The defence of Pound's scatter order rests on the surface threat he believed PQ 17 faced. A battleship reaching a concentrated convoy could, in this assessment, destroy both merchant ships and their escorts. Scattering accepted losses to aircraft and submarines in the hope of avoiding that larger disaster. Later knowledge that the expected surface attack did not arrive changes how the decision appears. After PQ 17, requests for battleships and heavy cruisers to cover Arctic convoys became easier to secure. Sherbrooke's destroyers and the later arrival of Jamaica and Sheffield provide a contrasting example of resistance to stronger surface forces.
Notable Point · 1:07:56-1:14:50
PQ 17 and decisions made under a feared surface attack
The later absence of a German battleship does not erase the surface threat that British commanders believed they faced when ordering PQ 17 to scatter.