Jan Mayen Island Six Part Series

For America, World War II started on December 7, 1941. In Europe, however, the war started in September 1939 with Germany’s invasion of Poland. By April 1940, Norway fell to the Weimar Army and Luftwaffe forcing the Norwegian government into exile.

Russia, which joined the war on the side of the Allies on June 22, 1941, needed supplies. Germany sent 3,000,000 men and tanks across the Russian border and caught the Russians by surprise. The United States, which had been supplying the U.K. with supplies under the “Lend Lease” program, extended a similar offer to Russia.

The convoy system that worked well in World War I was reinstituted. Staging from east coast ports in the U.S. and Canada, the lifeline of democracy in Europe was stretched thin. Supplying U.K. and Russian ports, notably Liverpool and Glasgow, in the U.K. and Murmansk in Russia, it became increasingly difficult as German U-boats and aircraft sank ships as fast as they could be built or pressed into service.