Special delivery from Putin

Royal Navy veteran Stan Douglas with the medal he received 'out of the blue' which had been awarded to him by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photo / Warren Buckland

When Napier man Stan Douglas went out to get the mail from his letterbox a few days ago he was left slightly stunned - as it's not every day you get a note on behalf of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin.

Nor, for that matter, a service medal you were not expecting.

"I had no idea it was coming until it arrived in the post - it was completely out of the blue," the 92-year-old veteran of the Royal Navy's Arctic convoys said.

It was the fifth service medal Mr Douglas, and other original members of the Russian Convoy Club of New Zealand have received, and it was through his being an original member from 1985 that he was awarded the latest one.

As an original member, and believed to be the only one left in Hawke's Bay, he had previously been awarded the prestigious Ushakov Service Medal - and, by virtue of that, was lined up for the "out of the blue" medal.

It was issued for "70 Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945".

With it was a letter from Russian Ambassador to New Zealand Valery Tereshchenko, who wrote "the President of the Russian Federation Mr Vladimir Putin decorates you for your participation in the Arctic convoys of the Allied Forces to the Russian Northern sea ports during the Second World War".

Mr Douglas said since receiving his wartime service medals he had through the years been awarded eight commemorative medals, including five from Russia for his convoy service.

"This one was quite a surprise," he said.

Five years ago, after receiving a fourth Russian medal commemorating the 65th anniversary of the last of the convoys in 1945, Mr Douglas had remarked "this is the last of them".

But, as he has discovered, it was not.

The national president of the Russian Convoy Club, Chris King, said the deputy head of Mission, Mikhail Korneev, had told him that Russia's gratitude for "the aid and sacrifices" made by the convoy veterans would always be remembered.

Mr Douglas served aboard the destroyer HMS Javelin, which accompanied supply ships to the northern Russian port of Murmansk - in freezing, rough conditions and targeted by German destroyers, bombers and U-boats.

He said, while some of the bigger and heavily laden cargo ships were able to plough through the waves, the crews aboard lightweight destroyers and other escorts had to endure a rollercoaster ride.

"Two words described it," he said, 'hellish' for the living conditions and 'atrocious' for the weather.

-From 1941 to 1945, 40 convoys took part in the supply chain, and of the 811 ships involved 92 were sunk, including 18 Royal Navy warships.