and submarines. Convoy QP 12, a return convoy, sailed on the same day.

As Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, had failed in 1941, the Germans began to build up forces in Norway to intercept Arctic convoys with ships, aircraft and U-boats, rather than rely on a quick victory. [[Luftflotte 5]] (Air Fleet 5), the Luftwaffe force in Norway, was reinforced with bombers and torpedo-bombers in early 1942 and reorganised to attack convoys as they passed between the