PQ 17 sails with the most valuable Arctic convoy yet
Thirty-five merchant ships left Iceland for Arkhangelsk carrying a large concentration of Allied war material. Close escorts surrounded the convoy, a cruiser force followed, and a distant battleship-and-carrier force stood farther west to meet any sortie by Tirpitz and the other German heavy ships in Norway. German aircraft found the convoy on 1 July and U-boats began closing on its route. The tactical problem was now explicit: the convoy needed its close formation against aircraft and submarines, while the Admiralty also feared that a German battleship force could destroy the…
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