Military Model Scene

Title: Barents Sea 1942
Author: Angus Konstam
Publisher: Osprey Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-4728-4845-1

Subtitled 'The Battle for Russia's Arctic Lifeline', number 376 in the Campaign series from Osprey. A 96-page soft-cover book, the story of the attack by Kriegsmarine surface units against convoy JW-51B.
The opening Introduction sets the scene rather neatly I thought, before a Chronology that takes us into chapters which give us the details of the Opposing Commanders, the orders of battle for the Opposing Forces, and the Opposing Plans of the two sides. The bulk of the book though is given over to the detailed story of the battle. How the Russia bound convoy had a close escort, the more distant support of additional cruisers while the German force of the Admiral Hipper and Blucher along with 6 destroyers split to carry out a pincer movement on the convoy. An important factor was that this all happened in the long arctic night. As well as plenty of archive images and the usual excellent artwork illustrate a lot, I particularly liked the maps which show the positions and tracks of the various units at different times during the engagement. The Aftermath tells us about more that simply the result of the engagement itself, but how the failure of the Kriegsmarine to inflict a significant defeat on the convoy had an important effect on Hitler and how he lost his patience with his own surface fleet.
At a time when the convoys to Russia were an important supply line. Not the U-boat or Luftwaffe threat this time but the threat of German surface warships that remained lurking in the Norwegian fjords. In particular, for me, the idea of the British destroyers, mainly O-Class, which still had open bridges, having to not simply sail but also fight in such difficult conditions must have been a very unpleasant experience. Brave men on warships, let alone the crews of the merchantmen of the convoy who could have been made to pay dearly for their efforts to get supplies to Russia at this stage in the war.
Thanks to Osprey for our review copy.

Robin