Through Ice and Fire

On the Russian Arctic convoys in 1942, Leonard H. Thomas kept a secret notebook containing detailed observations of life aboard his ship, HMS Ulster Queen, including intense recollections of hours spent at action stations in the engine room, keeping the ship going while under fire from both the skies above and waters below. He tells of how, while berthed for weeks at Archangelsk in northern Russia, he and his crew mates suffered from freezing conditions and an appalling lack of food, while the attitudes of the suspicious locals grew more and more hostile. In such trying circumstances, when morale was at its lowest, it was an irrepressible sense of humour that kept the men going. Thomas's daughter, Leona, has collected and edited her father's writings to form a fascinating and, at times, poignant account of life on the Arctic convoys. Over eighty years on, it stands as a testament to the fortitude and bravery of the men who sailed through ice and fire to do their bit in the fight against Nazi aggression.