Post by Administrator on May 15, 2018 22:14:14 GMT
Obituary - Arthur McWatt, Arctic convoy veteran
Died: May 1, 2018
ARTHUR McWatt, who has died aged 94, was a veteran of the Arctic Convoys during the Second World War, which Prime Minister Winston Churchill famously described as representing the “the worst journey on earth”. Under constant threat of attack by German U-boats and aircraft, the convoys, which took vital supplies to the Soviet Union, also had to deal with severe cold, storms, and ice floes.
By May 1945, the Arctic route had claimed 104 merchant and 16 military vessels and thousands of Allied seamen lost their lives.
When he was 90 years old, Mr McWatt was the first person in Scotland to receive the Russian Ushakov medal for bravery for serving on the destroyer HMS Walker, which was built at Denny’s Leven shipyard in his home town of Dumbarton, where his father had been an employee.
HMS Walker was part of the fleet with the hazardous task of escorting merchant ships between the UK and the Soviet Union.
LINK
Died: May 1, 2018
ARTHUR McWatt, who has died aged 94, was a veteran of the Arctic Convoys during the Second World War, which Prime Minister Winston Churchill famously described as representing the “the worst journey on earth”. Under constant threat of attack by German U-boats and aircraft, the convoys, which took vital supplies to the Soviet Union, also had to deal with severe cold, storms, and ice floes.
By May 1945, the Arctic route had claimed 104 merchant and 16 military vessels and thousands of Allied seamen lost their lives.
When he was 90 years old, Mr McWatt was the first person in Scotland to receive the Russian Ushakov medal for bravery for serving on the destroyer HMS Walker, which was built at Denny’s Leven shipyard in his home town of Dumbarton, where his father had been an employee.
HMS Walker was part of the fleet with the hazardous task of escorting merchant ships between the UK and the Soviet Union.
LINK