Kola Run, The

DESCRIPTION: "Now gather round, you stroppy Jacks who serve the peacetime Andrew... While I tell you a tale of the Kola run, a yarn of the Russian convoys." He served on a destroyer he called the "Horrible" in 1942. With great struggle, they bring the convoy to Russia
AUTHOR: D. S. Goodbrand (source: Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (according to Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs)
KEYWORDS: sailor hardtimes Russia navy
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Dec 31, 1942 - Battle of the Barents Sea
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Palmer-OxfordBookOfSeaSongs 152, "The Kola Run" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Unfortunate Miss Bailey' (tune)
cf. "Russian Convoy Escort's Song" (subject of convoys to Russia in World War II)
cf. "The 23rd Flotilla" (subject: the hard life of convoy escorts) and references theref
NOTES [3071 words]: Palmer offers absolutely no evidence that this song is traditional. That said, it does refer to a battle well worth remembering.
Service on the convoys to Russia was one of the hardest sorts of duties a sailor could face; the men called the passage "the Gateway to Hell" (Pearce, p. 17). It was very cold and the seas usually very bad; also, in winter, there was almost no light. I'm not sure it was actually more uncomfortable on shipboard than service in the tropical Pacific, where un-ventilated ships turned into ovens -- but a man lost overboard would die very quickly, often before he could be rescued. In the wet and cold, it was not safe to touch anything on the outside of the ship with one's bare hands lest one freeze to it (Pearson, pp. 23-24). And the convoys, because of the arctic ice, perforce had to sail fairly close to Norway, which was in German hands, making them subject to endless attacks.
The convoys' destinations were Murmansk and/or Archangel (the latter sometimes closed by ice), which were hardly more comfortable than the open sea; sailors who arrived there, or in the naval bases nearby in the Kola Inlet or White Sea, found a complete absence of recreational facilities even if you ignore the fact that everyone there spoke Russian (Pearson, pp. 22-24).
Because the singer calls the ship the (H)orrible, one might guess that the ship involved was one of the British "H" class of destroyers, Hasty, Havock, Hereward, Hero, Hostile, Hotspur, Hunter, Hyperion, a class of ships built in 1935-1936. Most of these ships operated in northern waters early in the war, but that was before Russia became a combatant; they were in the Mediterranean in 1942 (Whitley-Destroyers, pp. 109-110), so none of them can be the ship involved.
Palmer's dialect transcription of the ship as "Orrible," not "Horrible" is a key clue: She was a member of the "O" class, not the "H" class. Which fits with Palmer's report that the author served on the Obdurate. The Obdurate and the others of the "O" class were build 1940-1942: Onslow, Obdurate, Obedient, Offa, Onslaught, Opportune, Oribi, Orwell (Whitley-Destroyers, p. 124). These were in fact, by destroyer standards, fairly nice ships (1610 tons, which was pretty good-sized for a design created pre-war) -- but no destroyer would ever be comfortable on the Russian run.
The ships of the "O" class, unlike the "H's," did indeed serve in northern waters in 1942 (Whitley-Destroyers, p. 125).
Although listed as sisters, they weren't quite. They were supposed to be armed with 4.7" guns -- but, due to a shortage of weaponry, Obdurate and several of the others were armed with 4" guns that had been made during World War I, although Orwell had proper 4.7" weapons (Pope, p. 158).
There had been a number of convoys to North Russia. The early ones had mostly made it without loss, but one, PQ17, had been ordered to scatter to avoid the German heavy ships, and had been slaughtered (Pearson, pp. 11-14). The sailors on the convoys knew that they faced great potential danger.
At the end of 1942 Onslow, Obdurate, Obedient, Oribi and Orwell, plus another destroyer, Achates, and some lesser escorts, were assigned to escort Russian convoy JW51B of 14 cargo ships (Koop/Schmolke, p. 55); according to Pope, pp. 23fff., four of the merchant ships, including the Commodore's, were British, nine American, and one Panamanian. Most of these ships were not in the best shape; according to Pearson, pp. 34-35, all but two had needed some sort of maintenance when they arrived at Loch Ewe to join the convoy. The convoy lost one of its escorts, the destroyer Bulldog, before the trip even started; her brand-new captain insisted on sailing her straight through a storm, and she ended up too damaged to make the voyage (Pearson, p. 36). The Oribi ended up separated from the other escorts due to a bad gyrocompass, so she had no part in the battle (Pearson, p. 51).
