AS the war heroes who kept the vital supply lines open through the arctic during the Second World War are finally honoured for their bravery, Bolton News reporter MARK SMITH talks to the Bolton veterans who have received the medals.

FOR most people, seeing the Aurora Borealis — the beautiful northern lights — would fill their heart with wonder.

But for a young Bill Jerstice and thousands of his comrades, it brought fear.

The former sailor was just a teenager when he braved freezing temperatures, U Boat attacks and bombing raids to help keep open vital Allied supply lines, first during the Battle of the Atlantic — where his ship escorted merchant vessels between an under siege Britain and the United States, and then the Arctic convoy campaign — helping supplies reach the beleaguered Soviet Union in its life and death struggle with the Third Reich.

Now, almost seven decades later — and as the country also commemorates the anniversary of the Battle of the Atlantic this weekend — Mr Jerstice has been awarded with the Arctic Star medal.

He said: “I tried to join when I was 16, I thought it’d be exciting, but they wouldn’t accept me so I went back after a few months when I was 17. A couple of us went from Bolton to join up and they asked us what we wanted to do.

“The other lad — Charlie Aspinall — said a stoker, but I said I wanted to be up top, a seaman.

“He died when he was 19, he was on a cruiser called the Charybdis, which was torpedoed.”

The 87-year-old great grandfather, of Tonge Moor Road, served aboard the Captain class frigate HMS Cook, formerly the USS Dempsey — an American ship built at the Boston Navy Yards and loaned to the Royal Navy.

He said: “It even had an ice cream machine onboard, but we never got any. I would be in the crow’s nest keeping lookout.

“When we were escorting ships in the Atlantic they’d be spread out so far you couldn’t see the end, and one funny thing is that our ships were commanded from the HMS Dido — which was Bolton’s adopted ship.”

The Cook was later assigned to Arctic convoy duty, with Royal Navy ships escorting supply vessels to the Soviet ports of Murmansk and Archangel.

Mr Jerstice said: “We’d set sail from Loch Ewe in Scotland. It was deadly cold, I never saw an iceberg, it was too cold for icebergs to break off, and one big problem was the northern lights because it meant the U-Boat commanders could see you through the periscope.

“Then you’d just hear “boom” and see a shoot of flame.

“The ships were all arranged in lanes and we had an ocean going tug, which would pick up survivors and it would move between the lanes.

“But you couldn’t last very long in the water because it was so cold.”

He added: “It wasn’t just the journey there but the journey back that was dangerous.

“You had to get out of the bay of Murmansk and there was another escort ship behind us once and it got torpedoed.

“The U-Boats would even follow us and attack us in the Irish Sea.”

Mr Jerstice and the Cook would later fight at D-Day, protecting the Allied invasion force from enemy attacks.

Following the war Mr Jerstice — who has three children, nine grandchildren and six great-grandchildren — declined the offer to stay in the navy and went to work as a printer at Bradshaw Works.

He said: “They asked would I like to say on but I wanted to get married and get a job. I’m glad I didn’t stay because they would have sent me to Korea.”

Mr Jerstice has already been honoured by the Russians for his service in the campaign and has now received Britain’s new Arctic Star — which was commissioned earlier this year following a long campaign to have a dedicated award created.

He said: “I’m glad people know what we went through now. I think my family are proud.”

Bolton North East MP David Crausby, who had long campaigned for the medal, said: “I’m glad they’ve finally been awarded. This country owes its existence to these men and a lot of people don’t realise it.

“Keeping the Russians in the war kept the pressure off us.”

PENSIONER David Tonge has spoken of his pride at finally being recognised by his own country for his Arctic convoy service.

But the 87-year-old from Westhoughton is still calling for the Government to allow him to receive the Russian medal he has been offered.

The Bolton News has reported on Mr Tonge’s efforts to be awarded the Ushakov medal — an award which the Russian government wanted to bestow on him for his efforts during the campaign to keep vital supply lines open during the Second World War.

Britain’s Foreign Office said it would not allow him to receive it — but the government later revealed it would create its own dedicated award for veterans, which he has now received.

Mr Tonge, of Washacre Close, served aboard the destroyer HMS Venus where — at the age of just 17 — he braved constant U-boat and airborne attacks during a campaign which spanned 40 convoys.

He also served at D-Day, helping troops and equipment reach the Normandy beaches, and also played a part in the sinking of two of the Axis powers’ most infamous enemy warships, the German battleship Scharnhorst, and the Japanese heavy cruiser Haguro, which the Venus helped sink in the last gun battle ever fought between surface ships.

Mr Tonge helped rescue the crew of the stricken HMS Hardy, jumping to its sloping deck as it sank to help guide its crew to safety, and also met the legendary Field Marshal Montgomery on the eve of D-Day — who was so struck by how tired and young he and his comrades were, that he ordered the ship’s captain to send them all to bed.

Mr Tonge said he originally found the application process for the new medal confusing, but The Bolton News contacted his MP Julie Hilling who arranged for her staff to go out and help him.

He said: “I’m glad I’ve got it, but I still want the Russian one. Julie Hilling’s staff helped me no end.

“I’ve had a lot of people wishing me well, I don’t think a lot of people knew what it was all about until they read it in The Bolton News.”

Ms Hilling added: “I’m delighted Mr Tonge has got his well deserved medal, but I hope the government will agree to let him have the Ushakov.”