Convoy of Death — Duncan Harding

Can the special relationship take the strain? Autumn '42, and the special relationship created by Churchill and President Roosevelt has been in existence for six months. Now FDR wants action namely the invasion of France, to take the pressure off embattled Russia. Churchill thinks it will be a disaster for the British Army, which will field most of the invasion force. He suggests sending an all-American convoy to Russia bearing arms and the like to support the hard-pressed Soviet Union. But the plan has already been betrayed to the Germans. Should Churchill go ahead with the Convoy of Death? He decides to do so. Now the action centres on the minesweeper the Black Swan aka the Mucky Duck skippered by a broken-down, drunken RN officer, Scottish Lt. Commander Donaldson. He and his untrained crew do their best to help their new US allies, hampered by the anti-British attitude of many of the US merchant skippers. Predictably it all ends in disaster. Only a handful of the fleet reaches the Russian port of Murmansk. Churchill has proved his point the invasion of France will not take place in 1942. But the special relationship has been badly damaged. From now on the US service chiefs are determined that they, not the limeys, will run military ops in the years to come.