Convoy QP 13

Convoy PQ 13
	Part of Arctic Convoys of the Second World War
	; German occupied Norway (in green) lay along the flank of the sea route to northern Russia
Date	26 June – 7 July 1942
Location	Arctic Ocean
Result	Allied victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom; United States; Soviet Union	Germany
Units involved
Convoy PQ 13 and Allied escorts	Luftwaffe
Strength
	36 Merchant ships
Casualties and losses
	5 Merchant ships sunk; 1 Merchant ship damaged; 1 Escort sunk

Convoy QP 13 was an Arctic convoy of the PQ/QP series which ran during the Second World War. It was the thirteenth of the numbered series of convoys of merchant ships westbound from the Arctic ports of Arkhangelsk and Murmansk to the United Kingdom, Iceland, and North America.

Ships

Convoy QP 13 consisted of 35 merchant ships, most of which had arrived with Convoy PQ 16. The convoy commodore was Capt. N. H. Gale Royal Navy Reserve (RNR) in Empire Selwyn. Most of the ships were returning empty after delivering war material to the Soviet Union, but some Soviet ships carried cargoes of export timber. Convoy QP 13 was escorted by five destroyers, Achates, Garland, Inglefield, Intrepid and Volunteer; two Anti submarine warfare (ASW) minesweepers, Hussar and Niger and four corvettes Honeysuckle, Hyderabad, Roselys and Starwort. The close escort was supplemented by the anti-aircraft ship Alynbank and the trawlers HMT Lady Madeleine and St Elstan.^[1]

The convoy sailed simultaneously with eastbound convoy PQ 17 for both convoys to benefit from the heavy covering force of the British aircraft carrier HMS Victorious, the battleship HMS Duke of York, the cruisers HMS Cumberland and Nigeria and the destroyers HMS Ashanti, Douglas, Faulknor, Marne, Martin, Onslaught and Onslow with the American battleship USS Washington and destroyers USS Mayrant and Rhind. The covering force was commanded by Admiral John Tovey aboard the flagship Duke of York.^[1]

Voyage

Convoy QP 13 left Arkhangelsk on 26 June 1942 reinforced by a local escort of the Soviet destroyers Gremyashchiy, Grozny and Kuibyshev with the British destroyer HMS Tartar and the Halcyon-class minesweepers HMS Bramble, Hazard, Leda and Seagull. The local escort was replaced on 29 June by an anti-aircraft escort of Hunt class destroyers HMS Blankney, Middleton and Wheatland.^[1] On 30 June German air reconnaissance found Convoy QP 13 180 mi (290 km) north of North Cape, Norway. U-88 was shadowing the convoy by 2 July but Admiral Nordmeer, Hubert Schmundt, ordered German forces to ignore the empty westbound ships and focus on the loaded ships of eastbound Convoy PQ 17. The Hunt-class destroyers detached on 4 July when Convoy QP 13 was out of range of German bombers.^[1]

Convoy QP 13 encountered fog on 5 July 1942. In poor visibility, Niger mistook an iceberg for Iceland’s North Western Cape and six merchant ships followed her into the Northern Barrage minefield, SN72, laid one month earlier at the entrance to the Denmark Strait.^[2] All seven ships detonated naval mines and there were only eight survivors of the 127 men aboard Niger. Only Exterminator could be salvaged. No crewmen were lost from Exterminator, Hybert and Rodina but one crewman died abandoning Hefron, five drowned when John Randolph broke in two and Massmar sank with 17 merchant seamen, 5 Naval Armed Guards and the 26 survivors she was carrying from the sinking of Alamar in Convoy PQ 16.^[3]^[4] The surviving ships destined for Reykjavík were escorted into port on 7 July by St Elstan and Lady Madeleine.^[2]

