Convoy QP 1

Convoy QP 1
Part of Arctic Convoys of the Second World War
The Norwegian and the Barents seas, site of the Arctic convoys
Date 28 September – 19 October 1941 Location Arctic Ocean Result British victory
Belligerents
Royal Navy  Merchant Navy	Luftwaffe  Kriegsmarine
Commanders and leaders
Escorts: Jack Borrett Convoy: John Dowding	Hans-Jürgen Stumpff Hermann Böhm

Convoy QP 1 (28 September – 19 October 1941) was the first Arctic Convoy of the Second World War by which the Allies brought back the ships of Operation Dervish that had carried supplies to the Soviet Union after Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of 22 June 1941. The convoy sailed from Murmansk on 28 September 1941 and arrived safely at Scapa Flow in Orkney on 19 October.

From Operation Dervish, at the end of August 1941 to 20 December, six more convoys (Convoy PQ 1 to Convoy PQ 6) sent 45 ships, all of which reached Archangelsk or Murmansk. German awareness of these and the reciprocal westbound convoys (Convoy QP 1 to Convoy QP 4) was too vague to plan attacks by the Kriegsmarine or the Luftwaffe.

On 13 November 1941, the commander-in-chief of the Kriegsmarine, Großadmiral (Grand Admiral) Erich Raeder, told Hitler that, owing to the extreme weather and the lack of air reconnaissance, the prospects of the small number of U-boats in the Arctic Ocean were poor.