Arms for Russia and the Naval War in the Arctic 1941-1945

Literally hundreds of books have been written about the Arctic convoys ranging from personal memoirs and biographies to records of the convoys as a whole and their battles and accounts of individual convoys – notably the disastrous PQ17 and the pyrrhic victory of PQ18 – and including the rather dry official records and official histories. And yet, despite the bravery and courage shown and their general success, the convoys tend to be seen as somewhat peripheral to the war as a whole, as politically useful rather than militarily essential, and yet they could consume up to twenty per cent of the Royal Navy’s available fleet resources.