-Their Role and History>
“Vigilance could never be relaxed. Many gallant actions and incredible feats of endurance are recorded, but the deeds of those who perished will never be known.
Our merchant seamen displayed their highest qualities, and the brotherhood of the sea was never more strikingly shown than in their determination to defeat the U-boat.
-Winston Churchill the Second World War Vol 5.
In the Second World War, the geography of the oceans and changed technologyy meant that the surface naval clashes which did occur were often chance encounters. The threat posed to warships by mines, submarines and scouting aircraft made naval commanders wary of sending out their fleets to battle unless the enemy ships were approaching and the threat of invasion was imminent.
The Navy (Kriegsmarine) of Germany, the central power of the Axis Forces, now turned to U-Boat attacks upon Allied merchant shipping.
Through 1941/42 island nations such as the United Kingdom were highly dependent upon the importation of raw and crude materials for military and domestic purposes. Interruption of the supply of these threatened the capacity to wage war as well as survival.
The German U-boat campaign in the Atlantic and Indian oceans was devastating to allied shipping in the first four years of war, despite adoption of the convoy system, involving numbers of merchant ships sailing in company under escort.
The Japanese long range submarines used advanced torpedo technology, and Japan’s impact on Australian and Allied shipping in the Indian and Pacific Oceans was significant in 1942/43, directly after Pearl Harbour, due to the lack of naval protection in Australia’s ocean surrounds. Also operating out of Penang, Malaysia and Japanese-occupied island bases was the German Monsun Group of submarines.
Traditionally protection of merchant shipping was through the convoy system, with available naval escort providing all possible anti submarine and some anti-aircraft cover. In the Atlantic Ocean particularly, Allied convoys suffered at the hands of german U-boats and long-range FW200 Condor aircraft.
To deal with the latter particularly, refitting of some merchant ships took place. Some thirty-five, fitted as Catapault Armed Merchant (CAM) ships came into service during 1941. From an 80-ft (24 metres) launch platform they were able to deploy an aircraft over the bow, and, while the aircraft was not recoverable, they were to rescue the ditched pilot on his return. Aircraft were generally the Hurricane, the pilots were volunteers serving in the Merchant Ship Fighter Unit and seventeen CAM ships were lost. The concept was superseded by the development of escort carriers.
These Merchant Aircraft Carrier (MAC) ships, formerly bulk carriers of oil or dry cargoes, were fitted with a flight deck positioned above the ship’s main deck. There was a small island but no hangar, catapault or other aircraft support facilities. There were twenty of these vessels and, flying the merchant flags of their respective nationalities, they were merchant seamen- manned.
Some detail of two types follows:-
Empire MacAlpine class bulk carriers (6):-
Displacement 12,000tons fully loaded
Armament 1×4 inch, 2x40mm, 4x20mm
Merchant Navy Crew 107
Aircraft 4
Shell class tankers carriers (9):-
Displacement 8,000tons BRT
Guns 1×4 inch and some smaller
Merchant Navy Crew 105
Both these types of ships, built as merchantmen, thus served, without additional conversion, as ships of war, manned by merchant seamen, many from the International seamen’s pool which included many Australians. They returned to merchant service immediately following the end of hostilities.
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Postscript
Merchant vessels were adapted and allotted to a number of specialist roles during hostilities. The material below touches on some of these and is to form part of a separate narrative, to appear in ”The Big Picture” portion of the website.
Merchant Navy Landing Ships
Excerpt from Churchill /Roosevelt Despatches
(1) As to the long term policy, all our experience goes to show that more heavily armed and armoured Tanks are required for modern battle
(2) I am interested in your suggestion that men for our Tank Corp should .be trained in theUnited States. Plans should be made for landing armies of liberation with great numbers of tanks, but also vessels capable of carrying them and landing them onto beaches.
It ought not to be difficult for you to make the necessary adoption in some of the vast numbers of merchant vessels capable of carrying them and landing direct onto the beaches.
[We need to frame] an agreed estimate as to our joint requirements of the primary weapons of war e.g. aircraft, tanks, ships, etc……..and [to consider] how these requirements are to be met by our joint production
The despatches between Churchill and Roosevelt considered not only British /US war plans for the fighting of 1942/43 but also the security of bases and the planning of large scale forces needed for eventual victory.
Both leaders at this juncture realised that only trained and skilled personnel were needed to man the merchant ships (Landing Ships Tanks-LST) and to carry out this long term wartime policy, these necessary Officers and men must be recruited for and drawn from the ranks of United States and British merchant mariners. Statistical evidence of their contribution and sacrifice shows they did not fail the challenge.
