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Thread: SS Kalev Arctic Convoys & Normandy Campaign

  1. #31
    Keith at Tregenna's Avatar
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    Default Re: SS Kalev Arctic Convoys & Normandy Campaign

    23.10.2013
    DEADLINE FOR APPLYING FOR THE USHAKOV MEDAL FOR THE BRITISH VETERANS OF THE ARCTIC CONVOYS
    In June 2013, a few days before the visit of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin to London, Her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth II granted Her permission for the British veterans of the Arctic Convoys to be awarded Russia’s Ushakov Medal.In this regard, the Embassy of the Russian Federation together with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Ministry of Defence of Great Britain have worked on compiling a comprehensive list of British veterans, who are entitled to the Ushakov Medal. Upon its completion the list will be forwarded to Moscow and a special decree will be signed by the President of the Russian Federation, to confer this honour.The Embassy has already checked the majority of received application forms and included more than 3,000 veterans into the list. In order to continue the above procedure, the Embassy is announcing a deadline for sending in application forms for the Ushakov Medal, which will be 31 October 2013.

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    Default Re: SS Kalev Arctic Convoys & Normandy Campaign

    Dear Keith,

    Sorry if I'm causing any confusion. But my Grandad received his medal nearly 30 years before this applicaton for the Ushakov medal your mentioning took place. And I remember clearly how he joked about the Queen being upset about it. So that's why I wonder how it was possible for the Russians, in 1985, to obtain his name and residence address.

    It seemed to have been a huge issue at the time, to receive a Soviet medal in the middle of the cold war.

    That's why I wonder how they knew his details, and I doubt it had anything to do with bilateral agreements.

  4. #33
    Keith at Tregenna's Avatar
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    Default Re: SS Kalev Arctic Convoys & Normandy Campaign

    I can only imagine that he was recommended and the information provided by the
    Foreign and Commonwealth Office / Ministry of Defence of Great Britain or similar,
    this prior to the general awarding of medals later.

    Even the Commonwealth War Graves Commission began mainly with info from the
    relatives etc.

    Hope this helps.

    I will ask further and try to assist as far as possible.

    Regards,

    Keith.

  5. #34
    Keith at Tregenna's Avatar
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    Default Re: SS Kalev Arctic Convoys & Normandy Campaign

    Dennis, gone through my archives and the below is from 2013:

    Russian Ushakov Medal for Arctic Convoy Veterans:

    Bob Miller of the Orkneys is seeking the names of surviving, Scottish Arctic Convoy Veterans to submit to the Russian Consulate General in Edinburgh for the award of the Ushakov Medal.

    MN National are making enquiries regarding surviving, non-Scottish Arctic Convoy Veterans receiving the medal.

    For Details Contact:

    Tim Brant
    National Secretary
    Merchant Navy Association
    mna.national@virgin.net

    Tim may know more and pos assist.

    Keith.

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    Default Re: SS Kalev Arctic Convoys & Normandy Campaign

    Thanks Keith!

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  9. #36
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    Default Re: SS Kalev Arctic Convoys & Normandy Campaign

    Also just incase, hope the link works, the Merchant Navy Association GUEST BOOK
    may be worth a try.

    K.

    MNA Guest Book

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  11. #37
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    Default Re: SS Kalev Arctic Convoys & Normandy Campaign

    1985, to obtain his name and residence address.

    Though later than your Grandad's the below was issued in 2013.

    RE: Ushakov.

    Apparently the application forms for the Russian Ushakov Medal will be sent out, in about 2 weeks, to surviving Arctic Star Medal holders and are to be returned to the Russian Embassy.

    Which does confirm that much was by application / reccomendation etc and liaison between both countries etc.

    Keith.

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    Default Re: SS Kalev Arctic Convoys & Normandy Campaign

    Quote Originally Posted by Keith at Tregenna View Post
    1985, to obtain his name and residence address.

    Though later than your Grandad's the below was issued in 2013.

    RE: Ushakov.

    Apparently the application forms for the Russian Ushakov Medal will be sent out, in about 2 weeks, to surviving Arctic Star Medal holders and are to be returned to the Russian Embassy.

    Which does confirm that much was by application / reccomendation etc and liaison between both countries etc.

    Keith.

    Dear Keith,

    Thanks again for all your thoughts and info, really appreciate it mate!

