Source:
http://www.thisisborehamwood.co.uk/archive/display.var.59052.0.0.html
It was a
real cold war at sea on Russian convoys
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Killed at
sea: Harold Smith
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During the Second World War trade routes were vital in
maintaining the allied war effort.
One of the toughest jobs that had to be carried out was
shipping war materials in convoys, through the frozen Arctic, to Russia, to
help Stalin's war effort in the East.
Harold Smith, from
Borehamwood, served on the HMS Edinburgh as it
carried out one such voyage in 1942, carrying 4.5 tons of Russian gold
through the Barents Sea to Britain.
The gold was Russia's payment to the US for war materials,
but German air surveillance had noted HMS Edinburgh's
departure, and on April 30 1942, a U-boat fired two torpedoes at the ship,
killing more than 57 crew members and wrecking the ship's steering gear.
Mr Smith survived, and was transferred to the HMS
Niger, but on May 2, the Royal Navy sank HMS
Edinburgh, to stop the Germans from taking the gold, most of which
was recovered in 1981.
But Mr Smith's new ship, the HMS
Niger, was destroyed by a mine on July 6, and he died at the age of
24. July 1942 was one of the darkest months of the war a total of 93 allied
cargo boats were sunk around the world.
His brother, Walter Smith, from Thornbury Gardens,
Borehamwood, also served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War, and
served on the battleship HMS King George V.
