{"id":749,"date":"2006-11-11T21:37:49","date_gmt":"2006-11-12T04:37:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/2006\/11\/11\/world-war-ii-convoys-jw-54a-and-ra-55a\/"},"modified":"2016-07-21T20:26:31","modified_gmt":"2016-07-22T03:26:31","slug":"world-war-ii-convoys-jw-54a-and-ra-55a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/749","title":{"rendered":"World War II Convoys JW-54A and RA-55A"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As part of the US Naval Armed Guard, my father served on the Liberty Ship the S. S. Daniel Drake on two convoys as part of the Murmansk Run, delivering war supplies to the Eastern Front .\u00a0 The Murmansk Run was one of the most dangerous assignments for an American serviceman\u00c2\u00a0in World War II.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_20385\" style=\"width: 759px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/11\/MAP-Murmansk-Run.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-20385\" class=\"size-full wp-image-20385\" src=\"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/11\/MAP-Murmansk-Run.jpg\" alt=\"The Murmansk Run\" width=\"749\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/11\/MAP-Murmansk-Run.jpg 749w, https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/11\/MAP-Murmansk-Run-300x240.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 749px) 100vw, 749px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-20385\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Murmansk Run<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Convoy JW-54A<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Convoy JW-54A sailed from Liverpool, England\u00c2\u00a0to Kola Inlet, Russia\u00c2\u00a0(near Murmansk) and on the return trip, Convoy RA-55A sailed from Kola Inlet, Russia\u00c2\u00a0to Loch Ewe, Scotland .\u00a0 The <a title=\"ship's manifest\" href=\"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/2006\/11\/09\/the-crew-manifest-of-the-world-war-ii-liberty-ship-daniel-drake\/\">ship&#8217;s manifest<\/a> for the S. S. Daniel Drake that I posted previously was the list of the crew just prior to the departure of Convoy JW-54A, but not necessarily of the same crew as that in Convoy JW-54A.<\/p>\n<p>Convoy JW-54A departed Liverpool on November 15, 1943 and arrived at Kola Inlet on November 24, 1943 .\u00a0 Nineteen vessels made up this convoy:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div align=\"left\">COPELAND (Br)<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"left\">DANIEL DRAKE (Am)<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"left\">EDMUND FANNING (Am)<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"left\">EMPIRE CARPENTER (Br)<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"left\">EMPIRE CELIA (Br)<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"left\">EMPIRE NIGEL (Br)<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"left\">FORT YUKON (Br)<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"left\">GILBERT STUART (Am)<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"left\">HENRY VILLARD (Am)<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"left\">JAMES GORDON BENNETT (Am)<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"left\">JAMES SMITH (Am)<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"left\">JUNECREST (Br)<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"left\">MIJDRECHT (Du)<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"left\">NORLYS (Pan)<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"left\">OCEAN VANITY (Br)<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"left\">OCEAN VERITY (Br)<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"left\">PARK HOLLAND (Am)<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"left\">THOMAS SIM LEE (Am)<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div align=\"left\">WILLIAM WINDOM (Am)<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p align=\"left\">The convoy was escorted by the following ships:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Nov. 15-Nov. 18: Destroyers Brissenden, Termagant and Polish Burza<\/li>\n<li>Nov. 15-Nov. 24: Destroyers Inconstant, Whitehall, corvette Heather and minesweeper Hussar<\/li>\n<li>Nov. 18-Nov. 25: Destroyers Impulsive, Onslaught, Onslow, Orwell, and Canadian Haida, Huron and Iroquois<\/li>\n<li>Nov. 18-Nov. 19: Obedient (returned early with defects)<\/li>\n<li>Nov. 24-Nov. 26: Minesweeper Seagull.<\/li>\n<li>Nov. 19-Nov. 24: Cruiser cover by Bermuda, Jamaica and Kent, distant cover by battleship Anson, cruiser USS Tuscaloosa, American destroyers Corry, Fitch, Forrest and Hobson.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Convoy RA-55A<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Convoy RA-55A departed Kola Inlet on December 22, 1943 and arrived at\u00c2\u00a0Loch Ewe\u00c2\u00a0on January 1, 1944 .\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Twenty-three\u00c2\u00a0vessels made up this convoy:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>ARTHUR L. PERRY (Am)<\/li>\n<li>DANIEL DRAKE (Am)<\/li>\n<li>EDMUND FANNING (Am)<\/li>\n<li>EMPIRE CARPENTER (Br)<\/li>\n<li>EMPIRE CELIA (Br)<\/li>\n<li>EMPIRE NIGEL (Br)<\/li>\n<li>FORT MCMURRAY (Br)<\/li>\n<li>FORT YUKON (Br)<\/li>\n<li>GILBERT STUART (Am)<\/li>\n<li>HENRY VILLARD (Am)<\/li>\n<li>JAMES SMITH (Am)<\/li>\n<li>JUNECREST (Br)<\/li>\n<li>MIJDRECHT (Du)<\/li>\n<li>OCEAN STRENGTH (Br)<\/li>\n<li>OCEAN VANITY (Br)<\/li>\n<li>OCEAN VERITY (Br)<\/li>\n<li>PARK HOLLAND (Am)<\/li>\n<li>RATHLIN (Br)<\/li>\n<li>SAN ADOLFO (Br)<\/li>\n<li>THOMAS KEARNS (Am)<\/li>\n<li>THOMAS SIM LEE (Am)<\/li>\n<li>WILLIAM L. MARCY (Am)<\/li>\n<li>WILLIAM WINDOM (Am)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The convoy was escorted, at least in part, by the Acanthus, Ashanti, Athabaskan, Beagle, Belfast, Borage, Dianella, Hound, Hydra, Matchless, Meteor, Milne, Musketeer, Norfolk, Opportune, Poppy, Saumarez, Savage, Scorpion, Seagull, Sheffield, Stord, Virago, Wallflower, and Westcott.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Copyright \u00a9 2006 by Stephen J. Danko<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As part of the US Naval Armed Guard, my father served on the Liberty Ship the S. S. Daniel Drake on two convoys as part of the Murmansk Run, delivering war supplies to the Eastern Front .\u00a0 The Murmansk Run &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/749\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-journal"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pyBfX-c5","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=749"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20387,"href":"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749\/revisions\/20387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephendanko.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}