    From all I know or have found over the years, the medal my Grandad received or the way how it was awarded to him, is entirely different than the Ushakov or other medals which were issued after around 1994. Before then, medals like my Grandad's were more or less considered as "prohibited items, off limits". Both my Dad and Grandad used to tell me about the fact that at the time, it was almost seen as a tool to raise opposition or an act of undermining the Western alliances against the Soviet/Eastern Block. It was an insult to the British Government who saw it as some sort of a threat or trouble in terms of national interests. At the time the cold war was still in full swing. The arctic convoys had long been forgotten and there was no interest in suddenly having to deal with such a controversial debate, let alone acknowledging the fact to which extent the allies had collaborated with, and supported the Red Army. It was a topic which they preferred to keep quiet...

    And as I probably wrote earlier on, Grandad always joked about how the Queen got all upset because of this "bloody" Russian medal.

    I'll attach a screenshot I saved from what I found in a google book search. There, as you can see, it is written that this Medal was not recognized at the time it was issued (1985), and only in 1994 was officially recognized and a "ROYAL WARRANT" was granted to recipients allowing to wear it together with their British awards.

    Jubilee Medal recognized in 1994.jpg

    HOWEVER, to get back to the overall point, it remains a question as to how the Russians got the names of those veterans, including what you wrote/posted about "... application forms will be sent out". OK, you had to apply for the Ushakov medal, but how did the Russians know or obtain the names and contact details of those veterans who might have been eligible? logically, in order to get that process going, the first step had to be done by the Russian side, sending the application forms to those vets. And while it might have been possible that for the Ushakov or other "Post Cold War" medals, there might have been a bilateral collaboration where the Brits provided those details to the Russians (which I honestly doubt!), there was surely no such sort of collaboration in 1985. Impossible to imagine the Brits handing out personal records or details about veterans of the armed forces.

    My final conclusion is, the Russians/Soviets had those names or obtained them originally without the knowledge or any official assistance from the British side. I think it might be possible that they had those names because there could have been some sort of "arrival registration" of allied personnel arriving in Soviet ports during the war, or they somehow tracked them down after the war, during the Cold War period, by some sort of clandestine, secret service type of information gathering.

    I don't know if Grandad had to fill in an application, but regardless if he did or not, the question still would remain as of how they were able to send him that application and why they knew his name and where he lived.

    Below I copy / paste two similar stories like mine. One about another chap who researched his fathers WW2 history and who also had received a similar medal like the one my Grandad got, just that my Grandad received the 40 Year, while this other guy was awarded 10 years later with the 50 Years medal. Furthermore, he served with the U.S. Navy and his medal was awarded to him through the Russian consulate in New York. Here again it can be concluded that the origin of the names came from a Russian database to start with.

    Quick quote: “I don’t know why they gave it to me,” said eighty three year old McConley. “I was just doing my job.” (full story below)

    Then, following "McConley's story", you can find the second "similar" story about another British recipient of the exact same medal like the one my Grandad got, the 40 years medal.


    Source of following content: https://www.armed-guard.com/tedmedal.html

    Russian Jubilee Medal Received By Mineville Man

    By Bethany Kosmider
    Contributing Writer

    Theodore McConley of Mineville, New York recently received the Jubilee Medal Award from the Embassy of the Russian Federation.

    Eight years ago “Ted” received a letter from the Russian Embassy asking him if he was the same person who guarded the supplies for the Russians in WWII during the periods of 1944-1945. Ted lost the letter and forgot about the inquiry. In December of 2005, a friend of his inquired of the medal to the Russian Embassy to which a reply was received, later followed by an envelope containing the Jubilee Medal.

    “I don’t know why they gave it to me,” said eighty three year old McConley. “I was just doing my job.”

    The medal awards were established on July 7, 1993 by President Yeltsyn. The Jubilee Medal and all paperwork received with it are written in Russian. With the help of Judy Olinick in the Russian Department at Middlebury College, the translation gave sense of what the medal was about.

    The 50th Anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 medal was conferred to all living veterans of the Patriotic War who assisted with transporting supplies into Russian ports and was given as a symbol of appreciation from the Russian government.

    Ted was trained at Little Creek, Virginia as a Navy armed guard gunner and later assigned to a Merchant Marine Ship that was carrying cargo to the Russians in combat. His first assignment was to the SS Charles M. Conrad, a liberty cargo ship that carried a crew of about forty four and twelve to twenty five Naval Armed Guards, who were the luckier ones to make safe passage to and from the Soviet Union. He later served on the SS John Hopkins, the Esso Annapolis tanker, both of which have been since scrapped.

