IN the words of Winston Churchill, it was "the worst journey in the world", and Bob Selley is among the ever-diminishing band of men alive to have done it.
It was a journey into sub-zero temperatures, mountainous seas, biting gale-force winds and almost constant darkness, with an icy death awaiting on your shoulder at all times.
It was the Arctic Convoys taking vital supplies from Britain to Russia.
Scores of ships were sunk, hundreds of brave men died and thousands were left scarred for life in that desperate bid to keep the Soviets battling on a second front against the might of Germany.
Bob, 92, of Leigh Dene Close, St Leonard's, Exeter, survived four such trips into hell and back.
"I can't help wondering if there are any more like me left," he said. "I might be the last one, I don't know, but I'd love to find out. There must be three or four still alive in their 90s."
Born and brought up in Alphington, when it was still a village separate from Exeter, Bob's father was away serving in the Royal Navy at the start of the Second World War.
Bob, a village schoolboy, was one of two pupils to win a scholarship to the old Hele's School, then fee-paying. The other was Margaret Nutting who went on to become headmistress of Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in Crediton.
Bob, who himself was to become Devon's chief ambulance officer, was inducted into the war as a teenager when the village bobby took him aside and told him he had been chosen for "secret war work".
"It turned out I was one of three lads who had been chosen for secret underground work, a bit like the French marquis.
"We met up with a Professor Arnold Riley from Exeter University who took us out to Dawlish woods with explosives and showed us how to sabotage and blow up German tanks and lorries should they invade.
"You have to remember that at that time everyone was very nervous and worried and tension was high about an invasion that seemed imminent. Prof Riley told us: "I don't suppose you will live very long!"
When the threat of an invasion had passed Bob applied to join the Fleet Air Arm and joined up, aged 20, as a Naval Airman 2nd Class, spending three months at Gosport learning navigation, Morse code, flag waving and the customs of the Royal Navy.
After more training at Birmingham, then Nether Avon, on Tiger Moths he went to Crail in the north east of Scotland flying Swordfish, single-engined biplanes affectionately known as Stringbags.
After a spell at the Royal Navy College, Greenwich, to learn how to be an officer and gentlemen. Bob was sent home on leave to await an appointment.
He said: "After three days I sent a telegram to the Admiralty saying I am still awaiting information, and they replied that I should join 825 Squadron at Lee-on-Solent.
"The squadron had been decimated when it had engaged the battleships Gneisenau and Sharnhorst – known as the Ugly Sisters – when they broke through the English Channel and all six Swordfish were lost.
"After that I joined 835 Squadron and flew from escort carriers, HMS Activity, HMS Battler and HMS Chaser on Atlantic convoy duty before joining HMS Nairana and sailing from Scapa Flow for the Arctic Circle and northern Russia.
"It was November/December and it was pitch black for 22 hours a day with just two hours of twilight. The seas were mountainous with the ship rolling 40 to 50 degrees from the upright and pitching 30 to 40 feet up and down in snowstorms driven by 60 knot winds."
The captain was a seaman who knew nothing about flying.
"On one particular occasion he called our squadron commanding officer and ordered an aircraft take off and check ahead for German U-boat," he said. "It was a 60-knot snowstorm and the ship was pitching about like a cork.
"The CO said he wasn't going to send any of his pilots up in that weather but would ask for a volunteer. He told me what the captain wanted and said if I refused he would tell him he was refusing to go and take the court martial on himself.
"I said OK and I took off with the CO as the observer. We had been up about 20 minutes when the CO asked if I could go faster. I asked why, and he told me we were still over the convoy.
"Following that the engine just stopped. To save weight we dropped all our depth charges which weren't armed so didn't go off and our flares, which did go off – and there was the convoy still below us.
"The power of the wind kept the propeller turning giving us just enough to stay in the air. The engine then started up and I headed back to Nairana. I don't know how many times I went round but I finally managed to land. The captain called us up the bridge and all he said was: 'You made a bloody good job of illuminating the convoy!'
"In another incident we were being shadowed by a German reconnaissance aircraft flying out of Norway. The weather was too bad for the Wildcat fighters to go up so they sent me with my observer Dave Newbury.
"We no longer had an air gunner, because his space was needed for our radar, so Dave grabbed a Tommy gun from the ship's armoury. We were directed to the German aircraft but it must have picked up our messages and thought we were a Wildcat because they flew off.
"I believe it was the only time a Swordfish was used as a nightfighter."
"Survival time in the water if one had to ditch our aircraft was a maximum of four minutes before you froze to death.
"Some aircrews had to be hoisted out of their aircraft after they landed on as they were literally frozen stiff. In addition the seas were so rough that the carrier was rolling through 80 degrees – 40 degrees to port and then 40 degrees to starboard. There were several times when I thought we were going to capsize.
"That was all before account had to be taken of the other perils we had to contend with. The Germans, with their control of Norway, were able to position their JU88 aircraft along the coast to our south and attack us at will. There was also the constant menace of U-boat attacks."
It was after his fourth convoy, from Russia back to Great Britain, that Bob and his flying colleagues was sent home on leave and then Dorset where he flew Seafires and Spitfires and met his wife Margaret, who was serving as a WREN. He stayed in the RNR, going on to fly Sea Fury aircraft from Yeovilton, only leaving in 1956 as a Lieutenant Commander RNR.
The couple moved to their present home in St Leonard's in 1959, Bob going on to become chief ambulance officer for Devon.
It took more than 70 years for British governments to finally recognise the vital and daring work done by those on the Arctic Convoys.
At long last a campaign medal for the heroes of the Arctic has been awarded.
Bob said: "Mine arrived on March 30 – two days before April Fool's Day. I really would like to know if there are any other Arctic Convoy survivors around – but whatever you do, don't make me out to be any kind of hero."