Convoy PQ 2

Convoy PQ 2 (17–30 October 1941) was the third of the Arctic Convoys of the Second World War by which the Western Allies supplied the Soviet Union after Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion, which began on 22 June 1941. The convoy sailed from Scapa Flow and arrived safely at Arkhangelsk.

From Operation Dervish at the end of August 1941 to 20 December, six more convoys (Convoy PQ 1 to Convoy PQ 6) sent 45 ships, all of which reached Arkhangelsk or Murmansk. German knowledge of these and the reciprocal westbound convoys (Convoy QP 1 to Convoy QP 4) was too vague to plan attacks by the limited forces available to the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe in Norway.

On 13 November 1941, the commander-in-chief of the Kriegsmarine, Großadmiral (Grand Admiral) Erich Raeder, told Hitler that, owing to the extreme weather and the lack of air reconnaissance, the prospects of the small number of U-boats in the Arctic Ocean were poor.