Stukas (? Ju88s) shot down 22/11/41???

[Brian]

A mystery! No record of Luftwaffe action!

Extract from a merchant navy sailor's diary during Convoy PQ3 November 1941

"November 20th. Full gale. Two ships turned back — one hit a small berg and the other had engine trouble. One of the tanks in our 'tween deck broke loose and charged into the ships side flattening the angle irons. Bosun and crew got aboard the charging monster and shored it up with bauljks of timber. (Ship was eventually awarded the OBE for this act of bravery).
November 22nd. Crossed Arctic Circle. Course for 75 N. I believe. Stukas divebombed the convoy. The flutes under the wings gave a banshee wail and every seventh shell was a tracer so when one of the gunners on the port wing Oerlikon was hit by a tracer it cauterised the wound and he survived the rough handling when the skipper ordered "that corpse off the bridge" I put him in the shelter of the wheelhouse which was re-inforced with concrete slabs) and took over the gun for a few exciting seconds. We were in the vicinity of Jan Meyen island at the extremity of the Stuka's range so it was a short lived raid. They lost two planes and the crew were dead when picked up. Temp. 40 below.
November 26th. Broke radio silence to get instructions from Admiralty to rendezvous with the Cruiser KENYA and three destroyers who depth charged the North cape to Bear Island."

Hopefully someone has an answer!

Cheers
Brian