Research Catalog

Title

The ghost ships of Archangel : the Arctic voyage that defied the Nazis / William Geroux.

Author

Geroux, William

Publication

• New York, New York : Viking, [2019]
• ©2019

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

337 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps; 23 cm

Summary

"On the fourth of July, 1942, four Allied ships traversing the Arctic separated from their decimated convoy to head further north into the ice field of the North Pole, seeking safety from Nazi bombers and U-boats in the perilous white maze of ice floes, growlers, and giant bergs. Despite the risks, they had a better chance of survival than the rest of Convoy PQ-17, a fleet of thirty-five cargo ships carrying $1 billion worth of war supplies to the Soviet port of Archangel--the limited help Roosevelt and Churchill extended to Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin to maintain their fragile alliance, even as they avoided joining the fight in Europe while the Eastern Front raged. The high-level politics that put Convoy PQ-17 in the path of the Nazis were far from the minds of the diverse crews aboard their ships. U.S. Navy Ensign Howard Carraway, aboard the SS Troubadour, was a farm boy from South Carolina and one of the many Americans for whom the convoy was to be a first taste of war; aboard the SS Ironclad, Ensign William Carter of the U.S. Navy Reserve had passed up a chance at Harvard Business School to join the Navy Armed Guard. All the while, The Ghost Ships of Archangel turns its focus on Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin, playing diplomatic games that put their ships in peril. The twenty-four-hour Arctic daylight in midsummer gave no respite from bombers, and the Germans wielded the terrifying battleship Tirpitz, nicknamed The Big Bad Wolf. Icebergs were as dangerous as Nazis. As a newly forged alliance was close to dissolving and the remnants of Convoy PQ-17 tried to slip through the Arctic in one piece, the fate of the world hung in the balance"--

Subject

• World War (1939-1945)
• 1900-1999
• World War, 1939-1945 > Naval operations
• World War, 1939-1945 > Arctic Ocean
• Naval convoys > History > 20th century
• HISTORY / Military / World War II
• HISTORY / Maritime History & Piracy
• HISTORY / Military / Naval
• Military operations, Naval
• Naval convoys
• History
• Arctic Ocean

Genre/Form

History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 319-326) and index.

Contents

Prologue. The spinning needle -- The enemy of my enemy -- Hellish green -- Knight's move -- First blood -- Fireworks -- Scattered -- Into the ice -- Novaya Zemlya -- "We three ghosts" -- Arkhangelsk -- The knife-edge -- Reindeer games -- Reckoning.

Call Number

JFE 19-9816

ISBN

• 9780525557463
• 0525557466

LCCN

2018049389

OCLC

1074286373

Author

Geroux, William, author.

Title

The ghost ships of Archangel : the Arctic voyage that defied the Nazis / William Geroux.

Publisher

New York, New York : Viking, [2019]

Copyright Date

©2019

Type of Content

text

still image

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 319-326) and index.

Chronological Term

1900-1999

Other Form:

Online version: Geroux, William, author. Ghost ships of Archangel New York, New York : Viking, [2019] 9780525557470 (DLC) 2018055894

Research Call Number

JFE 19-9816