Arctic convoys of World War II

Significance

The Arctic convoys formed a sustained Allied supply line running from the United Kingdom, Iceland, and North America to the Soviet northern ports of Arkhangelsk and Murmansk across the Atlantic and Arctic oceans. Comprising 78 convoys—designated in outbound series PQ 1–18 and JW 51–67, and inbound series QP 1–15 and RA 51–67—they operated from August 1941 to May 1945, with interruptions during several months of 1942 and in the summers of 1943 and 1944. The route sustained the Soviet war effort on the Eastern Front by moving materiel through some of the most operationally hostile waters of the war, making the convoy campaign a key logistical component of the Allied coalition against Germany.