Operation Benedict

Operation Benedict
Part of the Arctic campaign of the Second World War
Hurricanes of 134 Squadron RAF at Vaenga (now Severomorsk), 1941
Type	Reinforcement and joint RAF–VVS operations
Location	Kola Peninsula 67°00′00″N 36°00′00″E / 67.00000°N 36.00000°E / 67.00000; 36.00000
Planned by	Charles Portal
Objective	Protect Murmansk from Axis air attack convert Soviet personnel to British aircraft and equipment
Date	29 July – 6 December 1941
Executed by	No. 151 Wing RAF 78th Fighter Aviation Regiment of the Soviet Naval Aviation (78 IAP VVS VMF)
Outcome	Allied victory
Casualties	3 killed
Vaenga Vaenga on the Kola Peninsula, part of the Murmansk Oblast, USSR

Operation Benedict (29 July – 6 December 1941) was the establishment of Force Benedict with units of the Soviet Air Forces (VVS, Voenno-Vozdushnye Sily) in north Russia, during the Second World War. The force comprised 151 Wing, Royal Air Force (RAF), with two squadrons of Hawker Hurricane fighters. The wing flew against the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) and the Suomen Ilmavoimat (Finnish Air Force) from Vaenga airfield in the northern USSR and trained Soviet pilots and ground crews to operate the Hurricanes, when their British pilots and ground crews returned to Britain.

Twenty-four Hurricane Mk IIb fighters were delivered by Operation Strength, flying direct to Vaenga from the aircraft carrier HMS Argus but Operation Dervish, the first Arctic convoy, was diverted from Murmansk to Archangelsk, another 400 mi (640 km) on. The fifteen Hurricanes for 151 Wing, delivered in crates, had to be assembled at Keg Ostrov airstrip. Despite primitive conditions, the Hurricanes were readied in nine days, with excellent co-operation from the Russian authorities; the aircraft flew to Vaenga on 12 September.

In five weeks of operations, 151 Wing claimed 16 victories, four probables and seven aircraft damaged. The winter snows began on 22 September and converting pilots and ground crews of Soviet Naval Aviation (Aviatsiya voyenno-morskogo flota) of the VVS to Hurricanes began in mid-October. The RAF party departed for Britain in late November, less various signals staff, arrived on 7 December and 151 Wing disbanded. The British and Russian governments gave Benedict much publicity and four members of 151 Wing received the Order of Lenin.