PQ 17 comprised 39 merchant ships, including three rescue ships, and had no escort carrier. It sailed before escort carriers and other measures that became standard later in 1942 entered service. Four corvettes, among them the newly commissioned HMS Lotus, joined trawlers, converted anti-aircraft ships, and destroyers in the close escort. HMS Victorious, HMS Duke of York, USS Washington, cruisers, more destroyers, and a submarine operated in separate covering formations or ahead of the convoy. Auxiliaries sustained the escorts and merchant vessels, but the close escort could not fight heavy German surface units. Counting every warship in the wider operation gives a misleading picture of the protection beside the merchants.
Chapter · 9:47-13:18
PQ 17's escorts and distant covering forces
The order of battle shows a lightly protected merchant convoy supported by powerful forces that were not sailing alongside it.