Novaya Zemlya

Novaya Zemlya, also spelled Novaja Zemlja, is an archipelago in northern Russia. It is situated in the Arctic Ocean, in the extreme northeast of Europe, with Cape Flissingsky, on the northern island, considered the easternmost point of Europe. To Novaya Zemlya's west lies the Barents Sea and to the east is the Kara Sea.

Novaya Zemlya consists of two main islands, the northern Severny Island and the southern Yuzhny Island, which are separated by the Matochkin Strait. Administratively, it is incorporated as Novaya Zemlya District, one of the twenty-one in Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. Municipally, it is incorporated as Novaya Zemlya Urban Okrug.

Novaya Zemlya was a sensitive military area during the Cold War, and parts of it are still used for airfields today. The Soviet Air Force maintained a presence at Rogachevo on the southern part of the southern island, on the westernmost peninsula (71°37′04″N 52°28′44″E / 71.61787°N 52.47884°E / 71.61787; 52.47884). It was used primarily for interceptor aircraft operations, but also provided logistical support for the nearby nuclear test area. Novaya Zemlya was one of the two major nuclear test sites managed by the USSR along with the Semipalatinsk Test Site; it was used for air drops and underground testing of the largest of Soviet nuclear bombs, in particular the 30 October 1961 air burst explosion of Tsar Bomba, the largest, most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated.

The Russian people knew of Novaya Zemlya from the 11th century, when hunters from Novgorod visited the area. For Western Europeans, the search for the Northern Sea Route in the 16th century led to its exploration. The first visit from a Western European was by Hugh Willoughby in 1553. Dutch explorer Willem Barentsz reached the west coast of Novaya Zemlya in 1594, and in a subsequent expedition of 1596, he rounded the northern cape and wintered on the northeastern coast. (Barentsz died during the expedition, and may have been buried on Severny Island.) During a later voyage by Fyodor Litke in 1821–1824, the western coast was mapped. Henry Hudson was another explorer who passed through Novaya Zemlya while searching for the Northeast Passage.

The islands were systematically surveyed by Pyotr Pakhtusov and Avgust Tsivolko during the early 1830s. The first permanent settlement was established in 1870 at Malye Karmakuly, which served as capital of Novaya Zemlya until 1924. Later, the administrative center was transferred to Belushya Guba, in 1935 to Lagernoe, but then returned to Belushya Guba.

In the months following Hitler's June 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union, the United States and Great Britain organized convoys of merchant ships under naval escort to deliver Lend-Lease supplies to northern Soviet seaports. The Allied convoys up to PQ 12 arrived unscathed but German aircraft, ships and U-boats were sent to northern Norway and Finland to oppose the convoys.

Convoy PQ 17 consisted of thirty-six merchant ships containing 297 aircraft, 596 tanks, 4,286 other vehicles and more than 150,000 long tons (152,407 t) of other cargo, six destroyer escorts, fifteen additional armed ships (among which were two Free-French corvettes) and three small rescue craft. The convoy departed Iceland on June 27, 1942, one ship running aground and dropping out of the convoy. The convoy was able to sail north of Bear Island but encountered ice floes on June 30; a ship was damaged too badly to carry on and broke radio silence. On the following morning, the convoy was detected by German U-boats and German reconnaissance aircraft and torpedo bomber attacks began on July 2.

On the night of July 2/3, the German battleship Tirpitz and the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper, sortied from Trondheim with four destroyers and two smaller vessels. The pocket battleships Admiral Scheer and Lützow and six destroyers sailed from Narvik, but Lützow and three destroyers ran aground. The British Admiralty responded on July 4 by diverting the escort vessels to the west to rendezvous with the Home Fleet and ordered the merchant vessels to scatter. Seeking safety in the Matochkin Strait, several ships headed toward Novaya Zemlya.