Operation Benedict, the 1941 expedition to Murmansk, provided air defence for Allied ships as they were discharging at ports within range of Luftwaffe units in Norway and Finland.

On 7 July, Churchill wrote to Stalin and ordered the British ambassador in Moscow, Stafford Cripps, to begin discussions for a treaty of mutual assistance.

[1] On the same day a Soviet commission met the Royal Navy and the RAF in London and it was decided to use the airfield at Vaenga (now Severomorsk) as a fighter base to defend ships unloading at the ports of Murmansk, Arkhangelsk and Polyarny.

[3] The Dervish convoy assembled at Reykjavik in Iceland, consisting of six merchant ships Lancastrian Prince, New Westminster City, Esneh, Trehata, the elderly Llanstephan Castle loaded with raw materials and 15 crated Hawker Hurricane fighter aircraft, the fleet oiler RFA Aldersdale and the Dutch freighter Alchiba.

Departing for Russia on 21 August, the convoy was escorted by the destroyers HMS Electra, Active and Impulsive, the minesweepers Halcyon, Salamander and Harrier and the anti-submarine Shakespearian class trawlers HMT Hamlet, Macbeth and Ophelia.

151 Wing RAF Royal Air Force to Russia and the 24 Hurricanes were flown off Argus to Vaenga (later renamed Severomorsk) airfield, near Murmansk.

[5] On 12 July 1941, a Soviet commission met representatives of the Royal Navy and the RAF in London and it was decided to use the Vaenga-1 airfield to defend Allied ships while unloading at the ports of Murmansk, Arkhangelsk and Polyarnoe.

[2] The majority of the airmen embarked on the steamship SS Llanstephan Castle together with 15 Hurricanes packed in crates, at the Scapa Flow anchorage in the Orkney Islands.

[5] The ships departed from Scapa Flow on 17 August 1941 and the Hurricanes from Argus landed at Vaenga, about 17 mi (27 km) from Murmansk to find a large and fairly well equipped airfield occupied by a medium bomber squadron.

No facilities existed for the assembly of the crated Hurricanes; improvisation and the co-operation of the local Russians overcame the lack of specialist equipment, such as airscrew spanners and the job took nine days.

Bedding was new, the food was ample, though some considered to be a little greasy and the sanitation was hideous, leading to the British naming the main latrine, directly over a cesspit, "The Kremlin".

[12][13] Nine Hampdens were lost en route, due mainly to harsh Arctic weather, compass failures, German fighters and anti-aircraft fire.

[11] Commonwealth aircrew under RAF command remained active in the Murmansk area until 1944, operating Catalina, Lockheed Hudson and photoreconnaissance Spitfire aircraft from Vaenga and Lakhta, supporting Arctic convoys with maritime patrol and escort flying.