In July, one of the worst convoy stories of the war took place. Russian Convoy Q17 left Reykjavik, Iceland with 36 ships, by the end of they reached their Russian destination only two survived. The Germans sent three of their major ships: the new battleship Tirpitz, pocket battleship Admiral Scheer and heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper against the convoy, as well as air attacks from German planes based in Norway. Fear of attack by the German warships led the British Admiralty, far away in London, to order the small escorting warships to withdraw and the convoy to scatter. Thirty-one try to make for the isolated islands of Novaya Zemlya, Russia. Between July 5th and 10th , 20 of them are lost, half each to the aircraft and U-Boats sent to hunt them down. Eventually only 11 crew survivors and two rescue ships reach the Russian port of Archangel