Novaya Zemlya under naval escort to deliver desperately needed Lend-Lease supplies to northern Soviet seaports. Destruction of the Allied convoys was thus a top priority for the German Navy — and brought World War II to Novaya Zemlya. The most ill-fated and one of the largest Arctic convoys, code-named “PQ-17,” left Iceland on June 27, 1942. It consisted of thirty-four merchant ships, six destroyer escorts, fifteen additional armed ships (among which were two Free-French corvettes), and three small rescue craft. The fast-moving convoy encountered ice floes on June 30 and was forced to reduce speed. On the following morning, the convoy was
Chagos Archipelago Chagos Archipelago The Chagos Archipelago () or Chagos Islands (formerly the Bassas de Chagas, and later the Oil Islands) are a group of seven atolls comprising more than 60 individual tropical islands in the Indian Ocean about 500 kilometres (310 mi) south of the Maldives archipelago. This chain of islands is the southernmost archipelago of the Chagos-Laccadive Ridge, a long submarine mountain range in the Indian Ocean. Officially part of the British Indian Ocean Territory, the Chagos were home to the Chagossians, a Bourbonnais Creole-speaking people, for more than a century and a half until the United Kingdom evicted them