Winston Churchill called the Allied Arctic convoys to Russia between 1941 and 1945 “the worst journey in the world”. This was due to the extreme conditions and horrors which sailors transported tanks, fighter planes and ammunition to Russia

Other vital cargo carried to the Soviet Union included raw materials and food. More than four million tonnes of supplies were transported in total during a four year period. But the cost to human life was high. By May 1945 the mission had claimed 104 merchant ships and 16 military vessels and the thousands of seamen they carried.

Attack from German U-boats and aircraft was not all the Arctic convoys had to contend with. They had to deal with severe cold, storms, fog, ice floes and waves so huge they tore at the ship’s armour plating.
 
The hazardous campaign, which claimed the lives of 3,000 men, has never been recognised with its own war medal.

The NMBS went to salute the members to the Convoys when a memorial was held at the Manchester Cenotaph - This page and the pictures will serve as a reminder of the courage and dedication the men who died and those who survived fif for their country and the allies.

It's ironic that the men have been awarded a medal by the Russians for the courage they shown, BUT never received any medal by the British Government.

In a ‘last roll of the dice’, 91-year-old veteran Commander Eddie Grenfell has written to 23 MPs asking them for help as the Ministry of Defence remains opposed to medal for men who braved a gauntlet of German gunfire to deliver arms to the Soviet Union in the Second World War.

If you feel like the NMBS and Commander Grenfell this injustice has gone on long enough - write to your MP. 

Christ on a Bike, they give Tom Jones and Bruce Forsyth a Knighthood - yet these men never received any recognition for the country which the served.