Operation Benedict
Operation Benedict was the establishment of Force Benedict with units of the Soviet Air Forces in north Russia, during the Second World War. The force comprised 151 Wing, Royal Air Force, with two squadrons of Hurricane fighters. The wing flew against the Luftwaffe and the Suomen Ilmavoimat from Vaenga airfield in the northern USSR and trained Soviet pilots and ground crews to operate the Hurricanes, after which the British pilots and ground crews returned to Britain.
Twenty-four Hurricane Mk IIB fighters were delivered by Operation Strength, flying direct to Vaenga from the aircraft carrier. Fifteen Hurricanes were delivered in crates by Operation Dervish, the first Arctic convoy. The convoy was unable to dock at Murmansk and was diverted to Arkhangelsk, further on. The fifteen crated Hurricanes were assembled at Keg Ostrov airstrip in nine days, despite the primitive conditions and flown to Vaenga on 12 September.
In five weeks of operations, 151 Wing claimed 16 victories, four probables and seven aircraft damaged. The winter snows began on 22 September and converting pilots and ground crews of Soviet Naval Aviation of the VVS to Hurricanes began in mid-October. The RAF party departed for Britain in late November, less various signals staff, arrived on 7 December and 151 Wing disbanded. The British and Russian governments gave Benedict much publicity and four members of 151 Wing received the Order of Lenin.
Background
Diplomacy
On 22 June 1941, the Soviet Union was invaded by Nazi Germany and its allies. That evening, Winston Churchill broadcast a promise of assistance to the USSR against the common enemy. On 7 July, Churchill wrote to Stalin and ordered the British ambassador in Moscow, Stafford Cripps, to begin discussions for a treaty of mutual assistance. On 12 July, an Anglo-Soviet Agreement was signed in Moscow, to fight together and not make a separate peace. On the same day a Soviet commission met the Royal Navy and the RAF in London and it was decided to use the airfield at Vaenga as a fighter base to defend ships while unloading at the ports of Murmansk, Arkhangelsk and Polyarny. Ivan Maisky, the Soviet ambassador in London since 1932, replied on 18 July that new fronts in northern France and the Arctic would improve the situation in the USSR.Operations in the Arctic were favoured by Stalin and Churchill but the First Sea Lord, Admiral Dudley Pound considered such proposals unsound, "with the dice loaded against us in every direction". The US President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Churchill met at Placentia Bay in Newfoundland on 9 August and on 12 August communicated an assurance to Stalin that the western Allies were going to provide "the very maximum of supplies". A joint supply mission led by W. Averell Harriman and Max Aitken arrived at Arkhangelsk on 27 September and on 6 October, Churchill made a commitment to sail a convoy every ten days from Iceland to north Russia. When Arctic convoys passed by the north of Norway into the Barents Sea, they came well within range of German aircraft, U-boats and ships operating from bases in Norway and Finland. The ports of arrival, especially Murmansk, only about east of the front line were vulnerable to attack by the Luftwaffe.
