A cruiser cover force comprising Kent, Jamaica and Bermuda also followed the convoy, to guard against attack by surface units.
JW 54B was opposed by a U-boat force of five boats in a patrol line, code-named Eisenbart, in the Norwegian Sea.
The convoy was not sighted by German reconnaissance aircraft, nor by any of the Eisenbart U-boats, and crossed the Norwegian and Barents Seas without incident.
On 3 December the Ocean escort destroyers departed, to make independent passage home, while JW 54B arrived safely at Archangel later the same day.
Together with the 19 ships of JW 54A, which had arrived at Murmansk the previous week; this was a successful start to the 1943–44 convoy season.