    From Virginia to the Russia, where the soldiers came to the riverbank docks with trucks to unload the supplies, was Ted’s first successful tour. The route went through the Mediterranean Sea into the Suez Canal, into the Red Sea and down into the Gulf of Aden, progressing to the Indian Ocean and then to the Straits of Hormuz, finally coming to the Persian Gulf and then up the Uphrates River.

    “On the way back, I stopped in Cape Town where we loaded up with iron ore,” said McConley. “From there I went to Fortaleza, Brazil where we loaded the ship with hemp and brought that cargo back to Virginia.”

    “The army received all kinds of medals for their bravery and achievements but the Navy gunners didn’t receive much recognition”, said McConley. “Now I have a medal for being on the front lines and it came from Russia.”

    Ted, who is known for his abilities to train and race horses at Saratoga and all over the northeast, can now be known for the best-kept secret, serving his country. A formal Award Ceremony is being planned for May 29th, 2006 at the VFW Post in Mineville, New York with a chicken barbeque following. The public will be more than welcome.
    04/18/2006

    World War II medal awarded to Mineville veteran
    'Suicide squad' vet gets medal for aiding troops in WWII
    By LOHR McKINSTRY, Staff Writer

    MINEVILLE -- The U.S. Navy Armed Guard was an outfit no one had heard of, a
    World War II "suicide squad" that protected cargo ships from Axis forces.

    Now, a Moriah man who fought with that elite unit is finally getting a medal he
    earned 62 years ago.

    Theodore "Ted" McConley, 83, of Mineville will officially receive a commendation
    medal from the Russian Federation at a noon ceremony on Memorial Day at the
    Mineville Veterans of Foreign Wars hall.

    FACED ATTACKS

    A gunner during the war, McConley has been awarded the Russian Medal of Honor
    for serving as a member of the U.S. Navy Armed Guard on a ship taking vital
    supplies to Russian troops stationed on the Euphrates River in 1944.

    Along the way, he faced German U-boat attacks and strafing from enemy warplanes.

    McConley's trip began on the ship SS Charles M. Conrad leaving a Chesapeake Bay
    port. He and 25 of his fellow Naval Armed Guard members were aboard as it made
    its way to resupply Russian troops stationed in Turkey.

    "We were the gunners trying to get the ship through and get it home again,"
    McConley said. "We guarded merchant ships. I served on a lot of ships."

    ARM OF NAVY

    The Naval Armed Guard was a division of the U.S. Navy that served aboard U.S.
    Merchant Marine and other supply ships during World War II. Of its 150,000
    members, 1,800 were killed in action.

    During World War II, the Naval Armed Guard lost 720 ships. The guard was the
    subject of the recent documentary "Forgotten Valor," which details how the group
    protected war supplies.

    It took 62 days to get from the U.S. port to the northern Euphrates River,
    McConley said.

    "We went through the Suez Canal. We went through the Straits of Gibraltar, where
    we had to run German (U-boat) wolf packs. We'd lay smoke screens so they
    couldn't see us."

    Once they got to the Euphrates rendezvous, he said, "we met them there on the
    river, where they had docks, and we unloaded them. The Russians would come with
    their trucks and take the stuff away."

    He said there was no city nearby, so the trucks must have come a long distance.

    LITTLE RECOGNITION

    While they were berthed at the Euphrates, a German warplane attacked and was
    shot down.

    "He didn't return to his base," McConley said. "But we never got any
    recognition. Nobody documented the air raid that day."

    That's generally how it went with the Naval Armed Guard, he said.

    War correspondents and photographers traveled with other branches of the service
    during World War II but not the Naval Armed Guard, he said.

    McConley went all over the world with the guard.

    "I was in the Pacific on tankers. We delivered (aviation) gas to aircraft
    carriers in the Mariana Islands and the Carolina Islands."

    CLOSE CALL

    McConley's unit was in Naples, Italy, the day the city's post office was bombed
    by the Germans.

    "We'd just got our mail at the post office. Then it blew up."

    That was in August 1943, after Italy had surrendered to Allied forces, and U.S.
    Army troops who were there that day were awarded the Bronze Star.

    "We didn't get the Bronze Star," McConley said. "We were in the Navy."

    But he and other Naval Armed Guard members may yet get acknowledgment specific
    to their service.

    A bill was introduced in Congress last year by Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wa.) to award
    veterans like McConley the newly created U.S. Navy Armed Guard Service Medal.

    "The United States has not adequately recognized the heroism and sacrifices of
    the members of the United States Navy Armed Guard during World War I and World
    War II," Larsen said in a news release.

