From the bestselling author of Dunkirk: Fight to the Last Man and Enigma: the Battle for the Code, the story of unsung American heroism in World War II's maritime epic in the Arctic.
It is 1941 and Russia has been invaded. The terms of the new alliance were that Western nations would ship urgently needed war materials to Russia via the shortest but most dangerous route: sailing north of the Arctic Circle while being hunted by U-boats, the Luftwaffe, and a surface fleet spearheaded by Tirpitz and Scharnhorst. This endeavor was called the Arctic convoys.
Battle of the Arctic is about the conflict and naval battles that unfolded while Allied naval and merchant seamen, airmen, submariners, soldiers and intelligence officers delivered on this wartime commitment to Russia from 1941-45, passing through terrific storms, snow, ice and Arctic mirages. When ships went down in seas so cold that a man could die after just five minutes of immersion, it triggered events reminiscent of the do-or-die moments during the sinking of the Titanic. The aftermath of such incidents was harrowing. Men perished one by one in lifeboats and as castaways on deserted Arctic islands where they were stalked by polar bears. Frostbitten and wounded survivors ended up in Russian hospitals so primitive that amputations were carried out without anaesthetics. Other survivors, while stranded for months in the communist state they were aiding, experienced the murky worlds of the NKVD and the gulags as well as famine and prostitution.
In Battle of the Arctic, Sebag-Montefiore has used a remarkable collection of vivid witness accounts brought together at the passing of the last survivors and has been produced with the benefit of research in Russian, German, British and American archives. Polish, Dutch, Norwegian and French sources have also been quoted. This has enabled the telling of this extraordinary story to oscillate between the sailor’s eye view on the front line and the political controversies that infuriated world leaders.
“Sebag-Montefiore takes a distinct approach by emphasizing the stories of survivors of sinkings on both sides. Granular details of personal experiences within a strategic context distinguish this naval history.”
“A rousing history of Allied supply convoys to the Soviet Union. Historian Sebag-Montefiore recaps the exploits of British, American, and Russian freighters ferrying wartime supplies from Scotland and Iceland to Russia’s arctic ports of Murmansk and Archangel. Sebag-Montefiore covers the theater’s major engagements at every level. It’s a rich and detailed chronicle of a crucial but seldom-sung naval struggle.”
“Journalist and historian Sebag-Montefiore is a tireless researcher who has turned up letters, diaries, and personal accounts. The author takes advantage of interviews and fresh documentation to emphasize the experiences of individual sailors. A gripping chronicle of warfare in extreme conditions.”
"Few readers could fail to be gripped by Dunkirk's combination of enthralling narrative and firsthand testimony. Indeed, the greatest strength of this book – greater even than its excellent maps and detail-rich notes - is the extent to which the author allows the diaries, letters, and memoirs of contemporaries to speak for themselves."
