The RAF Association was saddened to learn of the death of Warrant Officer Eric Carter, who died on 26 July, aged 101.
Eric enlisted in the RAF on the outbreak of war and after completing his training was posted to 615 Squadron flying Hawker Hurricanes on convoy patrols over the Irish Sea. He then flew Defiants, defending the skies over Liverpool.
Eric was 21 when he transferred to 81 Squadron, 151 Wing and embarked on the top-secret mission known as Force Benedict in July 1941. Five hundred and fifty pilots and engineers were sent to Murmansk, along with an initial consignment of 40 Hawker Hurricanes. These were shipped as part of the first Arctic convoy, sailing through U-boat infested waters and braving icebergs and 10m waves. They disembarked at the port of Archangelsk on Russia’s White Sea. The Hurricanes were assembled in nine days and then flown 300 miles to Murmansk.
During the four-month mission, the RAF pilots flew 365 sorties against the Luftwaffe leaving in November 1941, when they handed over defence of the port to the Russians. RAF 151 Wing was banned from talking about the mission under threat of court martial and nothing was publicly known about Force Benedict until the late 1960s.
Eric and his comrades had not been expected to survive the mission, but he hitched a ride back home on a British warship. Back in Britain he converted to flying Spitfires. In 1943 the warrant officer was posted to Burma to fight the Japanese. After demobilisation he settled down to married life resuming his career as an electrical engineer and consultant in the British mining industry, retiring in the 1990s.
After an historic visit to Russia in 1994, when he accompanied the Queen on the first state visit to Russia by a British monarch since the revolution in 1917, Eric was invited back several times and received major Russian awards for his part in the mission.
In 2013 Eric was presented with the Arctic Star medal. He wrote a book about his wartime experiences and continued to share his memories as the last-surviving member of the mission. “I don’t think the operation gets the credit it deserves,” he said, “If Murmansk had fallen, the whole course of history might have been very different.”
The Association’s thoughts are with Eric’s family and friends.
