Zemlya Georga Zemlya Georga Zemlya Georga, or Prince George Land (; "Zemlya Georga", "George Land"), is an island in Franz Josef Land, Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russian Arctic. Zemlya Georga was named by Benjamin Leigh Smith after Prince George. With a total surface of , Zemlya Georga is the largest island of the Franz Josef Archipelago. It is also the longest, with a distance of between its northernmost and its southernmost ends. The highest point of the island is the summit of Brusilov Ice Dome, the northeastern ice dome, at . The island has a complex coastline, with many bays, deep inlets and capes.
Novaya Zemlya detected by German U-boats and visually confirmed by German reconnaissance aircraft. On the night of July 4, the German battleship "Tirpitz" and the heavy cruisers "Admiral Scheer", "Lutzow", and "Hipper," closed on PQ-17 and sank four allied merchant ships. The British Admiralty responded by diverting the convoy’s escort vessels to the west to engage the German warships, and ordered the now-vulnerable merchant vessels to scatter. Seeking the hoped-for sanctuary of Matochkin Strait, several of the ships headed toward Novaya Zemlya at flank speed. S.A. Kerslake, a crew-member aboard the British Trawler "Northern Gem", recorded in his diary: …we were making