{"id":11270,"date":"2026-06-19T15:53:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T12:53:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stalin-line.by\/?p=11270"},"modified":"2026-08-11T10:55:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T07:55:16","slug":"operacziya-benedikt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stalin-line.by\/en\/operacziya-benedikt\/","title":{"rendered":"Operation \u201cBenedict\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Autumn 2026 marks the 85th anniversary of Operation Benedict. This little-known chapter in the history of co-operation between Soviet and British airmen in the fight against Nazi Germany began in autumn 1941, when two British fighter squadrons of the Royal Air Force (RAF) were sent to\u00a0the USSR<\/a>\u00a0 to the settlement of Vaenga (present-day Severomorsk<\/a>).. <\/em>They formed No. 151 Wing RAF, commanded by Wing Commander Henry Neville Gynes Ramsbottom-Isherwood.<\/p>\n

No. 151 Wing was tasked with providing fighter cover for the Soviet Northern Fleet\u2019s bombers, preparing Soviet pilots to fly British Hurricane fighters, training ground crews to maintain them, and defending Murmansk and the ports receiving the first Allied Arctic convoys carrying aid.<\/p>\n

Before the First World War, Russia had only one northern port, at Arkhangelsk, but it froze over in winter. The port and city of Murmansk were therefore founded on 1 September 1915. This was Russia\u2019s only ice-free northern port, enabling military supplies from Britain to be delivered during the winter. A railway to the port was built at the same time.<\/p>\n

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Port of Murmansk<\/p><\/div>\n

At the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, Britain once again became an ally of our country. To prevent the British from providing military aid to the Soviet Union, Hitler ordered the 130,000-strong German Army of Norway to capture Murmansk within a few days. However, determined resistance by the Red Army and strikes by Soviet aircraft thwarted these plans.<\/p>\n

On 31 August 1941, the first British convoy arrived in Arkhangelsk. The passage was made in secrecy and without loss, as German intelligence failed to detect the convoy\u2019s ships. The British delivered to the USSR 3,800 depth charges and magnetic mines, 10,000 tonnes of rubber, 1,500 tonnes of boots for soldiers, tin, wool, and a wide range of other supplies, equipment and military materiel, as well as an auxiliary vessel loaded with fuel and, most importantly, 15 partially disassembled Hurricane fighters.<\/p>\n

Once the crates had been unloaded, it became clear that some essential tools needed to assemble the aircraft were missing.<\/p>\n

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One of the crates containing a disassembled Hurricane Mk IIB fighter<\/p><\/div>\n

However, the Russian workers at the Krasnaya Kuznitsa factory quickly made them in a single night from sketches drawn by Victor Albert Gittins, the chief engineer of No. 151 Wing, who was responsible for maintaining the Hurricanes.<\/p>\n

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Flight Lieutenant Victor Gittins, beside a dugout, gives instructions to the sentries<\/p><\/div>\n

Soviet military personnel, including the Northern Fleet Air Force command, closely observed the assembly of the fighters. Once the aircraft were ready, test flights began.<\/p>\n\n\t\t