Eighty years after the end of World War II, we are still learning its stories. In the summer of 1941, Germany invaded the USSR, until then its ally. The Soviets reached out to the Allies for help. They needed supplies, which Britain agreed to ship, and even the US, still uninvolved in the war, lent support. These supplies were deployed in convoys of ships traveling through the Arctic Ocean to Murmansk and Archangel. The route was extremely dangerous, not only because of the Arctic cold, but because the Germans were keeping an eye out for them from occupied Norway.
In December of 1942, the A-class destroyer HMS Achates was assigned as one of six escort ships for a convoy of 14 merchant ships bound for Murmansk. They were attacked by a German flotilla, and the Achates began blowing smoke on the water to mask the convoy. The German ship Admiral Hipper unloaded its guns on the Achates, the only ship visible. Despite staggering damage, the Achates continued blowing smoke, while two other escort ships emerged from the mist and beat back the German ships.
In what would become known as the Battle of the Barents Sea, the Achates lost 111 of her crew of 193, and the ship sank. But the convoy they were protecting made it to Murmansk, thanks to the smokescreen and the other escort ships. Read about that battle, and about the convoys of "the worst journey in the world" at Military History Now. -via Strange Company
(Image credit: National Maritime Museum)