For a long time now, I've been interested in the stories of the unsung, and largely ignored men who took part in the most dangerous shipping operation of World War Two - the Arctic Conveys that sailed from Scotland, around the top of Norway, through the Arctic seas to dock in northern Russia, carrying much needed weapons, and food to the Eastern Front.
Churchill called the journey they made "the worst journey in the world". Dozens of ships, both Merchant Navy and Royal Navy were lost, either due to enemy action, or to the weather conditions, and thousands of men lost their lives in the freezing Arctic seas.
So, (the point of this post), I was very interested the other day when I found out that the National Maritime Museum have put together an exhibition about the convoys. It's on now, at the museum in Greenwich, and it runs until the end of February 2012.
See the website for more info: http://www.nmm.ac.uk/visit/exhibitions/arctic-convoys/.
While I'm on the subject, there was an interview with a veteran of the convoys on BBC Radio 4's PM programme last week - if you can access i-player, it's very much worth listening to - http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b015zs11/PM_20_10_2011. The interview is about 42 minutes into the programme.
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