Charlie Erswell

Charlie Erswell was born in 1923 and joined the Royal Navy in December 1941. Serving aboard the destroyers HMS Milne and HMS Savage , he took part in the Arctic Convoys carrying supplies to the Soviet Union and also saw service connected with Operation Torch, D-Day and the liberation of Norway. The Arctic voyages remained the central experience of his wartime service.

Erswell's wartime service placed him on some of the most dangerous naval routes of the Second World War, where destroyers escorted merchant ships through Arctic weather and sustained German air and submarine attack. His later recollections are valuable particularly because they record the experience of a junior sailor across convoy duty, amphibious operations and the final stages of the war in Europe rather than the perspective of senior commanders.

John R. McKay’s Surviving the Arctic Convoys is based directly on Charlie Erswell’s wartime records, memories and interviews. Erswell recounts service aboard HMS Milne and HMS Savage, including Arctic escort runs exposed to U-boats, air attack, surface raiders and severe cold while merchantmen carried supplies to the Soviet Union. His testimony also ranges across Operation Torch, D-Day and the liberation of Norway, making the book a personal naval memoir as well as a tribute to convoy sailors who did not return.