World Battlefronts: AT SEA: Arctic Heat

“Hottest thing on seven seas” is the Arctic supply route to Russia, said a British seaman named Edward S. Phillips last week. He was just back from convoying supplies to Murmansk. “Ships sailing to or from Murmansk,” he said, “go into action almost the first day out against surface craft and submarines.” Confirming such accounts of Arctic peril, the Admiralty announced loss of the 10,000-ton cruiser Edinburgh and four merchant ships as the result of enemy attacks on two convoys plying the North Cape route. Yet Winston Churchill (see p. 26) was able to announce that, despite some losses, every convoy carrying U.S.British supplies to Russia has gotten through.