A "Pozy" Crewmembers' account of PQ17.

After successfully identifying my Mystery Ship as H.M.S Pozarica, I then ploughed through search engines looking for more information and links to her and convoy PQ17.

One engine led me to a document alledgedly held in the archives of the Royal Commission for Historical Manuscripts. I mailed them and they in return sent me off to the Liverpool University Archive department. Like a game of pass the parcel I was then sent in the direction of the Merseyside Maritime Museum.

Within four days of initially finding the reference to the following document at the R.C.H.M. website, I had a copy in my hand, my thanks to Mrs Edwards, Assistant Curator Maritime Archives at the Merseyside Maritime Museum.

The following is an extract (including detailed photographs - some of which I have in my own album) from the personal log of AB Webster whilst sailing aboard Pozarica on convoy PQ17.

Life on HMS Pozarica in Convoy PQ17 to Russia 1942.

"We left Belfast on June 23rd 1942 for an unknown destination and after a few days at sea we arrived in Iceland on the 27th after a rather quiet and smooth trip. We anchored in the harbour at Sedisfjord and it was rather picturesque with the snow capped high mountains coming right down to the sea.

After a two days stay we then set sail for the open sea to join a convoy of thirty five ships. They were all shapes and sizes, the merchant ships formed up in their respective stations and we set sail for North Russia well escorted by destroyer, corvettes, trawlers and two ack-ack ships. We had a covering force of three cruisers namely, HMS London, Norfolk and the American Tuscaloosa, although we never saw them as they were supposedly astern and over the horizon.

The convoy sailed on harmlessly for the first two days in reasonably good weather, although it was getting colder and my shipmates on watch were dressed in their rig of the day sea-boots, overalls, duffle coats and balaclavas, I was more fortunate operating in the transmitting station responsible for controlling the twin four inch guns. The escorts were still in their positions with no sign of action and we were of the opinion that a pleasant trip was in store.

On July 1st 1942 we sighted our first German aircraft, it was easily recognised as a Blohm and Voss 136 and it circled the convoy all day long, just out of range of the guns and it was rather tantalizing. In the meantime wireless messages must have been passing from the aircraft to its base in Northern Norway, as the following day we were attacked by German torpedo bombers Heinkel 115's and JU88 Stuka Dive Bombers, this attack persisted all day and it was then we realised we were only off the Island of Spitzbergen and we still had a long way to go. One of the Merchant Ships was torpedoed, although I was unaware of its name, but we did manage to shoot down one of the German planes, all our guns, twin 4", pom-poms, oerlikons and machine guns were consistently in action, so we did get some consolation for our efforts, but felt sorry for the crews of the Merchantmen as the weather had deteriorated and very cold, so if they took to the water they would have to be picked up quickly if they had to susrvive.

We were attacked every day by bombers and submarines, in addition we always had the company of the Blohm and Voss on the horizon.

As we steamed past Bear Island in the Barents Sea we received a signal from the Admiral stating that "The German Heavy Fleet consisting of the Tirpitz, Prince Eugen and eight destroyers had left Trondheim in Norway to intercept the convoy"

On July 8th we received another signal stating that" this fleet were at North Cape in Northern Norway and were heading in the same direction as the convoy"

The convoy was ordered to scatter and each ship make for its nearest port independently. The Admiralty instructed the cruisers and destroyers to return to Scapa Flow leaving us and our sister ship Palomares, a few corvettes and trawlers as the only escorts for these brave men on the merchant ships. At this point our Skipper Captain Lawford cleared lower deck and advised the crew of the position of the German Heavy Units and he went on to say "we will fight these ships to the last shell and if it need be, go down fighting", so the crew were rather despondent with this news and everyone kept looking to the horizon for a sight of the German ships.

Next day we had a further signal from the Admiralty stating, that, "the Tirpitz had been damaged by one of our submarines and all the German ships had returned to Port", so one and all on board were relieved.We were still being attacked by planes and submarines and the Merchant Ships steaming without escorts were being picked off and sunk by the U-boats.

Out of our convoy of thirty five ships, twenty four of them had been sunk with a heavy loss of life.

It was under instruction and with regret, that on July 9th, we left the convoy with two corvettes and steamed North into the Arctic Ocean, close to Franz Joseph Land an island in the far north , which I believe is only seven hundred miles from the North Pole. We are now in the land of the Midnight Sun, the weather is quite nice but are at present "running" close to icebergs and were later brought to a standstill in icefields. After considerable difficulty we managed to break parts of the ice and were free. Next day we altered course and sailed in a more southerly direction and a few days later we put into Port at Matochkin Straits in the Island of Novaya Zelya off the coast of Siberia. Two days later we left this island with six Merchant Ships and steamed into another icefield, but managed to get out without much difficulty.

We were still being attacked by aircraft and U-boats, the latter seemed to be coming out from under the ice. It was another bad day for the few escorts remaining as our ammunition was getting low and of these six ships, five were sent to the bottom. The FOG was begining to descend now, this was a temporary relief from the constant attacks, but the fog didn't last very long.

On July 13th we arrived at the entrance to the White Sea and anchored in the Gulf of Mezen and we now had the feeling that the attacks were over. The following day we steamed down the White Sea escorting two Merchantmen, remnants from the convoy and on the horizon two destroyers were spotted racing towards us and they were identified as Russian - our allies. They formed in on our Port and Starboard sides, but shortly afterwards we were attacked by German Junkers 88's Stuka dive bombers and we had near misses. As soon as this attack started the Russian destroyers just "fled", leaving us to our own devices and we didn't see them again until we sailed up the River Dvinaand arrived at Archangel on July 18th, where we remained for a month.

On August 17th 1942 we left Archangel and sailed for Novaya Zemlya to escort three merchant Ships to the White Sea. We returned to Archangel with the ships four days later and tied up in Port again for practically another month as future convoys had been temporary suspended.

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On September 13th 1942 we left Archangel with a home bound convoy and we were continually attacked by U-boats, in fact the attacks were so intense at times that we lost the Tribal Class destroyer HMS Somali, the corvette HMS Leda and three Merchant Ships. We encountered very rough weather in the Barents Sea and arrived in Loch Ewe, Scotland on September 27th 1942, this being a more direct trip. We left the convoy in the Bay and arrived in Belfast the same day.

This was later described in a paper as the worst PQ convoy of the war."

AB 'ALF' G WEBSTER

AB Websters Photographs