151 Wing
The RAF contingent was to consist of two squadrons of Hawker Hurricanes and one squadron each of twin-engined Bristol Blenheims and Bristol Beaufighters. Charles Portal, the Chief of the Air Staff, decided on 25 July to send only No. 151 Wing RAF, comprising 81 Squadron and 134 Squadron, equipped with Hurricane Mk IIBs. A Flight of 504 Squadron, based in Exeter, formed the nucleus of a new 81 Squadron and were sent on leave, to return to RAF Leconfield in Yorkshire or had just completed their training; two pilots of 615 Squadron who had deliberately failed a night fighter conversion course were also posted to 151 Wing. The wing headquarters comprised about 350 administrative, signals, engineering, maintenance, transport, medical and non-technical staff and each squadron had a commanding officer, two flight commanders, at least thirty pilots and about 100 ground staff. The wing was to be transported to north Russia in the first Arctic convoy and was to operate until the weather in October or November grounded the aircraft. During the winter lull, the fighters were to be handed over to the Soviet Air Forces. After several delays, a 151 Wing advance party of two officers and 23 men departed from Leconfield in mid-August.Voyage
The Main Party, the majority of the 2,700 men of 151 Wing, including fourteen pilots was embarked on the troopship SS Llanstephan Castle together with 15 Hurricanes packed in crates, at the Scapa Flow anchorage in the Orkney Islands. The ships departed from Scapa Flow on 17 August 1941 with the Dervish Convoy and headed towards the Svalbard archipelago and the midnight sun, to circle as far north around Norway as possible. Also embarked were journalist and MP Vernon Bartlett, an American newspaper reporter, Wallace Carrol, Feliks Topolski, the Polish expressionist painter travelling as an official British and Polish war artist, a Polish Legation, a Czechoslovak commission and Charlotte Haldane a noted feminist and member of the Communist Party of Great Britain, who lectured on Domestic life in Russia as part of an impromptu course laid on by the civilian passengers. The danger of Luftwaffe attacks on Murmansk led to the ships being diverted at Arkhangelsk, another to the east. As Llanstephan Castle sailed upriver to dock, rifle shots were heard and a member of the crew was hit in the arm, the gunfire coming from people onshore who mistook the British uniforms for German ones.The ship anchored about from the dock and workers began to build a wooden quay outwards towards them, a race against time before the waters froze; the passengers were surprised to find that most of the dockworkers were women. Ramsbottom-Isherwood had made a plan in case a British liaison party from Moscow failed to arrive and intended to use the 151 Wing transport to travel to Vaenga, only to be surprised to find that no roads to Murmansk existed. The liaison party led by Air Vice-Marshal Basil Collier did arrive and discussions ensued as to the whereabouts of the Advance Party, which had travelled ahead with equipment and stores. The pilots on Argus were due to arrive at Vaenga in a few days' time and he also needed the fifteen Hurricanes carried in crates by Dervish, to make up the wing complement of 39 Hurricanes. It had been intended to transport the wing by train but the Kandalaksha–Murmansk railway had been bombed by the Luftwaffe. A small party of signallers were sent to Keg Ostrov airfield outside Arkhangelsk and a party of 200 men with the wing commander were to travel by sea in the destroyers and in two days' time. Two days later a group was to travel by tramp steamer to Kandalaksha, thence by train to Vaenga and two parties were to follow by rail, once the line had been repaired.
Operation Strength
Twenty-four aircraft and pilots went on board the aircraft carrier at Gourock, near Glasgow, sailing for Scapa Flow. The departure of the ship was delayed for ten days and fears rose that the voyage would be cancelled but eventually Argus sailed, escorted by a cruiser and three destroyers. Much of the journey was in fog, only a marker from the ship in front being visible. The rum ration was appreciated and the pilots inspected the new Hurricane Mk IIB fighters, stored below decks minus their wings. The Hurricane pilots thought that the deck was rather short for taking off and took an interest in the two Grumman Martlet fighters kept at readiness. The weather remained unchanged as the carrier turned south for Russia but when the ship reached the departure point, it was dead calm and Argus had to sail in circles until the wind rose sufficiently. The Martlets had to be dismantled before the Hurricanes could be put on the flight deck, six at a time; Argus would be steaming into wind at.The Fleet Air Arm aircrew briefed the pilots, to make sure that they rolled onto the ramp at the end of the flight deck, to get a shove into the air. To avoid problems with magnetic compasses at that latitude, one of the destroyers would point towards the coast and once three Hurricane pilots had formed a vic, they were to line up along it and keep going until they reached the coast, then turn right for Vaenga, a few miles inland. The squadron commanders briefed their pilots that 134 Squadron would take off first and that they were to keep a sharp lookout for German fighters but that they would carry only six of their twelve machine-guns to save weight. The first Hurricanes came up on the lift into a grey overcast day and the fight deck began to vibrate as the ship picked up speed into a light headwind as the Hurricane engines were started. Tony Miller, the 134 Squadron leader, went first, hit the ramp as suggested by the navy pilots and got airborne, despite the undercarriage being too damaged to retract. The other pilots saw that they would have to get airborne without hitting the ramp, because Hurricane undercarriages were not robust enough for it. Each vic assembled at about, flew along the destroyer guide; after about twenty minutes reached the coast and turned to starboard. Visibility was good and after about seventy minutes' flying, Vaenga was easy to see, as was the first Hurricane to land which had come in wheels-up.
