The Ghost Ships of Archangel: The Arctic Voyage That Defied the Nazis

In this gripping history, Geroux (The Mathews Men) recounts the fascinating story of multinational convoy PQ-17, which sailed through treacherous ice-filled waters to deliver tanks, explosives, and other supplies to support the Soviet WWII effort. While this mission remains part of popular Russian history, the Allied invasion of North Africa later in 1942 soon superseded any American interest in the large-scale cat-and-mouse game in the Arctic. Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin argued over the schedule and necessity of the convoys; Stalin pushed hard for specific supplies to bolster the Eastern Front. After British Admiral Dudley Pound illogically ordered the convoy to “scatter” (leaving the slow-moving freighters unprotected), Nazi bombers, warships, and U-boats hunted the Allied vessels, sinking 22 out of 35. Drawing on diaries, firsthand interviews (with, for example, merchant mariner Jim North, who was on the Troubadour), and several memoirs, Geroux focuses on multiple first-person perspectives to shed light on everything from boredom in the Icelandic port to the sailors’ new reality of life as prey susceptible to German attacks. WWII aficionados, and anyone else who likes a good story, will find this well-written adventure tale a real pleasure. (May)