Stephen's Reviews > The Destruction of Convoy PQ-17

The Destruction of Convoy PQ-17 is the best single account of the Allied Arctic convoy PQ-17. It is a highly detailed and well told account of the fate of this convoy as it made its way to the port of Archangel in the Soviet Union from Iceland in the summer of 1942.

Of the 35 merchant ships that left Iceland with wartime supplies for the Soviet Union, 24 were sunk by the German Navy and Air Force, leaving only 11 ships to reach the safety of ports in the Soviet Union, and over 150 merchant seamen dead. This book is the story of that savage destruction.

When originally published in 1968 The Destruction of Convoy PQ-17 ran in to legal difficulties when the Commander of the Royal Navy close escort group sued the author for libel over allegations contained in the book relating to his decision to withdraw his destroyers. On the face of it those allegations were easily arrived at, as some of the Royal Navy decision making clearly amounted to blundering. The reality is, there was more than a few shortcomings in the Royal Navy command structure that contributed to the destruction of convoy PQ-17, one man was not solely to blame. This updated version has been corrected and it is the definitive story of that ill-fated convoy.