ARKHANGELSK, May 12. /TASS/. Members of the Northern Convoys Club paid tribute to participants in World War II convoys. They laid flowers to the monument in Arkhangelsk, a TASS correspondent reported.

"On May 8, Europe celebrated the Victory Day, and we paid tribute to the allies, who sacrificed their lives for this country, for our joint victory," the Club’s member, a coordinator of the Immortal Crew project Georgy Gudim-Levkovich told TASS.

Seven members of convoys from the UK have been buried in Arkhangelsk. The youngest was 20 years of age, and the oldest - 30. Four of them were pilots. Their crashed plane was found in 1991.

According to the club member, in August 1942, the UK began the Orator Operation, sending additional Royal Air Force units to cover PQ-18 convoy. Two squadrons of torpedo carriers, which were to attack German ships if these attempted intercepting the convoy, were sent to the Murmansk Region’s Vaenga airfield. The planes took off from Scotland and flew to the Kola Peninsula. Nine planes were lost: they were either downed by the Nazi or lost directions.

An AT-138 PL-C took off from Scotland at night to September 4, 1942. It was attacked by two Nazi fighters above Finland. The plane crashed near Alakurtti, behind the front line. Three crew members died and the pilot was captured. "After the war, Germans told the UK the remains had been buried with military honors. However, they did not specify where the burial was. In 1991, were found debris of the Hampden bomber, supposedly AT-138 - some 14km from Alakurtti. In late August in 1992, the UK Embassy’s specialists were allowed to see the debris, but they could not identify the plane. A crew member had a ring with initials, and it was identified by the man’s sister, who lived in Australia," the expert said, adding in 1993, the UK pilots were buried with military honors in Arkhangelsk, following a decision of the UK government. The club members continue collecting information on the UK military, who participated in the convoys.

Immortal Crew

The club collects information on the convoys’ veterans both in Russia and abroad. In July, 2015, veterans of the Solovki Sea Cadets School gathered for the first convention, where young cadets marched carrying portraits of victims in marine battles. In 2016, Arkhangelsk’s Voronin Institute marked the 75th anniversary of the Dervish convoy’s arrival in the city and exhibited 100 portraits of convoys’ participants - 50 participants from the USSR, and 50 from the anti-Hitler coalition countries.

On May 9, when Russia celebrates the Victory Day, the Immortal Crew team participates in the annual Immortal Regiment march. In 2019, more than 1,000 people took part in it. In 2020, the project was organized online. More than 400 portraits and stories were posted on social networks.

Ekaterina Nekhayeva recently found information about the place where her great grandfather Dmitry Markov was buried. He was on the list of missing persons, and the family knew only that he served somewhere in the north. "We have been trying to find information about him, but many documents remained top secret. Now, in the documents, which are available online, I found the details - born in 1917, he participated in convoys across the Kara Sea to Dikson, and we know now the route and the date the ship crashed," she said.

According to the club’s member, the Immortal Crew project will continue online to August 2021, when Arkhangelsk will mark the 80th anniversary of the first convoy’s arrival in that city. The club’s Chairman of the Supervisory Board Viktor Pavlenko told TASS how important it is for Arkhangelsk to keep memories about those events and people. "Arkhangelsk played a huge role in the Great Patriotic War - in the beginning, all land-lease cargo used to be brought to Arkhangelsk. In 2009, the city got the honorable title - a City of Military Glory - for its role in the northern convoys. For the outstanding heroism of our city and its people," he said.

The convoys

On August 31, 1941, the first convoy, dubbed later on as Dervish, arrived in Arkhangelsk from the UK. It consisted of seven vessels, escorted by military ships.

Between August 1941 and May 1945, there were 78 return trips, involving 1,507 vessels and tankers (128 were sunken or damaged). To Murmansk and Arkhangelsk were delivered more than 22,000 planes, more than 13,000 tanks, 13,000 guns, 639 ships and other vital cargo, including food - all that worth more than $2 billion. The cargo satisfied about 12% of the front’s and rear’s demands.

The convoys’ Arctic route (other routes were across the Pacific Ocean and via Iran) was the shortest, though most dangerous. It was used for more than 90% of lend-lease deliveries, though as much as 15% of the cargo on that route was lost on sunken ships.