Convoy PQ 15
Arctic convoy of the Second World War
Convoy PQ 15 (26 April – 5 May 1942) was an Arctic convoy sent from Iceland by the Western Allies to aid the Soviet Union (USSR) during the Second World War. The convoy sailed on 26 April 1942, escorted by the western local escort and rendezvoused with the ocean escort on 28 April. The convoy sailed unknown to the Germans until around midnight on 30 April/1 May when it was spotted by a German reconnaissance aircraft when about 250 nmi (460 km; 290 mi) south-west of Bjørnøya (Bear Island).
Six Junkers Ju 88 bombers attacked the convoy and lost one aircraft for no result. On 2 May the convoy escorts depth-charged a U-boat that turned out to be the Polish submarine ORP Jastrząb, five of the crew being killed and six wounded before the mistake was recognised. The submarine was about 100 nmi (190 km; 120 mi) outside its patrol zone after not gaining a positional fix for a week due to the weather.
On 1 May, about 350 nmi (650 km; 400 mi) off Iceland, to the west,, the heavy cover of the Home Fleet and the US Navy Task Force 99, ran into fog and the destroyer HMS Punjabi received the signal to cease zig-zagging too late. The destroyer was hit amidships by the battleship HMS King George V, cut in two and sunk, 49 of the crew being killed and 206 survivors being rescued. On 3 May the convoy was surprised by six Heinkel He 111 torpedo-bombers that flew below radar cover and sank three ships for the loss of three bombers, a loss of 15,800 GRT of shipping, there being 137 survivors.
On 4 May, the eastern local escort of two Soviet destroyers, two patrol ships and three British minesweepers arrived, the ships and U-boats skirmishing for no result.
“Convoy PQ 15” enters the record as arctic convoy of the Second World War. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Convoy, Arctic and convoy can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Convoy PQ 15” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Convoy, Arctic and convoy provides the most credible route into that argument.
Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4046231. Authority coordinates are 71.500, 12.533. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1942.
Institutional narratives can privilege the records that survived while minimizing voices that were never formally collected. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.
- Event chronology
- Institutional context
- Locating named record creators
Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Convoy PQ 15”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Convoy PQ 15 primary sources, Convoy PQ 15 archive and Convoy research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Convoy PQ 15”?
- What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
- Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Convoy PQ 15” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.