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SS Raceland An international research for the SS racelands crew. The USA and Great Britain organized the war aid for Russia in the 2nd world war.
Through Iceland freighters sailed, protected by the navy, in convoy to Murmansk or Archangel.
The Germans found out and sended airplanes, ships and submarines to the north of Norway.
Because of the Northpole ice, the freighters had to sail not far away from the Norwegian coast to their
destination and were an easy target. The convoys to Murmansk and Archangel were numbered with a prefix of PQ and JW.
They started with a convoy called "Dervish" on the 21st of august 1941.
After it's succesfull voyage the PQ serie started on the 29th of September. On the 21st of march 1942, convoy PQ13 left Iceland.
On the 28th of march the SS Raceland was north of
Norway and had lost contact with the convoy due to heavy weather and equipment malfunction.
That day, the German bombers attacked the ship, and finally the ship was sunk by a bom exploded nearby.
The crew could save themself because of the calm sea, and took place in the 4 lifeboats.
A day later a storm and a freezing cold caused 2 lifeboats to sink with 12 crewmembers on board.
(the 12 crewmembers drowned)
The other two lifeboats reached land, and due to the suffering only 13 crembers of the 33 survived. Reseach done by: Leif Myrhøy (nephew of Detlev Lauth) Jos Odijk (nephew of Niek Odijk) Per Joergen Olafsen (nephew of Asbjørn Olafsen) Margareta Berglund-Bergius (daughter of Ragnar Bergius), with help from Mattias |