Allied order of battle

Convoyed ships

Merchant ships^[2]^[a]
Ship	Year	Flag	GRT	Pos'n	Notes
Alma Ata	1920	Soviet Union	3,611	54	timber cargo
American Press	1920	United States	5,131	62
American Robin	1919	United States	5,172	61
Archangelsk	1929	Soviet Union	2,480	64	timber cargo
Atlantic	1939	United Kingdom	5,414	81
Budenni	1923	Soviet Union	2,482	43	timber cargo
Capira	1920	Panama	5,625	93
Chumleigh	1938	United Kingdom	5,445	94
City of Omaha	1920	United States	6,124	72
SS Empire Baffin	1941	United Kingdom	6,978	31
Empire Mavis	1919	United Kingdom	5,704	84
Empire Meteor	1940	United Kingdom	7,457	24
Empire Selwyn	1941	United Kingdom	7,167	51	Convoy Commodore
Empire Stevenson	1941	United Kingdom	6,209	14	general cargo with lumber
Exterminator	1924	Panama	6,115	23	Damaged on Northern Barrage minefield SN72
Heffron	1919	United States	7,611	42	Sunk by British Northern Barrage minefield SN72
Hegira	1919	United States	7,588	22
Hybert	1920	United States	6,120	92	Sunk onNorthern Barrage minefield SN72
John Randolph	1942	United States	7,191	13	Liberty ship; sunk by British Northern Barrage minefield SN72
Komiles	1932	Soviet Union	3,962	53	timber cargo
Kuzbass	1914	Soviet Union	3,109	34
Lancaster	1918	United States	7,516	71
Massmar	1920	United States	5,828	82	Sunk on British minefield SN72
Mauna Kea	1919	United States	6,064	91
Michigan	1919	Panama	6,419	41
Mormacrey	1919	United States	5,946	11
Mount Evans	1919	Panama	5,598	74
Nemaha	1920	United States	6,501	21
Petrovski	1921	Soviet Union	3,771	44	timber cargo
Pieter de Hoogh	1941	Netherlands	7,168	12
Richard Henry Lee	1941	United States	7,191	32	Liberty ship
Rodina	1922	Soviet Union	4,441	73	Sunk on Northern Barrage minefield SN72
St. Clears	1936	United Kingdom	4,312	33
Stary Bolshevik	1933	Soviet Union	3,974	52
Yaka	1920	United States	5,432	83

Eastern local escort

Eastern local escort^[2]
Ship	Flag	Class	Dates
Grozny	Soviet Navy	Gnevny-class destroyer	26–28 June
Gremyaschi	Soviet Navy	Gnevny-class destroyer	26–28 June
Kuibyshev	Soviet Navy	Gnevny-class destroyer	26–28 June
HMS Bramble	Royal Navy	Halcyon-class minesweeper	26–28 June
HMS Hazard	Royal Navy	Halcyon-class minesweeper	26–28 June
HMS Leda	Royal Navy	Halcyon-class minesweeper	26–28 June
HMS Seagull	Royal Navy	Halcyon-class minesweeper	26–28 June

Ocean escort

Eastern local escort^[2]
Ship	Flag	Class	Dates
HMS Alynbank	Royal Navy	Auxiliary AA cruiser	26 June – 7 July
HMS Achates	Royal Navy	A-class destroyer	26 June – 7 July
ORP Garland	Polish Navy	G-class destroyer	26 June – 7 July
HMS Volunteer	Royal Navy	Modified W-class	29 June – 7 July
HMS Intrepid	Royal Navy	I-class destroyer	26 June – 3 July
HMS Intrepid	Royal Navy	I-class destroyer	26 June – 3 July
HMS Niger	Royal Navy	Halcyon-class minesweeper	26 June – 5 July
HMS Hussar	Royal Navy	Halcyon-class minesweeper	26 June – 7 July
HMS Honeysuckle	Royal Navy	Flower-class corvette	26 June – 7 July
HMS Hyderabad	Royal Navy	Flower-class corvette	26 June – 7 July
HMS Roselys	Free French Naval Forces	Flower-class corvette	26 June – 7 July
HMS Starwort	Royal Navy	Flower-class corvette	26 June – 7 July
HMS Lady Madeline	Royal Navy	ASW trawler	7 July
HMS St Elstan	Royal Navy	ASW trawler	7 July

Notes

^ Convoys had a standard formation of short columns, number 1 to port in the direction of travel. Each position in the column was numbered; 11 was the first ship in column 1 and 12 was the next ship in the column; 21 was the first ship in column 2.^[5]

Footnotes

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Rohwer & Hümmelchen 2005, p. 175.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Ruegg & Hague 1993, p. 41.
^ Hague 2000, p. 190.
^ Cressman 2000, p. 108.
^ Ruegg & Hague 1993, p. 31, inside front cover.

References

Cressman, Robert J. (2000). The Official Chronology of the U.S. Navy in World War II. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-149-1.
Hague, Arnold (2000). The Allied Convoy System, 1939–1945: Its Organization, Defence and Operation. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-55750-019-9.
Rohwer, Jürgen; Hümmelchen, Gerhard (2005) [1972]. Chronology of the War at Sea, 1939–1945: The Naval History of World War Two (3rd rev. ed.). London: Chatham. ISBN 978-1-86176-257-3.
Ruegg, R.; Hague, A. (1993) [1992]. Convoys to Russia: Allied Convoys and Naval Surface Operations in Arctic Waters 1941–1945 (2nd rev. enl. ed.). Kendal: World Ship Society. ISBN 0-905617-66-5.