I forget. Normally, wouldn’t the interior of the huts be heated (before everything gets sabotaged) by electric or kerosene heaters?
If so, you still need a place to keep your Bud Lite cool (and not frozen solid).
So they don’t have to put on the arctic gear and go outside in a blizzard just to get another can of brew.
Apparently at a toasty 70 F, too. 
Also, if they put their food outside, the polar bears would get it.
Just wanted to chime in to add that this is one of my WWII naval favourites. And like HMS Ulysses was inspired by the author’s wartime experiences.
To be true to the spirit of Alistair MacLean though, would have probably been whisky, Glenfiddich for choice:)
My favorite WWII naval movie is In Which We Serve. In which, when hostilities began the ribbons on the enlisted men’s hats change from HMS Glowworm for example, to HMS Destroyer. 
Yes, would like to see that.
As a matter of interest, I presume the cap badges really did change during the war. I mean, you don’t want to give enemy agents in port an idea of which ships are docked there. However appellations like HMS Battleship or *HMS Aircraft Carrier * may have been cumbersome to fit on a cap rim. The Commando comics I read in my misspent youth had HMS Unintelligible written on the caps and I have no other evidence of what went on in the war.
What did the US Navy do? And did the Royal Navy actually do this?
(Sorry if this is a hijack, but I am interested in the answer)
I would think that is accurate. I am surprised that they still designated the class of ship, though. There would still be an indication of what kind of force would escort the convoy.
Actually, even colder than that-- the freezing point for seawater (remember- salty!) is lower than 32.0F.
Just a few comments about the movie:
Rock did a decent job as Capt. Faraday. He was never considered a great “actor,” but he did pretty well with the roles he ended up in. Jim Brown as Capt. Anders, not so much. Ernest Borgnine’s Vaslov is just awful. He comes across looking like an overweight Corporal LeBeau. Swedish born Alf Kjellin (Col. Ostrovsky) sounded more like Bela Lugosi than a Russian. You’d think he’d have been better with that accent.
McGoohan owns every scene he’s in.
One little side note: As I recall from the book, the full name of the station is “Drift Ice Station Zebra.” In one scene where they are looking for the film, you can see stenciled on some kind of snow tractor “D.I.S. Zebra.”
Well, my Mom says “Rock Hudson was a better actor than we all thought!” 
I liked the movie a lot when it came out. But in later years I learned the MacGuffin in the flick does not work IRL.
Both the US and the USSR had spy satellites a-plenty, excuse me I mean “national technical means of verification”. A spy satt with the exact location of both sides’ missile silos was not a big deal. Both sides already knew where all the silos were. Well, close enough for horseshoes and H-bombs. No reason to panic.