No. 151 Wing RAF

Within days of the German invasion of the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa), Britain and the USSR entered into a formal military alliance. Anxious to offer immediate support to their new ally, British submarines, minelayers and aircraft carriers quickly put in an appearance off the north coast of Finland. On 31 July 1941, carrier-borne aircraft from HMS Furious conducted the Raid on Kirkenes and Petsamo. The British lost three aircraft and inflicted only minor damage on a small freighter and harbour facilities. In a further attempt to hinder naval traffic in the area, the Royal Navy mined the approaches to Petsamo.

The Dervish convoy assembled at Reykjavik in Iceland, consisting of six merchant ships Lancastrian Prince, New Westminster City, Esneh, Trehata, the elderly Llanstephan Castle loaded with raw materials and 15 crated Hawker Hurricane fighter aircraft, the fleet oiler RFA Aldersdale and the Dutch freighter Alchiba. Departing for Russia on 21 August, the convoy was escorted by the destroyers Electra, Active and Impulsive, the minesweepers Halcyon, Salamander and Harrier, and the anti-submarine Shakespearian class trawlers Hamlet, Macbeth and Ophelia. Distant cover came from the fleet carrier HMS Victorious and the cruisers HMS Devonshire and HMS Suffolk.[1]

The old aircraft carrier Argus (a veteran of World War I) took part in the parallel Operation Strength with the heavy cruiser Shropshire and the destroyers Matabele, Punjabi and Somali. Strength delivered the personnel of No. 151 Wing RAF Royal Air Force to Russia and the 24 Hurricanes were flown off Argus direct to Vaenga (later renamed Severomorsk) airfield, near Murmansk. Largely owing to the scarcity of Luftwaffe aerial reconnaissance aircraft in the region, the ships arrived safely.[2]

Preserved Hurricane Mk IIB Z5140

On 12 July 1941, a Soviet commission met representatives of the Royal Navy and the RAF in London and it was decided to use the airfield at Vaenga (now Severomorsk) to defend Allied ships while unloading at the ports of Murmansk, Arkhangelsk and Polyarnoe. No. 151 Wing RAF (Neville Ramsbottom-Isherwood) was established, comprising 81 Squadron and 134 Squadron, equipped with Hawker Hurricanes. The pilots had come from 81 Squadron, 504 Squadron or had just completed their training. The wing was to be transported to north Russia in Operation Dervish, the first Arctic convoy, 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 (VVS, Voyenno-Vozdushnye Sily).[3]

The majority of the airmen embarked on the steamship SS Llanstephan Castle together with 15 Hurricanes packed in crates, at the Scapa Flow anchorage in the Orkney Islands. The remaining 24 aircraft went on board the aircraft carrier Argus as part of Operation Strength, in which the carrier, a cruiser and three destroyers, carried the RAF party.[2] The ships departed from Scapa Flow on 17 August 1941 and the Hurricanes from Argus landed at Vaenga, about 17 mi (27 km) from Murmansk to find a large and fairly well equipped airfield occupied by a medium bomber squadron. Luftwaffe attacks on Dervish led to the ships docking at Archangelsk 400 mi (640 km) to the east. No facilities existed for the assembly of the crated Hurricanes; improvisation and the co-operation of the local Russians overcame the lack of specialist equipment, such as airscrew spanners and the job took nine days. The aircraft were flown to Vaenga on 12 September, except for two Hurricanes, whose pilots succumbed to Russian hospitality at a refuelling stop and had to continue the morning after.[3]

Vaenga airfield had an adequate surface of compacted sand which became very bumpy in wet weather. Airfield facilities were linked by a tarmac road but beyond the perimeter, there were only cart tracks. Accommodation was in brick buildings but wooden huts were found to be unkempt. Bedding was new, the food was ample, though some considered to be a little greasy and the sanitation was hideous, leading to the British naming the main latrine, directly over a cesspit, "The Kremlin". Co-operation from the Russians was excellent and Isherwood established rapport with the Soviet commanding general and gained the agreement of the Russians on bomber escort tactics.[4]

Within 24 hours of commencing operations, the wing shot down its first German aircraft. On 12 September, five Hurricanes of 81 Squadron intercepted a Henschel reconnaissance aircraft and five Messerschmitt Bf 109 escorts from Petsamo. The Hurricanes carried only six of their battery of eight machine-guns but shot down three Bf 109s and damaged the Henschel for a loss of one aircraft and pilot. In its five weeks of operations, the wing claimed 16 victories, four probables and seven aircraft damaged. The winter snows began on 22 September and the conversion of VVS pilots and ground crew to Hurricanes began in mid-October. In late November the RAF party returned, less various signals staff.[4] During a scramble, the pilot of a 134 Squadron Hurricane taxied with two airmen sitting on the tail to counter the bumpy surface. The pilot took off unaware that the airmen were still there and crashed soon after, the pilot being seriously injured and the airmen killed.[5]

No. 151 Wing was reformed on 10 March 1944 as a transport wing headquartered at RAF Habbaniya in Iraq, and operated until its disbanding on 1 June 1946.[13][14] From 1 October 1959 to 9 September 1964, 151 Wing was an air defence missile unit, probably operating Bristol Bloodhound surface-to-air missiles.[13]

• Normandie-Niemen, another Western air squadron operating on the Eastern Front.
• List of Wings of the Royal Air Force

Books

• Carter, Eric; Loveless, Antony (2014). Force Benedict. London: Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 978-1-4447-8513-5.
• Golley, John (2001). Hurricanes Over Murmansk. Airlife Classics. ISBN 978-1-84037-298-4.
• Harkins, H. (2013). Hurricane IIB Combat Log: 151 Wing RAF North Russia 1941. Glasgow: Centurion. ISBN 978-1-903630-46-4.

• Hawker Hurricane IIB 'Trop' Z5252
• Wings 111–192 at Air of Authority – A History of RAF Organisation