Reay Clarke, Edderton Farm, was one of five of the 400 or so remaining members of the Russian Convoy Club who attended their annual reunion on 8 October at Poolewe.
The ceremony marked their achievements and was in honour of those who did not come back. An RAF flypast was followed by a religious service and twominute silence before prayers were said at a permanent memorial to the sailors who made, in the word of wartime prime minister Winston Churchill,
"the worst journey in the world".
As a mark of respect, warships deployed in the Minch for a modern-day
exercise, Joint Warrior, also assembled in Loch Ewe to pay silent
tribute.
The ceremony was rightly covered by many media and details of the
heroic efforts of the seamen who served, 2,800 died, were published.
Typically though for our self-effacing 'hero' (pictured here second
from the left), there were no quotations from him in the national
media.
During the Second World War the Arctic convoys travelled from the UK
and America to deliver vital supplies to the northern ports of the
Soviet Union.
About 1,400 merchant ships and their naval escorts made
the hazardous journey between August 1941 and May 1945. In all, 85
merchant vessels and 16 Royal Navy warships were lost. The convoys
managed to deliver 12,755 tanks, 22,200 aircraft and 375,800 trucks, as
well as four million tons of ammunition and other supplies to the USSR.
The convoys initially ran from Iceland, but from September 1942 they
assembled and sailed from Loch Ewe in Wester Ross. They were heading
for the most dangerous waters in the world and reality bore out the
description.
Fighting horrendous weather and sea temperatures of minus 60 degrees,
the wartime heroes were under near constant attack from above and below
sea, as well as from the air.
Veteran Jock Dempster, 80, is the youngest of the Scottish survivors
whose average age is 86. He said: "Over the last six years 60 to 70
veterans from all over the UK marched at the Cenotaph,
Last year there
were 13. I don't think we will march again after this year. That's my
gut feeling."
Instead, in the future, the convoy members may join the
ranks of other groups such as the Merchant Navy and the Royal Navy.
However, Mr Dempster, who joined as a junior ordinary seaman, said the
annual pilgrimage to Loch Ewe would remain a fixture for as long as the
former sailors were able to attend. They have been making the trip
since the memorial was erected in 1999.
Easter Ross-based MSP Rob Gibson has lodged a heartfelt appeal to the
new Defence Secretary to honour veterans of the Arctic convoy with a
medal. His letter to John Hutton follows a speech made by the youngest
survivor of the convoy,
Jock Dempster, during the commemoration at Loch
Ewe, in which he expressed his sadness that the UK Government had
decided not to mark their services with a medal.
Mr Gibson said "The survivors deserve a medal which can be worn with
pride on their chest. It is disappointing that all that has been given
to them is a badge, which is no bigger than a five pence piece, and
which can only be worn on the lapel.
For me and the bulk of people that does not sum up the supreme efforts
that those of the convoy made."
Article based on material from The Herald, The Scotsman and Ross-shire
Journal .
EYE WITNESSES
'Terrible cold'
Geoffrey Shelton, 83, from Glasgow, who served on the aircraft carrier
HMS Vindex.
"The Fleet Air Arm pilots were the bravest of the brave, taking off and
then trying to land an old string bag on a deck rising and falling
10-20-30ft. I watched one guy come in to land and end up in the sea
alongside the carrier. The plane went straight down. The pilot had his
lifejacket on and the captain put a blue search light on him, which was
very dangerous because it could show us to the enemy. The admiral
wasn't very pleased about this. I watched that lad calling out for help
and the arm he was waving get lower and lower.
"By the time he was picked up 15 minutes later, he was dead."
'Ice on the deck'
Sandy Manson, aged 83 when he spoke last year, from John o' Groats,
served in HMS Matchless on convoys in 1943-44.
"The weather was terrible. It was regularly 40 degrees below zero in
winter and there would only be about half an hour of daylight at that
time. There was ice in the sea, and on occasions ice-breakers had to
cut through it. There was also ice on the deck and we had to wear
special suits and gloves. You could not touch the steel rails without
them or your hands would stick to them. We also had to wear a special
harness, hoods and leather boots, a life belt and a special light, but
if you went overboard you would not have lasted long in that water
anyway. "I never experienced cold like that before or since."
'They must never be forgotten'
Jim Osler, 82, from Glasgow, was in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship
Aldersdale, which sank in convoy PQ17 in 1942: "I have a memory of
everyone on that ship being determined to get to Russia, which
unfortunately we failed to do because of bombers. The U-boat attacks
were horrendous. You could hear the thuds of torpedoes while you were
lying in the dark. You cannot mistake torpedoes and you just leapt up
to get to your station. "Dawn was a desperate time, because that's when
they attacked, as the ships were black against the rising sun. One of
the biggest things in a battle at sea is the noise factor. There were
36 merchant ships and another 24 escorts, as well as maybe 30 aircraft
that came at once, all firing at the same time. If you put that all
together when you're standing outside with no ear protectors, the noise
is just unbelievable. This was an important port for the Russian
convoys, the first stopping-off point towards Iceland and these things
should be remembered.
"It's very important that events like this are held. People should
remember the convoys, the hazards people faced and the people who were
lost. They must never be allowed to be forgotten."
|
