The "Immortal Convoy" regatta marking the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II will be held in 2020 along the WWII Arctic convoys route, the deputy chief of Russia's Polar Convoy civil society organization, Mikhail Soldatov, told Sputnik.
REYKJAVIK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th August, 2018) The "Immortal Convoy" regatta marking the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II will be held in 2020 along the WWII Arctic convoys route, the deputy chief of Russia's Polar Convoy civil society organization, Mikhail Soldatov, told Sputnik.
The regatta will start on May 9, 2020, and will last until the beginning of September the same year.
"The regatta will start simultaneously in several locations on the same principle as the [Arctic] convoys were formed. The yachts will head from Murmansk, St. Petersburg, the United Kingdom, and the United States for Reykjavik, where they will form the convoy on August 1. The regatta will depart from Iceland for Murmansk, while some [yachtsmen] express their desire to compete with each other," Soldatov said.
He also said that, along the route, the regatta would stop at sites of the largest sea battles. The yachtsmen, some of whom are descendants of the Arctic convoys veterans, will also take portraits of convoys participants.
The WWII Arctic convoys sailed from the United States, the United Kingdom and Iceland delivering essential supplies to the Soviet Union following Nazi Germanys invasion of the country in June 1941.
The convoys route was very dangerous as it passed through a narrow space between the Arctic ice pack and Norway occupied by Germany. Many of the vessels were attacked by German submarines, aircraft and battleships.
