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Summary

One of our members at Baroness Thatcher's funeral

Not many Legion branches can claim that one of their members was in the Guard of Honour at St. Paul's Cathedral - but Wincanton branch can! Paddy Fox, our resident Chelsea Pensioner, was in fact in a prominent position on the steps of St. Paul's Cathedral, along with other Pensioners at the funeral.

Arctic Convoys Medal at Last!

The Arctic convoys of World War II were ocean-going convoys which sailed from the United Kingdom, Iceland, and North America to northern ports in the Soviet Union - primarily Arkhangelsk (Archangel) and Murmansk, both in modern day Russia.

About 1400 merchant ships delivered vital supplies to the Soviet Union under the Lend-Lease program, escorted by ships of the Royal Navy, Royal Canadian Navy, and the United States Navy. Eighty-five merchant vessels and 16 Royal Navy warships were lost.

In February the government announced that at long last a special Arctic Convoys Medal would be struck and our member Bert Bentley received his recently. Bert learned morse in the Home Guard before receiving his call up papers in 1943 and with these skills he joined the Royal Navy, where he qualified as telegraphist. He first saw active service during the Normandy Landings on HMS Beagle a "B Class" Escort Destroyer.

It was in July 1944 that HMS Beagle was assigned to an escort group with convoys to Russia. Through the harsh northern winter of 1944 Bert completed several tours of duty back and forth to Russia. On one of his first trips he experienced the reality of the journey to Russia when his ship was torpedoed and dive-bombed by German land-based aircraft from Norway; luckily though the ship was not hit. It was a grim experience with sub zero temperatures and everything freezing up.

Bert continued on the Russian Convoys throughout the winter of 1944/45 and one of the most successful voyages was that of Convoy JW62 during November and December, which sailed from the Clyde destined for the Kola Inlet. The Convoy Escort consisted of two Escort Carriers and 21 Escort Vessels covered by the Cruiser Bellona and ten Destroyers, including the Beagle.

The Convoy consisted of 30 Freighters. Seventeen U-Boats were known to be operating off the Kola Inlet but no ships were lost. But on the return journey, escorting Convoy RA82, it was quite different. One of the escorts, HMS Cassandra, was hit by a torpedo from a U-Boat – U365, which was the only U-Boat to make contact. Cassandra was badly damaged but U365 was subsequently sunk by aircraft from the Carrier HMS Compania.

HMS Beagle, upon arrival at Loch Ewe, was detached for repairs and in February 1945 was redeployed to the Western Approaches.

We are all pleased, I know, that Bert has now received his well deserved Arctic Convoys Medal so I asked Bert if he would bring the medal with him to the April branch meeting for us all to see, which he did.

Next branch meeting 17th June 7 p.m. at the Wincanton Memorial Hall.

Editor Tony Goddard
01963-824193
Secretary Arthur Pickup
01963-32952

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