Arms and Armour

Convoy PQ 15

Convoy PQ 15 (26 April – 5 May 1942) was an Arctic convoy sent from Iceland by the Western Allies to aid the Soviet Union (USSR) during the Second World War. The convoy sailed on 26 April 1942, escorted by the western local escort and rendezvoused with the ocean escort on 28 April. The convoy sailed unknown to the Germans until around midnight on 30 April/1 May when it was spotted by a German reconnaissance aircraft when about 250 nmi (460 km; 290 mi) south-west of Bjørnøya (Bear Island). Six Junkers Ju 88 bombers attacked the convoy and lost one aircraft for no result. On 2 May the convoy escorts depth-charged a U-boat that turned out to be the Polish submarine ORP Jastrząb, five of the crew being killed and six wounded before the mistake was recognised. The submarine was about 100 nmi (190 km; 120 mi) outside its patrol zone after not gaining a positional fix for a week due to the weather. On 1 May, about 350 nmi (650 km; 400 mi) off Iceland, to the west,, the heavy cover of the Home Fleet and the US Navy Task Force 99, ran into fog and the destroyer HMS Punjabi received the signal to cease zig-zagging too late. The destroyer was hit amidships by the battleship HMS King George V, cut in two and sunk, 49 of the crew being killed and 206 survivors being rescued. On 3 May the convoy was surprised by six Heinkel He 111 torpedo-bombers that flew below radar cover and sank three ships for the loss of three bombers, a loss of 15,800 GRT of shipping, there being 137 survivors. On 4 May, the eastern local escort of two Soviet destroyers, two patrol ships and three British minesweepers arrived, the ships and U-boats skirmishing for no result. The last air attack, by Junkers Ju 88 bombers, near-missed Cape Palliser for the loss of one bomber. The convoy arrived at Murmansk having lost three ships to air and U-boat attacks on 5 May. A big German effort against the reciprocal Convoy QP 11 contributed to the relatively untroubled progress of the convoy, despite being laden with supplies for the USSR.

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See also

• ▸List of 7.62×54mmR firearms
• ▸Great Living Chola Temples
• ▸1st Operations Group

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Text from Wikipedia; plate via Wikimedia Commons. Text CC BY-SA 4.0; plate freely licensed (see Commons). Source record. Images and catalogue data are reproduced from open-access collections.