Convoy PQ 3

Convoy PQ 3
	Part of Arctic Convoys of the Second World War
	; The Norwegian and the Barents seas, site of the Arctic convoys
Date	9−22 November 1941
Location	Arctic Ocean
Result	British victory
Belligerents
Royal Navy; Merchant Navy; Panama;	Kriegsmarine; Luftwaffe;
Strength
8 merchant ships; 8 escorts (in relay);	Luftflotte 5; Kriegsmarine;
Casualties and losses
1 early return, ice damage	Nil

Convoy PQ 3 was the fourth of the Arctic Convoys of the Second World War by which the Western Allies supplied the Soviet Union in its fight with Nazi Germany. The departure of Convoy PQ 3 was delayed for destroyers to repair weather damage and because of intelligence reports of an imminent sortie by the German battleship Tirpitz and the heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer.

The convoy sailed from Hvalfjord in Iceland on 9 November 1941 and arrived unhindered at Arkhangelsk on 22 November 1941 except for the British freighter SS Briarwood that suffered ice damage and returned to Iceland escorted by the trawler HMT Hamlet. On 28 November Convoy PQ 3 entered the Northern Dvina with Convoy PQ 4, a faster convoy that had caught up since leaving Iceland on 17 November.