{"product_id":"9780008335779","title":"Battle of the Arctic : The Maritime Epic of World War Two","description":"\u003ch3\u003eAuthor: Sebag-Montefiore, Hugh\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003ch4\u003eRussia\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003ch5\u003ePublished on 6 November 2025 by HarperCollins Publishers (William Collins) in the United Kingdom.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHardback | 816 pages\u003cbr\u003e240 x 159 | 270g\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWinston Churchill called it ‘the worst journey in the world’. But was even this telling quote, describing the transportation of military aid to northern Russia during World War II, an understatement?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e  As this book’s title – Battle of the Arctic – implies, it tells a unique story. For much of the conflict was complicated by terrific storms, snow, ice, fog, whales, and Arctic mirages, creating an atmosphere similar to Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance, David Crane’s Scott of the Antarctic, and an Arctic version of Robinson Crusoe.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e The action unfolded as Allied naval and merchant seamen, airmen, submariners, and intelligence officers delivered on their countries’ promise to take arms to Russia as the Germans hunted them in aircraft, U-boats, and surface fleet spearheaded by Tirpitz and Scharnhorst. When ships were attacked, and went down in seas so cold that a man could die after five minutes of immersion, it triggered events reminiscent of the do-or-die moments during the sinking of the Titanic.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Men perished one by one in lifeboats and, as castaways, they died on deserted Arctic islands where they were stalked by polar bears. Frostbitten and wounded survivors ended up in Russian hospitals so primitive that amputations were carried out without anesthetics. Other survivors, while stranded for months in the communist state they were aiding, experienced the murky worlds of the NKVD and the Gulag, as well as famine and prostitution.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Using new material unearthed in American, British, Russian, and German archives, as well as Polish, Dutch, Norwegian, and French sources and a remarkable collection of vivid witness accounts brought together at the passing of the last survivors, Hugh Sebag-Montefiore can at last tell this extraordinary story that oscillates between the sailors’ point of view on the front lines and the controversies that infuriated world leaders.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Darling Reads","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53674862477636,"sku":"9780008335779","price":30.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0827\/1265\/8244\/files\/9780008335779.jpg?v=1760353095","url":"https:\/\/darlingreadsbooks.com\/products\/9780008335779","provider":"Darling Reads","version":"1.0","type":"link"}