The "B" designation came about because it was regarded as a half-convoy; JW51A had sailed December 18, JW51B on December 22; Pope, p. 68, who adds on p. 70 that JW51A made it to Murmansk without loss.
Despite its small size, Pope, p. 26, lists JW51B as carrying more than 2000 trucks, 202 tanks, 120 aircraft, a lot of refined fuel of various sorts, and other supplies. It was a very slow convoy, making just six knots in practice (Pearce, p. 200); according to Pearson, p. 37, they were so slow that it caused the escorting destroyers real problems to stay with the convoy!). And it was hit by a bad storm on the way north, messing up its formation and scattering the ships as well as the escorts. Nor had the escorts been with the convoy long, to learn the abilities and quirks of the ships and their captains; a different group of escorts had been with the convoy for the first part of the voyage, with the Obdurate group taking over east of Iceland to save fuel (Pope, pp. 27, 71, with a map on p. 110). Even the escort's commander was new; the officer in charge, Captain Robert St. Vincent "Rupert" Sherbrooke, although an old sea dog (he was descended from John Jervis, who became Earl St. Vincent), had been in command for only a month (Pope, p. 82). Other than Achates, his destroyers were also mostly new and relatively untested, and their commanders, including Lieutenant Commander C. E. L. Sclater of Obdurate, mostly relatively junior and new to command (Pope, p. 96). The convoy could hardly have been more vulnerable to attack.
Nor was it able to keeps its passage secret; U-354 spotted it fairly early in its mission and passed word on to Berlin (Pearce, p. 201). The submarine also took several shots at the convoy, but obtained no hits and suffered some (ineffective) attacks from the escorts, including Obdurate (Pope, pp. 125-127).
The fight that resulted from the submarine's report, the Battle of the Barents Sea, was probably the northernmost significant battle of the war, taking place between 72 and 74 degrees north -- to the north of North Cape at the tip of Norway (map on p. 204 of Pearce). There is every reason to agree with Palmer that this is the battle referred to in the song.
Once the convoy had been spotted, the Germans planned an interception, "Operation Regenbogen." It was then that the trouble began for the German command, as various people, from Hitler on down, interfered with local control in such a way as to make victory much harder. The Germans had a heavy force in northern waters, including the the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper and the pocket battleship Lützow, plus destroyers, many of which had heavier guns than their British counterparts -- although their performance at sea was somewhat inferior as a result (Pearson, pp. 124-125). And the two British light cruisers assigned to help out, Sheffield and Jamaica under Admiral Robert Burnett, were far away because the weather had delayed the convoy (Pearce, p. 202). The only luck the British had was the cautious German tactics. The Germans had divided their forces -- the goal being to have one cruiser distract the escort while the other attacked the convoy; also, by having two forces searching, the Germans increased the odds of finding it. But both attacking forces were cautious, and they did not coordinate well. (The caution was ultimately Hitler's fault; he was inherently anxious about naval matters, and all the admirals between him and Admiral Kummetz, who commanded the task force, passed down cautionary messages in order to cover their rear ends if something went wrong. The effect was to scare Kummetz into being excessively passive; Pope, pp. 143-144.)
The plan also perhaps placed too much burden on Captain Rudolf Stange of the Lützow, who was new to his command -- and who had been surprised before the operation by some sketchy orders to use the upcoming battle as a chance to break out into the Atlantic as a commerce raider, for which he had not been prepared (Pearson, p. 56); this part of the operation never came off.
In broad outline, the plan was the the Germans to send out two forces, one to pass north of the convoy, one to the south, with the Hipper, which was faster, leading the northern force which had farther to go. The Hipper would then push the convoy south onto the heavier guns of the Lûtzow (Pearson, pp. 31.33, with a diagram on p. 32).
Things initially went according to plan; the Hipper reached the convoy first. With the British cruisers about fifty miles away, the British destroyers alone had to try to hold off the German heavy cruiser, which all by itself outgunned all the escorts near it. It was the Obdurate which first spotted the German destroyers. Sherbrooke ordered her to investigate; there was concern that there might be Russia forces in the area (Pope, pp. 72-73). As soon as the signals were passed (by blinker, via multi-ship relay, to avoid breaking radio silence), Obdurate sailed toward the unidentified ships, flashed an identity request -- and was fired upon (Pope, p. 155). The battle was on.
