoes. The escort carrier Dasher had been intended to join the convoy, but the waves smashed her flight deck. The cruiser Sheffield, one of the three lurking to the north of the convoy, would also be forced to turn back. A wave smashed into her foremost ('A') turret, stripping off the armoured roof of the turret and flinging it overboard. As the convoy moved west, the weather lessened. This did allow for attempted attacks by German aircraft and U-boats, but neither did any damage. Fifteen ships of the convoy arrived at Murmansk on the 27th February, while the other seven arrived at Molotovsk (now Severodvinsk) on the 2nd March.

They would remain at these ports until November. There were three main reasons for this. Firstly, the bad weather that slowed JW53 (and would lash the convoy RA53, returning from Russia on the 1st March) had also cloaked the Norwegian coast. This allowed the German capital ship Scharnhorst to slip northwards, unhindered by British bombers and submarines, to join up with the Tirpitz and Lutzow, heavy warships already in position in northern Norway. From here, they could slip out to maul any Allied convoy on the Arctic route. Admiral John Tovey, commanding Home Fleet, advised Allied leaders to suspend the convoys until winter; operating the convoys in summer meant travelling through the long Arctic days, giving German aircraft many chances to find the convoys and vector in German warships. The long days would also make it easier for German bombers to attack the convoy, especially if it scattered to avoid German surface ships. Finally, many escorts were diverted to the Atlantic to fight the major convoy battles there. During 1943, the Allies broke the German U-boat strength in the Atlantic; doing this required many of the ships that would otherwise have been escorting ships on the Arctic route.

Life in Murmansk and Molotvsk was dull, livened up by occasional German air attacks, especially during March and April, when the ships were unloading. On the 13th March, the British ship Ocean Freedom was sunk by Ju-88s in Murmansk. On the 4th April, Dover Hill and the tanker British Governor (which was retained in Murmansk to refuel the merchant ships and escorts before their return) were bombed; both ships took damage from shock. Dover Hill took a direct hit, but this fortunately did not explode. However, there were no naval bomb disposal experts available; the Russians did offer an officer who could remove the fuse from the bomb, but only if it was extracted from the coal bunker where it had ended up. After a long, nervy process of removing coal from around the bomb, a rope was fitted around it and it was hoisted on deck, where the fuse was removed by the Soviet officer, a man named Panin. Rather than using delicate tools like his British equivalent might, Panin used a hammer and chisel to knock the fuse off the bomb, rendering it safe. Five officers and fourteen men from Dover Hill would be given commendations for their gallantry in this process.

Such excitement was rare; most days were boring. The crews were generally kept confined to their ships by request of the Russians. This was especially true of the merchant seamen, who did not have the uniforms of the naval men to mark them out as foreigners. When they were allowed ashore, Murmansk and Archangel had few attractions. The Intourist hotels and clubs were the main focus of the social life of the merchant sailors of the Forgotten Convoy. Here, they could drink, and mingle to a certain extent with locals. However, British seamen, paid meagre wages, tended to find the beer far too expensive for its attractions. Other attractions had to be made by the men themselves. Football (soccer) and baseball games were organised by the ships crews. Others staged theatrical performances. Some American sailors even managed to hitchhike inland, to see the country. Food soon ran low, especially about the British ships, understocked by miserly owners. To supplement the rations, a certain degree of trading between the ships in port took place. British ships provided lime juice to counteract scurvy, while the Americans had plentiful supplies of spam and other tinned goods. Beyond this, they were provided with Russian rations, composed mostly of black bread, but including some fish and cheese.

In October 1943, operations began to allow for the return of the Forgotten Convoy. Operation Holder saw three British and Canadian destroyers travel to Murmansk, carrying ammunition for the escorts that had spent the last nine months in Murmansk. It was followed a few weeks later by Operation FR, the passage of an 12 ship escort group to Murmansk to form the escort for the returning convoy (as well as ten Russian-manned ships to reinforce the Russian Northern Fleet). On the 1st November, convoy RA54A departed, taking with it 12 ships from those stuck in Murmansk. The remaining ships would depart on the 26th as convoy RA54B, following the arrival of the inbound convoy JW54A.

Thank you! I can't wait to share this with my family this Christmas!