Battle of the Arctic

The Maritime Epic of World War II

Hugh Sebag-Montefiore

• Publisher: Pegasus Books
• Year: 2026
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781639369027
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

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.

No campaign during World War II contained more spinetingling drama, outstanding courage, and heartbreaking tragedy than the Arctic convoys. Yet they—and the multifaceted battle of the Arctic that had to be fought to get them through to Russia—remain one of the war’s most under-celebrated feats.

As this book’s title implies, Battle of the Arctic tells a unique story. For much of the conflict was complicated by terrific storms, snow, ice, fog, whales and Arctic mirages, so that what is chronicled at times sounds like a cross between the nightmarish torment experienced by both Shackleton in his ship Endurance and Scott of the Antarctic, and an Arctic version of Robinson Crusoe.

The action unfolded as Allied naval and merchant seamen, airmen, submariners, soldiers and intelligence officers delivered on their countries’ promise to take arms to Russia notwithstanding the German attempts to hunt them in their aircraft, U-boats and surface fleet spearheaded by Tirpitz and Scharnhorst. When ships were attacked and 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. 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 gulag as well as famine and prostitution.

Using new material unearthed in American, British, Russian and German archives, as well as Polish, Norwegian, French and Dutch sources, and a remarkable collection of vivid witness accounts brought together at the passing of the last survivors, Hugh Sebag-Montefiore can at last shine a revealing light on this extraordinary tale that oscillates between the sailors’ eye view on the front line, and the controversies that infuriated world leaders.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Introduction
• Note for Readers
• Chapter 1: Break Up
• Chapter 2: To Russia with Love
• Chapter 3: First Blood
• Chapter 4: Flight of the Albacores
• Chapter 5: Tit for Tat
• Chapter 6: Abandoned
• Chapter 7: Thirty-Two Men in a Boat
• Chapter 8: A Different Kind of Operation
• Chapter 9: Saved by the Bell
• Chapter 10: David and Goliath
• Chapter 11: Sitting Ducks
• Chapter 12: Friendly Fire
• Chapter 13: Coup de Grâce
• Chapter 14: Suck it and See
• Chapter 15: A Perfect Storm
• Chapter 16: Safe as Houses
• Chapter 17: Mind the Gap
• Chapter 18: Consequences
• Chapter 19: The Good Samaritan
• Chapter 20: Just in Time
• Chapter 21: To Add Insult to Injury
• Chapter 22: A Safe Haven
• Chapter 23: Home Run
• Chapter 24: And Then There Were Eleven
• Chapter 25: The Red Carpet
• Chapter 26: The Blips
• Chapter 27: Blitz
• Chapter 28: Turning of the Tide
• Chapter 29: So Near…
• Chapter 30: Castaway
• Chapter 31: Rescued
• Chapter 32: Last Stand
• Chapter 33: We Must Take the Current When it Serves
• Chapter 34: Sacrifice
• Chapter 35: Culture Clash
• Chapter 36: Churchill’s Ultimatum
• Chapter 37: A German Tragedy – Act 1
• Chapter 38: Turning Point
• Chapter 39: Lessons Learned
• Chapter 40: Soviet Union’s PQ17
• Chapter 41: Slaying the Dragon
• Chapter 42: Last Throw of the Dice
• Chapter 43: Wolves at the Door
• Chapter 44: Conclusion
• Photographs
• Maps
• Appendices
• Glossary
• Abbreviations
• Acknowledgements
• About the Author
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• List of Illustrations
• Image Descriptions
• Copyright