Scotland's WW2 supply crews
Never to Return: Convoys to Russia and the Second World War By Roderick G Maclean
As remembrance season approaches, we often look out for new titles on the Merchant Navy in wartime, and Never to Return fits the bill this year. 
Originally published in Scottish Gaelic as Cha Till Mise, the book focuses on young men of the Highlands and Islands who served in the Arctic Convoys – the exceptionally gruelling supply missions to support the Soviet Union, which was a British and US ally in the Second World War.
The sailors featured in the book mainly served on military vessels in the Convoys, but full credit is given to the Merchant Navy ships that took part, which sustained horrifying losses. There is an interesting chapter on civilian rescue ships, which were often converted trawlers or oceangoing tugs, crewed by skilled seafarers from the Inner and Outer Hebrides.
Shockingly, the UK government did not provide for merchant seafarers rescued in the convoys, so the British Sailors' Society had to step in with survivors' kits of warm clothes and toiletries. In addition, the seafarers' pay stopped when their ship went down. Truly a time of hardship and sacrifice that we must commemorate on Merchant Navy Day and in the November remembrance ceremonies.
Never to Return: Convoys to Russia and the Second World War
By Roderick G Maclean
PointMedia, £18.99
ISBN: 978 10369 03268
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