THE DANGER BELT

rthur Oakeshott was surely one of the Reuters news agency’s bravest correspondents in World War II. He was aboard 10 of the 78 Arctic convoys that sailed from the United Kingdom, Iceland, and North America to escort some 1,400 merchant ships destined for northern ports in the Soviet Union. The journey—through a narrow passage between the Arctic ice pack and German military bases in Norway—was treacherous, especially in winter when the sea ice pushed farther south. German submarines, warships, and aircraft attacked many of the convoys, and 85 merchantmen and 16 Royal Navy cruisers, destroyers, and other escort ships were lost. The Arctic convoys not only demonstrated to the world that the Allies were committed to helping the Soviet Union,