Prelude
Keg Ostrov
The first men off Llanstephen Castle were mostly the R/T personnel needed at Vaenga to communicate with the Hurricanes when they arrived from Argus. The men were flown from Keg Ostrov on successive days, the first flight being routine. On the second day the aircraft was intercepted by German aircraft and had to run for home, fortunate that German aircraft were at the limit of their range and could not pursue; the pilot tried again next day and reached Vaenga. A group of about 200 men sailed on the two destroyers and reached Murmansk in 22 hours but missed a Russian destroyer which was supposed to guide them into port through the minefields; the captain used the Asdic set instead and docked safely. On 28 August, the men at Arkhangelsk formed an Erection Party of 36 men under the engineer-officer Flight-Lieutenant Gittins and Warrant Officer Hards. The men went by boat to Keg Ostrov and found fifteen crates on a mud flat near the hangars. One crate was emptied to accommodate the wireless section and then the men found that some types of specialist tools had been omitted from the maintenance kits but that tropical insulation covers for the engines had been included. A Russian engineer officer improvised airscrew and spark-plug spanners in the airfield workshop and later built proper engine covers, with a trunk underneath for a "hot air lorry" to boost the temperature of the engine.At the second Hurricane was extracted from its packing case and at was pushed into a hangar, followed by a third at by when the WT station was operational. Due to a lack of lifting gear, work stopped soon after and the British were accommodated on a paddleboat that looked like a Mississippi steamer. The main problem in re-assembling the aircraft was a lack of lifting gear to remove them from crates, jacking them up, lowering onto the undercarriage, adding the wings tail unit, then arming, fuelling and air testing. Next day, the Russians provided three cranes, which had to be wound by hand to raise the aircraft. By the evening of the second day, two Hurricanes had their wings on and as it had begun to rain, no more Hurricanes were unpacked. The men were split into three groups to concentrate on fitting wings and tail units of the ones already out. The British worked thirteen-hour days and were surprised by the lavish Russian hospitality compared with the rations at home, which manifested in stomach upsets for which a doctor was sent up from. By afternoon, five aircraft had been assembled and pushed into the hangar. The Main Party on the troopship were still cooped up but parties going ashore were required to be armed in case the locals took them for Germans. When the final assembly of the first Hurricane was complete on the fifth day, an engine test was run at in front of a throng of dignitaries and spectators.
On the sixth day, three Hurricanes were prepared for air tests, which attracted more dignitaries including admirals of the navy and naval air force. The local military forces and anti-aircraft units were notified and then the Hurricane pilots put on as much of a show as the low cloud base allowed, mainly tight turns and low-level passes. Next day engineers arrived from Moscow to discuss the fuel to be used in the Hurricanes, Soviet aircraft still using 87-octane rather than the 100-octane of the British machines. Henry Broquet worked with the engineers to make the local fuel compatible with the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, which led to the development of a tin catalyst which improved combustion efficiency. In the evening the British had some English food for a change and by the ninth day, all fifteen aircraft were ready and had improved the morale of the Arkhangelsk residents who had seen them perform. The aircraft were flown the to Vaenga on 12 September, guided by a Russian bomber, with the cloud base up to. The formation flew over the White Sea, exchanging recognition signals with Russian ships and landed safely at Vaenga, just as the Hurricanes from Argus returned from a sortie. Two Hurricanes, whose pilots succumbed to Russian hospitality at a refuelling stop, were late, having to continue the morning after.