Polynitrogen Rocket Fuel

"Keith F. Lynch" wrote in message
...
Henry Spencer wrote:
[With better U-boats] Western aid to the USSR would also have been
cut off, although in itself I don't think that was enough to be
decisive.

Couldn't aid have been given via the Pacific, Vladivostok, and the
trans-Siberian railway, rather than via the Atlantic and Murmansk?

It was - and via Persia and the Caucasus but the transsiberian railway
didnt have the capacity to handle much more traffic than it did.

Keith

"Christopher M. Jones" wrote in message
...
Keith F. Lynch wrote:
Henry Spencer wrote:

[With better U-boats] Western aid to the USSR would also have been
cut off, although in itself I don't think that was enough to be
decisive.

Couldn't aid have been given via the Pacific, Vladivostok, and the
trans-Siberian railway, rather than via the Atlantic and Murmansk?

Just wondering aloud; -- isn't Japan rather close to
Vladivostock (RuleroftheEast)?

According to this page:
http://www.ibiblio.org/pjones/russia..._Alliance.html

Most of the lend-lease trade from the US to the USSR during
WWII went through Iran. Though, of course, it had to get
to Iran first.

Which ,just wondering aloud again, is rather further from Japan!

--

Brian

On 9 Dec 2004 22:58:03 -0500, Keith F. Lynch wrote:

Henry Spencer wrote:
[With better U-boats] Western aid to the USSR would also have been
cut off, although in itself I don't think that was enough to be
decisive.

Couldn't aid have been given via the Pacific, Vladivostok, and the
trans-Siberian railway, rather than via the Atlantic and Murmansk?

One of the reasons for occupying Norway was for it to act as a base
for warships blocking the route for convoys to Russia.
This was the route with the highest loss rate of any convoy.
They were quite effective.
In one convoy in 1942 26 ships started and only 11 reached Murmansk.
After this the convoys were stopped for 10 months.


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In article , John Thingstad
wrote:


One of the reasons for occupying Norway was for it to act as a base
for warships blocking the route for convoys to Russia.

Airbases came into it too, more than somewhat.

This was the route with the highest loss rate of any convoy.
They were quite effective.
In one convoy in 1942 26 ships started and only 11 reached Murmansk.

PQ 17, July 1942, after a very unfortunate "Convoy is to scatter" order
issued not by the people on the scene (either close escort, distant
escort, or covering force) but by the Admiralty, or to be more precise
Dudley Pound really beginning to lose it. Note that PQ 17 lost 23 ships
out of 34, not 26 out of 37, almost all of them after the Scatter!
order.

After this the convoys were stopped for 10 months.

PQ 18 sailed from Loch Ewe on 2 September, 1942. Six weeks, not ten
months. The convoy was successfully fought through, with losses. To
both sides. 13 merchantmen sunk out of 40, pretty grim, but the Germans
paid for it with 3 U-boats and a slew of torpedo aircraft.

The subsquent Russia convoy was delayed until December not by the
Germans but by Torch, which soaked up a vast number of escorts.

--
"The past resembles the future as water resembles water" Ibn Khaldun

My .mac.com address is a spam sink.
If you wish to email me, try atlothian at blueyonder dot co dot uk

On Fri, 10 Dec 2004 22:30:56 +0000, Alan Lothian
wrote:

In one convoy in 1942 26 ships started and only 11 reached Murmansk.

PQ 17, July 1942, after a very unfortunate "Convoy is to scatter" order
issued not by the people on the scene (either close escort, distant
escort, or covering force) but by the Admiralty, or to be more precise
Dudley Pound really beginning to lose it. Note that PQ 17 lost 23 ships
out of 34, not 26 out of 37, almost all of them after the Scatter!
order.


PQ 18 sailed from Loch Ewe on 2 September, 1942. Six weeks, not ten
months. The convoy was successfully fought through, with losses. To
both sides. 13 merchantmen sunk out of 40, pretty grim, but the Germans
paid for it with 3 U-boats and a slew of torpedo aircraft.

The subsquent Russia convoy was delayed until December not by the
Germans but by Torch, which soaked up a vast number of escorts.


I stand corrected.
Thanks for those insights.

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