To avoid using up their few torpedoes, the only weapons that could seriously threaten the Hipper, the destroyers were forced to make bluff torpedo attacks to hold the Germans off. Onslow, the leader and the most heavily armed, couldn't even fire all her 4.7" guns; two of the four were frozen up (Pope, p. 183). But she and the other ships could act like they were attacking. The bluff, and three minor shell hits by Onslow on Hipper, worried the hypercautious Germans (Pearce, pp. 206-208), who were under strong orders from Hitler not to risk damage. It was still hard on the British. Onslow, the flagship, was the first to come under fire; she took four hits, leaving her effectively unable to fight, with two guns wrecked and severe damage to her hull (Pope, p. 188; there is a diagram of the hits on pp. 190-191); the hits also started fires (Pope, p. 194). Captain Robert Sherbrooke, the commander of the escort, was badly injured and permanently disfigured, losing the use of one eye (Pearce, pp. 208-209). But the Hipper backed off. Only to turn around and come back. Again the destroyers had to hold her off; in the process of two encounters with Hipper, Achates was so badly damaged that she had to be abandoned (Pearce, p. 210) and lost her captain and most of her other senior officers (Pope, p. 209). Obedient, Orwell, and Obdurate, now under Lt. Commander David Kinloch of Obedient as the senior officer (Pope, p. 206), again scared the Hipper off, but the German cruiser found and destroyed the tiny minesweeper Bramble as she turned away (Pearce, p. 211).
In the confused fighting,Obedient suffered shrapnel damage, temporarily knocking out her radio aerials, so Sclater of the Obdurate took charge until Obedient could rig jury antennae. (Pope, p. 213) -- if being in charge of two destroyers can really be considered being in command! During this time, with Obdurate leading the line, she suffered several near-misses that resulted in splinter damage (Pope, p. 237) -- a tough time for the sailors aboard her, obviously, but she was one of the luckier destroyers.
As this was happening, the Lützow with six 11" guns, arrived. There were few ships in position to fight her. But she was even more cautious than the Hipper, firing a few shots but then retreating. In practical terms, she did nothing except scare the convoy. Pope, p. 205, says, "Ironically, [Admiral] Kummetz's plan had worked perfectly: the Hipper had drawn off escorts to the north of the convoy; the convoy had turned south and run, unprotected, into the Lützow... only the Lützow had not fired a shot." As the British destroyers came about to face her, the Hipper came back, damaging Obedient and straddling Obdurate, causing substantial damage and casualties; of the British destroyers, only Orwell was still intact and Obedient and Obdurate still able to fight (Pearce, p. 211). By this stage, the Germans were in position to slaughter both convoy and escort.
But, once again, they didn't. Hipper and Lützow didn't even coordinate their attacks. And then, in effect, the cavalry arrived. The two British cruisers, Sheffield and Jamaica, under Admiral Burnett, were able to join the battle; coming from the opposite direction from the convoy. The Hipper never even spotted them until she was hit by four shells from Sheffield (so Pearce, p. 212, Pope, p. 227, thinks three of the four were from Jamaica) -- amazing shooting, given that the British cruisers were so iced-up that they couldn't even use their gun directors (Pope, p. 222). The two cruisers hit the Hipper so hard that she was never fully repaired (Whitley-Cruisers:, p. 61). As the Hipper hid behind a smoke screen, the British cruisers also took out the German destroyer Eckholdt, which hesitated to attack because it couldn't tell whether the cruisers were British or German (Pope, p. 232) and was lost with all hands (Becker, p. 289; Pope, p. 244, says that no one even saw her sink, although there is a possibility that she blew up). That battle took long enough that the damaged Hipper escaped (Pearce, p. 213). This time, the Germans did not come back.
As a result, all of the convoy merchant ships made it through. Onslow was too badly damaged to fight, and she had many injured, so she was ordered to proceed, as fast as she could in her damaged condition, to seek repairs and radio home to explain what was going on (Pope, pp. 246-247; the rest of the convoy was still maintaining radio silence).
