Alan Wood is awarded the Arctic Star
Massive congratulations to Alan Wood who after nearly 70 years has now received the Arctic Star to acknowledge the vital role he, and many like him, played in World War Two.
The medal is awarded for any length of service above the Arctic Circle by members of the British armed forces and the merchant navy. Alan served in the merchant navy during World War Two on board the S.S. Fort Yukon in the Arctic convoys to Murmansk, Russia.
The Ashbourne News Telegraph included a quote from Alan:
I was only 17 when I joined the merchant navy in 1944. I spent three months on a training course for Lifeboat and Seamanship on the T.S. Vindicatrix, in Sharpness, Gloucestershire.
After this I joined the S.S. Demeatation in Grangemouth on the Forth, and we proceeded to London to take troops and supplies to the Normandy beaches.
On the second trip to the beaches, the ship was damaged by an inland shore battery with a number of casualties. We returned to North Shields for repairs.
The next ship I was on was the S.S. Fort Yukon, which was loaded with supplies bound for Murmansk, Russia. We went from Manchester up the Clyde, where we met with other vessels and formed a convoy.
I can tell you it was bitterly cold in the Arctic Circle, but I wasn’t frightened by it, I didn’t really feel it. After discharging the cargo in Murmansk we loaded the ship with phosphate bound for London.
Whilst we were sheltering in the north of Scotland overnight we heard that peace had been declared. My next trip as on the S.S. Llandaff, which went empty from Newport, Wales to Philadelphia to fetch supplies for American forces in the Pacific, but then the atomic bomb was dropped and the Japanese surrendered. So we boarded coal in Philadelphia for northern Norway instead.
I’m delighted to have been given this medal, but it’s a shame it took so long because many of my colleagues and friends who were also involved have long since died.”
PARWICH.ORG 
Congratulations Alan. So often the merchant navy’s role in war time is forgotten. My great grandfather was a merchant captain, he was awarded a medal by the Dutch government during World War I for rescuing the crew of a Dutch ship, sunk by enemy action, but he was drowned when his ship went down in 1917. My grandfather was an engineer on oil tankers through out World War II, and had several lucky escapes, including one time in Liverpool docks when the ship they were berthed next to got hit by enemy bombers. My grandfather went several years without returning home during the War. So I know merchant seamen contributed a great deal to the war effort.
Jeremy Clarkson presented a recent BBC2 programme on the Artic Convoys, and in particular PQ17 which was a disastrous one. It’s hard to believe that people endured so much, and so many lives were lost or put in danger in such extreme conditions. Good to see some recognition of this, and congratulations Alan on your long overdue medal. These people were real heroes. – Clarkson’s programme should be compulsive viewing for all of us – might help put life in to perspective!