Medal and Putin message for war vet
IT’S not every day a naval captain turns up on your doorstep - least of all with a message from Vladimir Putin.
John Bligh said it was “a big surprise” when he was given a medal and letter sent by the Russian president for his service in World War II.
The 90-year old, from Elmesthorpe was an armourer in the Fleet Air Arm, the Royal Navy’s aircraft division, and helped provide aerial cover for the Arctic convoy.
He served on the aircraft carrier HMS Indefatigable which protected supplies from the UK, Iceland and North America, to the Soviet Union, supporting their war efforts against Nazi Germany.
Mr Bligh said: “We were sent out east to patrol over the ships.
“When they went up the coast of Norway, there was a chance they’d be attacked by German bombers.
“Fortunately that never happened while I was covering them.”
He worked with the convoy for nine months, starting in 1943 and also served in the war against Japan in Burma.
The convoys operated 78 times from August 1941, shortly after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, to May 1945, when Germany surrendered to the Allies.
They would take the supplies up the coast of occupied Norway to north Russian ports, mostly to Arkhangelsk and Murmansk.
Some 1,400 merchant ships were involved, and 16 of the protecting warships were sunk during the missions. More than 3,000 Allied seamen lost their lives during the convoy.
After the war, John worked as a postman for the rest of his profes- sional life, eventually becoming a supervisor. He is originally from Lowestoft, and has lived and worked in Nottingham and Rugby.
The Russian embassy has been handing out medals to veterans from the convoy over the past couple of years, with individual envoys being send out to find the remaining unsung heroes.
Last year an exhibition centre was set up by the Russian Arctic Convoy Project near the wartime anchorage of Wester Ross, in the Scottish Highlands.