October 1945 a tribute was paid to the Merchant Navy by the British Houses of Parliament which said.
Quote The British Minister Of War Transport has been informed by the Lord Chancellor and the Speaker of the House Of Commons of the terms of the Resolutions in identical terms passed by both Houses of Parliament without dissent on the 30th October 1945, of which he has been requested to communicate the following portion to the Masters, Officers and Men of the Merchant Navy.
That the thanks of this House be accorded to the Officers and Men of the Merchant Navy for the steadfastness with which they maintained our stocks of food and materials; for their services in transporting men, munitions and fuel to all the battles, over all the seas; and for the gallantry with which, though a civilian service, they met and fought the constant attacks of the enemy.
“That this House doth acknowledge the Merchant Navy with humble gratitude and the sacrifice of all those who, on land or sea or in the air, have given their lives, that others today may live as free men, and its heartfelt sympathy with their relatives in Their Proud Sorrow. We shall never forget them.” Unquote
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AE Ammunition Explosive Ship
AF Provision Ship FVSIS
AH Hospital Ship
AK Cargo Ship
AO Oil Tankers
AP Personnel Troop Transports
All these ships, manned by merchant seamen, operated in areas of conflict and supported Allied forces in all campaigns whether sailing under British or Allied flags. Except for hospital ships, they were armed and the gun crews comprised many trained merchant navy personnel plus Navy Defensively-Equipped Merchant Ship (DEMS) sailors. AH Hospital Ships remained unarmed under the Geneva Convention.
The Second Mate was usually designated as gunnery officer after completing a course at a naval shore based establishment.
The U S Army Transportation Corps used many AK’s (of the Fort Worth type) in particular, with merchant crews of mixed nationalities including Australian.
Just as merchant shipping had been indispensable in evacuations from the islands in the early years of the war, so it proved itself a ubiquitous necessity as the fightback campaigns’ needs for war materiel and supplies were met. In ports large and small, the platforms for ultimate victory were prepared.
While not occurring in the actual Pacific conflict area, but rather on its edges, the hazards of merchant mariners are exemplified by the following two events: 1.The freighter SS Fort Stikine of 7130 tons blew up and devastateds Bombay harbor and part of the city in 1944. 17
ships were badly damaged, port facilities were destroyed and there were 6,000 dead and 500 hospitalised.
2. In July 1944 ammunition ships E A Bryon and Quinault Victory were in Port Chicago (Mare Island California) when a fire started. In 6 seconds Bryon with 5,000 tons of explosives, blew apart. Quinalt Victory was also destroyed and it is estimated 10,000 tons of ammunition went skywards on that day.
Merchant Navy and Navy personnel losses will never by known with accuracy.
Seeadler Harbour was, for a time, the largest American naval base west of Pearl Harbour. General Douglas MacArthur’s assembled fleet made ready there for the invasion of thePhilippines. An American Kittyhawk plane streaked down between a Victory ship and a Liberty ship. A moment later there was a vertical flash and an explosion followed by a brilliant ball of fire. It was the ammunition ship USS Mount Hood, blown out of the water and disappearing in one huge explosion.
Explosions of ammunition ships in port or at sea were too numerous to tabulate here. We can only say that the survival rate from these ships, all merchant seamen,civilians serving together irrespective of colour, class and creed, was poor. Whether the results were from enemy action accidental events or otherwise we can only ponder.
A tribute to all Merchant Mariners who made the Supreme Sacrifice upon all oceans of the World.WW2:
“They need no dirge, for time and tide fills all things, with tribute unto them. The warmth of a summer sun, the calm of a quiet sea, the comforting arm of night, the generous soul of nature and power of a seabird’s flight.
Blow golden trumpets blow, mournfully for all the golden youth that be and shattered dreams that lie. Where God has lain his quiet dead for all the world to see, upon some alien ocean bed.” Ron (Steve) Wylie.
Some statistics, albeit approximate, are shown:
British Register. 185,000 Mariners, including 40,000 seamen of Indian, Chinese, Lascar and other British Nationals, some Australian.
In 1939 Britain’s Merchant Fleet, the largest in the world, was brought under the control of British Ministry of War Transport. (BMOWT)
30,248 listed merchant seamen lost their lives during the Second World War, a death rate higher proportionately than in any of the Allied armed forces.
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