Battle of the Arctic: The Maritime Epic of World War Two
WINSTON CHURCHILL called it ‘the worst journey in the world’. But was even this telling quote, describing the nightmarish torment experienced while transporting military aid to northern Russia during World War Two, an understatement?
As this book’s title – Battle of the Arctic – implies, it tells a unique story. For much of the conflict was complicated by terrific storms, snow, ice, fog, whales and Arctic mirages, so that the events at times sound like a cross between a description of Shackleton’s Endurance, Scott of the Antarctic and an Arctic version of Robinson Crusoe.
The action unfolded as Allied naval and merchant seamen, airmen, submariners, soldiers and intelligence officers delivered on their countries’ promise to take arms to Russia notwithstanding the German attempts to hunt them in their aircraft, U-boats and surface fleet spearheaded by Tirpitz and Scharnhorst. When ships were attacked, and went down in seas so cold that a man could die after five minutes of immersion, it triggered events reminiscent of the do-or-die moments during the sinking of the Titanic.
Men perished one by one in lifeboats and, as castaways, on deserted Arctic islands where they were stalked by polar bears. Frostbitten and wounded survivors ended up in primitive Russian hospitals where amputations were carried out without anaesthetics. Other survivors, while stranded for months in the communist state they were aiding, experienced the murky worlds of the NKVD and the Gulag, as well as famine and prostitution.
Using new material unearthed in American, British, Russian and German archives, as well as Polish, Norwegian, French and Dutch sources and a remarkable collection of vivid witness accounts brought together at the passing of the last survivors, Hugh Sebag-Montefiore can at last shine a revealing light on this extraordinary tale that oscillates between the sailors ’ eye view on the front line and the controversies that infuriated world leaders.
'This confident account of the Arctic convoy battles stretches from the diplomatic bargaining of Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill to the grim, personal stories of death and survival of the crews of the torpedoed and bombed merchant ships. Sebag-Montefiore casts his net wide, with evidence from not only British and American sources, but Russian and German too. This book is original, comprehensive, dynamic and thought-provoking' -
Roger Knight, author of Convoys: The British Struggle against Napoleonic Europe and America -
'Sebag-Montefiore's impressive new research provides the most comprehensive history so far on a forgotten campaign. He recreates the human toil and harrowing dangers of the Arctic journeys. An inspirational story of courage and human endurance' -
Helen Fry, author of Women in Intelligence: The Hidden History of Two World Wars -
PRAISE FOR HUGH SEBAG-MONTEFIORE’S SOMME -
'Having read almost everything that is written on this battle, I can vouch that this is the best account yet. Sebag-Montefiore deserves congratulation for restoring humanity to this battle' -
Gerard DeGroot, The Times -
'Magisterial, exemplary, heartbreaking. So original is the material, and so inventive is Sebag-Montefiore's approach – telling each stage of the fight from the perspective of both the combatants and their families back home – that this well-known tale is rendered strange again. Written with great style and sensitivity, superbly illustrated with many original plates and beautifully drawn maps, Sebag-Montefiore's brilliant new study will set the benchmark for a generation' -
Saul David, Daily Telegraph -
'Sebag-Montefiore's combination of thoughtful analysis with first-hand testimony from army soldiers, cameramen and diarists lends a gritty immediacy' -
Ian Thomson, Observer -
'The best historians of the war have always made good use of the words written by the participants themselves, but few have done so as effectively as here. A moving record' -
Daily Mail -