SUNSET OF A UNIQUE GENERATION

WHEN LUCK RAN OUT?

Convoy PQ 13 set out from Loch Ewe on the 10th. of March 1942; sailing with the convoy was the?American-manned merchantman SS Ballot. Ballot had originally set out as part of PQ12 but broken?down soon after departure and returned for repairs, for the Ballot this was truly unlucky 13, PQ12’s?sixteen ships arrived in Arctic Russia without her, and without loss. Ballot, with her generators repaired?joined PQ13 in Iceland. This was a very different story to PQ12. Wracked by storms, under constant?attack from the air and submarines Ballot was caught by Nazi bombers and severely damaged, 16 of?her American crew was sent away on a lifeboat and rescued by the small whale-catcher Silja. This little?ship, destined to be transferred to the Russian forces, became trapped in ice close to another PQ13?ship the SS Induna, the Americans walked across the ice from their lifeboat to the Induna which as the?ice broke up, took the little Silja in tow. Tragically?the towline?parted?during?the?night?and?Silja?disappeared into the darkness never to be seen again presumably overwhelmed by the ice.?Next day, before dawn, it was Induna’s turn; she was torpedoed in number five hold which contained?cased aviation spirit. Immediately the ship erupted in a pillar of flame. A lifeboat was lowered into which?34 of her crew were evacuated. One of the Americans rescued from the Ballot ran to join the lifeboat.?Above the aviation spirit in number five hold had been coils of barbed wire, this was now spread across?the whole upper deck of the doomed ship by the explosion. The American ran in bare feet over the barbed?wire, through the flames to join the men in the boat. His hair and hands were badly burned, his feet left?bloody footprints, the men rolled him into the boat to put out the flaming petrol on his jacket. As the?boat pulled away a second torpedo struck the Induna which immediately sunk. Alone in the Arctic with the sea constantly breaking over the boat, freezing water up to their knees the?surviving sailors did their best to row on an easterly heading. One by one the men of the Induna fell?victim to the Arctic. Seventeen gave up the struggle for life before on the fourth day those left barely?alive saw on the horizon the isolated finger of the Sviatoi Lighthouse. Soon a Russian patrol boat found?them, the surviving men of the Induna and the single American were taken on board. The youngest of?these was a 17-year-old sailor, the Russians cut off his frozen clothing to find that he had frostbite, from?the waist down, his skin was black, he died very soon after. The patrol boat took the survivors to?Murmansk where they were taken to a makeshift hospital in what had once been a school.

The man who told me this story survived, the American did not. No one knew his name or where he came?from. His grave is in the Allied cemetery at Murmansk, the unknown sailor from the SS Ballot. He died?with dignity and honour, we may not know his name but we will never forget what he did.?

This story was told to me by Austin Byrne, a teenage Gunner posted to the Induna’s four-inch gun to?defend her against the might of the enemy, he was in that lifeboat.?

Austin slipped away in his sleep last weekend aged 100 and 8 months, this story was the defining moment in his life, he was my friend.