    "The mariners served honorably to protect civilians and freight on vessels and
    were equally dedicated, intrepid and heroic and are equally deserving of
    recognition with a special medal."

    The bill has been referred to committee for further action.

    MEDALS

    McConley did receive four World War II campaign medals from the Navy in 1990. He
    said after he spoke up at a VFW meeting about his service, someone contacted the
    Navy and found he was due the awards.

    McConley's friend, Bethany Kosmider of Crown Point, helped him get the Russian
    medal.

    "He'd received a letter from the Russian Embassy years ago, asking if he was the
    same man who'd served in World War II. He answered them then never heard
    anything."

    After Kosmider contacted the Russians, the medal showed up one day by certified
    mail.

    "He told me, At least I am still alive to receive this,'" she said. "I think
    the sacrifice of the Naval Armed Guard in World War II has been overlooked. This
    is long overdue."

    McConley and the other members of the Naval Armed Guard protected more than
    6,000 ships during World War II.

    "The Navy called us a suicide squad," he said. "We were forgotten."


    Source of following content: https://aircrashsites.co.uk/history/...-convoy-medal/

    Russian Convoy Medal
    A Soviet commemorative medal awarded to my Dad for his service in the Royal Navy during WWII. Cast in 1985, it is called the “40th Anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War Medal”, popularly known in the UK as the Russian Convoy Medal. Besides Soviet forces and partisans it was also made available to sailors who had taken part in the Arctic Convoys from Britain to the Soviet Union.
    My Dad served on the heavy cruiser HMS Norfolk on three Arctic Convoys, PQ2 to Archangelsk in October 1941 (and the return convoy QP2), and PQ14 to Murmansk in April 1942. There are now very few veterans remaining but I know personally one man who is over 100 years old and who served on HMS Pozarica during the disasterous convoy PQ17.
    These convoys – merchant ships escorted by British, American and European warships – transported goods from the US and UK to the far north of Russia after 1941. The crews had to cope with intense cold which froze the tears in their eyes and the lubricants in their machines. Any man who fell in the sea would be dead within minutes. Everything was thick with ice and in winter at that latitude there’s almost 24 hours of darkness, which at least helped prevent attacks by the Luftwaffe or U-boats.
    The civilian crews of the multi-national merchantmen were, like their vessels, drawn from around the world. Not just British and American but also Chinese, Brazilian and Sudanese sailors, often working for the lowest rates the ship owners could pay. Proportionately their chances of survival were less than any of the Allied armed forces. For a while any merchant sailor who survived his ship being sunk and found himself adrift in a lifeboat, would suddenly be unemployed and therefore would recieve no further pay – if he ever made it back to port.
    Britain had a complicated relationship with the USSR. After Germany invaded Poland in 1939 – the act which finally tipped Britain into declaring war on Germany – the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east. The USSR had a non-aggression pact with Germany, provided aid to Germany’s war effort and Stalin would have been happy to see the Nazis defeat Britain. As a capitalist and imperialist state, Britain was very much the enemy of the USSR. Between 1939 and 1941 Britain alone stood against Nazi Germany.
    Hitler’s decision to attack the USSR in June 1941 took Luftwaffe bombers away from raids on British cities. As a result the British people quickly developed a soft spot for the USSR. However there was always the possibility Stalin might make peace with Hitler. Churchill therefore needed more than warm and fuzzy feelings; he needed the Soviet Union to remain at war with Germany, so offered to transport goods under the Lend-Lease scheme.
    Officially, the USSR barely acknowledged the efforts of the convoys. Given their horrific losses on the Eastern Front – some 27 million Soviet dead by the end of the war – they could be forgiven for expecting nothing less, although with battle tactics which didn’t involve hurling soldiers into frontal attacks and shooting those who turned and fled, that number would have been much lower.
    It is often said that WWII was fought and won on the Eastern Front, echoing the then Soviet view that everything that happened in the West was just a sideshow. When you consider that 80% of Wehrmacht losses were to Soviet forces, it is easy to agree. The statistics are misleading though and Germany’s defence of the west employed personnel and machines which would otherwise have faced east. But also without the millions of tons of American and British equipment and supplies, it is very unlikely the Red Army, no matter what their number, would have been able to push the Nazis back to Berlin. Equally without an attack from the east by the USSR, the invasion of Europe in 1944 would have been unthinkable.
    Although my Dad told me tales he never gave me the details, convoy numbers, dates etc. I identified those by referring to his Service Record. From this I could see what dates he was aboard certain ships, and then, referring to books and sites such as Naval-Histroy.Net, could determine where those ships were on those dates and what action they saw. The details match the dates on the document and also tie in with my memories of my Dad’s memories, which are the least reliable source of information.
    It isn’t always possible to obtain a relative’s Service Record, but you should start here if you want to try;
    404 - Not Found
    In the USA;
    Request Military Service Records | National Archives
    SOURCES
    “Arctic Convoys”, Richard Woodman, 2004
    “All Hell Let Loose”, Max Hastings, 2011
    Imperial War Museum
    National Maritime Museum
    Naval-History.Net
    Family History - Royal Navy and Naval History.Net
    Veterans-UK
    www.veterans-uk.info/index.htm
    Wikipedia
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jubilee_Medal_%22Forty_Years_of_Vic…

