Reflecting back 73 years ago this date, my 19th birthday, I was aboard the SS Eldena in Convoy QP-11 two days out of Murmansk on our return voyage. The Germans were throwing the works at us. The British cruiser HMS Edinburgh, one of our escorts, was hit by 2 torpedoes from U-456 blowing off her stern. Later in the afternoon she was hit amidships by a torpedo from a German destroyer and almost cut in two. After offloading her survivors she was sunk by UK destroyers. Of the 3 German destroyers, one was sunk and one severely damaged. In the meantime the convoy was attacked by 6 JU-88 torpedo bombers that dropped all their torpedoes without scoring any hits on the convoy. One Russian ship, the Tsiolkovsky was hit astern by a torpedo from one of the German destroyers and sunk immediately. Only 5 of the crew survived.
Quite a birthday for a 19 year old kid.
John Haynes
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