An emotional reunion for Arctic heroes.

Byline: Lew Baxter

A HANDFUL of former Royal Navy seamen from Merseyside joined 50 of their fellow heroes in the north western Russian port of Arkhangelsk yesterday.

They were there to mark the 60th anniversary of the first Arctic convoy which had sailed from Liverpool during World War II.

The dangerous 2,000-mile voyage through treacherous waters choked with German surface and U-boats was the first of 40 which delivered almost a quarter of all materials and food needed by the Soviet Union for its war effort.

Almost 3,000 British and American sailors were to die in the icy waters over the course of the conflict.

Along with 250 Russian veterans, the onetime British sailors laid a wreath in the Russian seaport to commemorate the men who died in those convoys, acknowledged as one of the deadliest sea routes of the war.

As they recalled the horrendous Arctic conditions and some of the war's most brutal sea battles, their thoughts strayed back home to Liverpool and their friend and former petty officer Dick Squires, now 82 and wheelchair-bound.

Fifteen years ago Dick Squires was one of the founders of the Russian Convoy Club which boasts more than 1,000 members, including many American and Canadian sailors, out of an estimated 2,000 survivors worldwide.

He, too, had sailed on those death-defying convoys as a petty officer and torpedo man.

Mr Squires, who lives in Gateacre, said: "In fact nine there and nine back with hardly a scratch."

This is the first memorial he has missed since the club was set up following the collapse of Communism, but he said his telephone was red-hot yesterday morning as former Navy friends, British and Russian, rang to describe the events which had begun a week ago when HMS Campbelltown arrived in Murmansk.

Ten years ago Mr Squires was awarded the MBE for services to those British and Russian veterans of the convoys and has been both chairman and secretary of the Russian Convoy Club, whose current president is Commander William Edward Grenfell.

Yesterday, in London, Commander Grenfell hosted a similar memorial service at the Imperial War Museum.

Almost two dozen members of the 40-strong Merseyside and North Wales branch of the Russian Convoy Club attended that ceremony.

In Arkhangelsk, their colleagues proudly wore rows of various medals for valour, and with Navy officials from both countries, watched a fleet review as Russian guns fired three shots at 10.30am, the exact time the Liverpool convoy arrived in 1941.

But many of the veterans are still angry the British government has failed to recognise the convoys' vitally important role by awarding them specific medals.

Commander Grenfell said: "We consider this an insult. Russia had its back to the wall and the Germans were at the gates of Leningrad. The Russians slowly pushed them back and we helped in that tremendous struggle."

But Mr Squires appears more sanguine about the medal situation. He said:

"We were awarded special commemorative medals for the 50th anniversary by the Russians, and again this year to mark the 60th. I think that indicates where their priorities lie."

He is more concerned with keeping the story fresh in the minds of young naval cadets and has helped set up a Russian Convoys museum with the Seaforth-based Sea Cadets.

He said: "Mostly it is photographs I have collected over the years but they are all fascinated by the tales."

But Commander Grenfell is determined to continue the fight for British recognition.

He said: "Remember more than 27 million Soviet citizens and service men and women died for the Allied effort. For these veterans it is an emotional issue and I believe important that society pays its tribute."

CAPTION(S):

MEMORIES: William Lowes, above, remembers the Convoy, while right, Dick Squires shows off his medals. Below, British and Russian sailors together