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  15. #39
    Keith at Tregenna's Avatar
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    Default Re: SS Kalev Arctic Convoys & Normandy Campaign

    Skim read and will look properly later Dennis.

    Regards,

    Keith.

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    Default Re: SS Kalev Arctic Convoys & Normandy Campaign

    Dear all,

    On my quest and desire to find answers to questions about events long ago, I wish to share some news about my latest findings. I’d also like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude and thankfulness to all of you who have help and encouraged me to keep on searching. Furthermore, I once again hope to encourage others to keep on searching and never give up, in the end, it does not matter how much or how many answers one gets, what matters is that we remember those who served and the sacrifices they made, in order for us to be here, enjoy freedom and be able to study, share and preserve as many bits and pieces of our history!

    It's been a while since I last posted, COVID-19 came and continues to impact our way of life, changing things forever. As I live in South East Asia, like many others around the world, I wasn’t able to travel for a rather long time. But after 2 long years, I was recently able to travel and visit my mom in Europe. During my wonderful stay, I managed to dig around the cellar and open a few old, dust covered boxes and to my absolute amazement, I came across what I would call a true treasure trove. I had never expected that I’d one of these days come across handwritten pages, left behind by grandad, where he wrote down some of his war time memoirs. It seems that he kept everything from the time he went to school until he passed away.

    Anyway, as the title of my thread indicates, my main focus or interests were mainly about arctic convoys, as well as events that took place around Caen during the Normandy landings and the invasion period.

    From what I was able to recover thus far, there are 3 documents where these 2 topics are directly mentioned and/or where he wrote about that. I will try to scan them all in the next few days and post them here. However, below I will write a short summary of what I came across and therefore, how this narrows my search down…

    Unfortunately, he did not include exact dates, precise locations or details such as convoy numbers, so I am still left with yet another lot of further questions.

    So for the moment, my first focus is on the arctic convoy history.

    From what he wrote, I take it, that around late 1943, late November/December time frame, they loaded cargo, as he wrote: “we then loaded a cargo of large packing cases with no names on just numbers and no one seemed to know what they contained (from another document this must have happened in Hartlepool). We then went round to North West Scotland to a Loch where the port was Oban and joined many other ships to a destination unknown. We then left Oban and headed to the outer East Coast of Iceland and anchored amongst the other ships there.”
    In this memoire he then wrote: “a huge debate was going on among the all Estonian crew and finally a British Naval Officer boarded and after several more hours of debating, I was informed that the crew refused to continue on sailing to Russia, as they feared that as an Estonian vessel, they would be executed by the Soviets, since but that time, Estonia was something like an enemy or at least they would have been seen as deserters. We were then told to join an escort and trawlers back to England. We managed to get back safe without incidence and unloaded our cargo at various ports and nothing was done regarding the Estonians refusal to complete the trip.

    However, in another memoire he wrote: “… we were off joining a convoy to Murmansk, but when we got about half way, we were told our speed was not good enough and so we had to go back with a trawler escort.”

    In a third, very short note on the back of some envelope, he wrote: “upon arriving back to Hull, I was sent on a convoy bound for Russian Artic to Murmansk to help the Russians with all the types of war materials they needed and then got again got back to England unharmed, I was not hurt in anyway.”

    Anyway, from all this, I think I would be able to boil this down to perhaps 2 or 3 of the JW convoys, departing during December 43. However, I have not yet been able to find any further details which actually mention or confirm which convoy they were on, or bound to join, however way you look at it.

    In summary, I now believe they (SS KALEV) were scheduled to join JW.55A or JW.55B, the last or latest making sense would have to have been JW.56A

    At least that is my conclusion so far (I might be wrong, who knows…)

    More later on

    Cheers

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