861.24/1771: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Harriman) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 23—1:20 a.m.]
1396. I have given the following statement to the American press in Moscow concerning my recent trip to the northern ports “Press statement re north Russian trip”:
I have recently returned from a trip with Admiral Olsen to the north Russian ports of Murmansk and Archangel. These ports were very active discharging a large number of American and British merchant ships. I found that this work was efficiently organized. The cargoes were being discharged with care and speed 24 hours a day. The workmen were both civilian and military. Women were working with the men. Many of the ships’ winches were handled by women. Young boys were doing some of the lighter work such as sewing up damaged bags. I found all of them working with energy and spirit.
The records show the speed of discharge has constantly improved and it is now at a pace that any port might be proud of particularly considering the handicaps under which they were working. The cargo was carefully distributed on the docks and the ports were being cleared rapidly by the railroad.
[Page 1080]Murmansk has been subjected to intensive bombing by the Germans. Much of the living quarters of the town have been destroyed. The Russians now have superiority in the air and strong antiaircraft defenses.
This far northern port of Murmansk, way above the Arctic circle, is one of the important supply routes for the Soviet Union. The battle to keep this port in operation has been a great achievement and when the full account of Murmansk can be told it will be one of the dramatic stories of the war.
Captain S. B. Frankel, USN, Senior United States Naval Officer in the north who has been there from the early days, gave me a dramatic account of the fight to keep open this supply line vital to the Red Army.
At Archangel where I met our naval officer Lt. [Commander] J. H. Harshaw, USN, the Soviets are carrying on the work of the port in spite of difficult ice conditions through their highly skillfull operation of ice breakers. Here I met the famous arctic explorer Rear Admiral I. D. Papanin,74 who is now in charge of the Arctic Sea routes. Among other responsibilities he directs the operation of the ice breakers and he took me for a trip on one of them.
I talked with a number of our ship masters and seamen and there were two things that stood out in their impressions. About their voyage to the north they expressed admiration for the British escorts that had successfully protected them against many submarine attacks. Not one ship in the convoy had been damaged and they saw a number of attacks on German submarines. On arrival in the Russian port the first impression which they told me about was the energy and speed with which the discharge of their ships was being tackled including heavy lifts such as locomotives and tanks. Those who had been there before spoke of the improvement that had taken place since their previous visit.
While at Murmansk I visited the naval base of Polyarnoye. Admiral A. G. Golovko,75 Commander of the Northern Fleet, showed me through the facilities developed just prior to the war and took me on board Soviet ships. He spoke highly of certain American built craft that had been obtained from the United States under Lend-Lease and described the effective use that they were being put to against the enemy submarines and shipping. The Germans obtain nickel from the Finnish port of Petsamo and the interference to the shipments of nickel to Germany is an important contribution to the war being made by the Soviet forces operating the far north. In this the Red Air Force plays an important part. Lt. General Andreev76 of the Red Air Force showed me American built aircraft operating along with their own aircraft from Murmansk bases which had been skillfully and ingeniously adapted to the special task to be performed. He was high in his praise of these American aircraft, Bostons and Airacobras, and told me of the successes the Soviet forces had had with them. [Page 1081] Operations and maintenance are being conducted under difficult conditions, weather, snow and cold.
At Archangel I was taken to naval headquarters by Vice Admiral S. C. Kucherov,77 Commander of the White Sea flotilla. He told me of the valuable addition American built naval craft had been to his command in his operations in attacking submarines and protecting shipping.
In the far north there is little if any agriculture and therefore all food must be shipped in. I met the Mayors of the two cities who told me of the value American food, particularly fats and meat so necessary to maintain energy in the cold climate, has been to their people. Part of the food coming from the United States had been allocated to them by the Soviet Government.
Everyone in the north, civilians and military alike, expressed appreciation for the direct assistance that United States equipment had been to them and for the volume of supplies which they had seen passing through the ports going south to the Red Army and the Russian people.
I returned to Moscow with admiration for the competence of the Soviet organization and the spirit of the people in the north. I received direct evidence of the value of American equipment and supplies to Soviet forces and the effective use to which our equipment is put. All information that I asked for was given me and I was received with great hospitality and cordiality by everyone I met.
I traveled in an American built Douglas transport skillfully handled by a Soviet crew. Traveling between Murmansk and Archangel the plane was escorted by a number of Red Air Force fighters.