Convoy PQ 2

Convoy PQ 2
Part of Arctic Convoys of the Second World War
The Norwegian and the Barents seas, site of the Arctic convoys
Date 17–30 October 1941 Location Arctic Ocean Scapa Flow: 58°54′N 3°03′W / 58.900°N 3.050°W / 58.900; -3.050 to Archangelsk: 64°32'N 40°32'E Result British victory
Belligerents
Royal Navy Merchant Navy	Luftwaffe Kriegsmarine
Commanders and leaders
Escorts: Alfred Phillips Convoy:	Hans-Jürgen Stumpff Hermann Böhm
Strength
11 escorts in relays 7 freighters
Casualties and losses
No loss	No loss

Convoy PQ 2 (17–30 October 1941) was the third of the Arctic Convoys of the Second World War by which the Western Allies supplied the Soviet Union after Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion, which began on 22 June 1941. The convoy sailed from Scapa Flow and arrived safely at Archangelsk.

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.