The Obdurate's battle was over, too, and her damage relatively slight -- but she still had a rather harrowing experience ahead of her. The survivors of Achates had been taken aboard the trawler Northern Gem but that ship had no doctor. (There were two trawlers, Northern Gem and Vizalma, in the escort; being of minimal fighting value, they became the de facto rescue ships of the convoy; Pearson, p. 33.) Eventually the Obdurate's surgeon, Maurice Hood, was sent over on a rope -- a very difficult transfer given the sea conditions, and one that caused both ships to take some minor damage. After that, the battle was really and truly over.
The convoy made it into the Kola Inlet; a few of the merchant ships had trouble there (notably, the Panamanian Ballot ran aground), but although the Ballot had to be abandoned, her cargo was saved, so the entire convoy load arrived.
In terms of losses, it was close to a wash, or perhaps a slight victory for the Germans; each side had lost a destroyer (the German destroyer being the stronger of the two by a significant margin), but the British had also lost the smaller Bramble. The damage to Hipper probably roughly balances out the damage to the other British destroyers (notably Onslow). But the British had gotten the convoy through, so the battle pretty definitely qualifies as a British strategic victory, although it probably shouldn't have been. Koop/Schmolke, p. 56, calls the German operational orders overly cautious, the dispositions ineffective, and the whole affair a "fiasco." Pearce concludes, pp. 213-214, that the German commander, Admiral Kummetz, "should have had things all his own way, but Sherbrooke with his few destroyers had bluffed him from start to finish and sent him off smarting. While Sherbrooke's forces had suffered casualties, they had fought a courageous and gallant action against a vastly superior enemy force and had saved the convoy from utter destruction."
The result was a Victoria Cross for Sherbrooke -- who deserved it, I think, but who declared it "a tribute to the force in general" (Pearce, p. 215). Sherbrooke eventually went on to be promoted to Rear Admiral (Pearson, p. 113). And when the Onslow, which had been patched up but not fully repaired in Russia and which had lost 17 dead and 23 wounded (a third of her complement) arrived back in Scapa Flow, she was officially ordered to tour the ships present to be cheered (Pope, p. 286).
The results on the German side were even more dramatic. Hitler, who had personally approved the operation, expected big things -- but, for days, heard nothing except a report from the British side (the result of a combination of radio silence, cut communications cables, a change in codes at the end of the month for which a new cipher key had not been sent to the northern forces, and strange atmospheric conditions, Pope, pp. 278-279; Pearson, pp. 105-106). The longer it took to hear reports, the more upset Hitler became. (Plus it gave Hermann Göring more time to abuse the navy, which he regarded as a rival; Pearson, p. 106).
And what Hitler finally heard about was a non-victory. Being Hitler, he exploded -- and not at Admiral Kummetz, nor at Captain Stange of the Lützow, but at the fleet itself, declaring the ships "utterly useless," and ordering Grand Admiral Raeder to dispose of them (Pope, pp. 272-273). Raeder -- who was tired of being abused -- quit (Becker, p. 293). Hitler replaced him with Admiral Dönitz, who had commanded the submarine force (Becker, p. 294). Dönitz had to argue hard to keep Hitler from scrapping the entire surface fleet -- in the end, a few old ships went, but the Tirpitz and the Scharnhorst, the two strongest ships, were saved, and they retained their status as a "fleet in being" (Pope, p. 304).
It's not clear how the war would have been different had Raeder stayed, but it surely would have been different somehow. Even though the ships were spared, they rarely went out to battle. The British did not know until after the war, and the men of Onslow and Obdurate may never really have known, but they had changed the war. "It is perhaps unnecessary to add that even if [Sherbrooke] and his men had known at the time what was at stake they could not have fought more bravely or skilfully" (Pope, p. 309).
There is a photo of Captain Sherbrooke on p. 83 of Pearson; p. 84 shows HMS Onslow and has a closeup of some of the damage she suffered; p. 85 shows German Admiral Kummetz; p. 86 shows the Admiral Hipper; p. 89 shows HMS Obedient; the same page has a phoro of Admiral Burnett; p. 90 shows HMS Sheffield and Jamaica; p. 91 shows HMS Achates; p. 92 HMS Bramble.
HMS Obdurate has a Wikipedia page, but as of this writing, it is not very full. There is a much fuller article on the Battle of the Barents Sea. - RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 5.3
File: PsSea152

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