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Character Profiles
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Merchant Navy
Supply Ships
(profile
contributed by Justin "LooseCannon" Riggir)
"The Battle of the Atlantic was the dominating factor all through
the war. Never for one moment could we forget that everything elsewhere
depended on its outcome." Winston Churchill
The view
across the columns of a convoy as seen from an AA gun position
During World War II the
aircraft carrier came to eclipse the battleship in the rank of capital
ships, however the most important ship remained the humble merchantman.
The Battle of the Atlantic was unlike any other battle of the war, in
that it was a campaign lasting five long years and the most important
battle for the Allies, for until it was decided in their favor, their
strategic plans could not be put into operation. If the Allies had failed
to gain control of the Atlantic, Germany would have remained in control
of Western Europe and the Mediterranean.
With warfare becoming dependent on logistics and the Royal Navy out-gunning
the Kriegsmarine by the ratio of ten to one in capital ships, it
was on the U-boat, and to a lesser degree the surface raider, that Germany's
hopes of evading the Allied blockade and severing Britain's maritime supply
depended. By the end of 1939, U-boats had sunk 114 ships with a tonnage
of 421,156 for the loss of nine of their number. Given the small strength
of the escort forces these figures could be considered satisfactory. However
Germany was known to have begun a large scale construction program of
U-boats, and it was projected that by 1941, at the latest, her number
of operational submarines would be doubled or even trebled, and as the
war lengthened these numbers would be progressively increased.
The British
CAM-ship Empire Faith
With the German occupation of the airfields of western France and Norway,
long-range Focke-Wulf Condor aircraft could search the Atlantic
for British convoys and report their positions to the waiting U-boats.
To counter this threat a few merchantmen were fitted with catapults to
launch a Hurricane fighter and one of these ships would be included in
the more important convoys. When a Condor was sighted, the Hurricane
was launched via the catapult to engage and returned to ditch beside a
merchantman to enable the rescue of the pilot. These catapult-armed-merchant
ships, or CAM-ships, were in time replaced by the merchant-aircraft-carrier,
or MAC-ship. These were usually a tanker with a full flight deck built
over her normal deck, and carried around six fighters. The CAM-ships were
replaced by auxiliary carriers, which were merchantmen converted into
full aircraft-carriers with wooden flight-decks.
Shipping losses to December 1940 to U-boats alone were 2,606,000 tons,
and when mines, bombers, surface raiders and E-boats were included the
total rose to 4,523,000 tons. Losses of this magnitude were beyond the
replacement capacity of the British shipyards - 40,000 men were released
from the armed forces to be returned to the shipyards and docks to clear
the huge backlog of 800,000 tons of shipping awaiting repair - and although
there was still ample pre-war tonnage afloat under British flag, with
the peak of the U-boat strength yet to be reached these figures were clearly
ominous. The merchantmen losses from all causes in 1941 were 1,299 ships
totalling 4,328,558 tons, an overall loss well beyond the Allies capacity
to replace. Of even greater magnitude were the losses of 1942, with U-boats
alone exceeding the total losses for 1941 by nearly 2,000,000 tons - 6,226,215
tons - the total loss for the year being 1,664 ships totaling 7,790,697
tons.
The German High Command had calculated that an average loss of 800,000
tons of Allied shipping per month would be enough to ensure an Axis victory,
and optimistic reports on estimated tonnage sunk by individual U-boat
commanders had led them to believe this was being achieved. The true overall
rate of loss throughout 1942 was just under 650,000 tons, a crippling
rate and far beyond the Allies replacement capacity, and throughout the
grim months of 1942, defeat in the Atlantic, and thus the war, was a thought
that haunted the Allies leaders. As serious as the loss of essential imports
was the reduction in the rate of the building up of forces in Britain
for the assault on Europe, and final victory over Germany.
Although Britain's shipyard output had been dramatically increased from
the pre-war slump conditions with new intensive shift conditions, manning
levels increased, skilled shipwrights exempted from military service and
large numbers of women recruited, their output was limited to a maximum
of 1,250,000 tons per year. In February 1942, the United States set themselves
the ambitious goal of 24,000,000 tons of new ships before the end of that
year. To meet this quota of 750 ships for 1942 and around 1,500 ships
in 1943, United States yards would have to increase their output of ships
from one to three per day. A government-sponsored program had been initiated
to build more shipyards and by war's end 99 new yards with a total work
force of over 1,500,000 were in operation. However, more yards alone would
have never have been enough and an entirely new method of shipping construction
was found. Borrowing from the mass-production techniques of the car industry,
this method used all-welded construction, prefabrication and a standard
design. This principal standardized ship was the 10,000 ton Emergency
Cargo 2/large capacity, or EC2, and was based on a British tramp steamer
designed in 1879, and was known as the Canadian Park and the United States
Liberty ship.
The first Liberty
ship, the SS Patrick Henry, was launched by the Bethlehem-Fairfield
Yard of Baltimore on September 27, 1941 and a total of 2,700 would be
built in the United States. Training schools for the platers, welders
and shipfitters were established and thousands of women were employed.
The ship yards were paid a fast delivery bonus of between $60,000 and
$140,000 for each $1,500,000 ship. The construction time of six months
for the first Liberty ship was cut back to two months per ship by mid-1942,
and finally to just over a month. The Kaiser Corporation achieving record
construction time when No: 440 was completed in four days fifteen hours
on November 8, 1942. Three days later the SS Robert E Peary was
loading her first cargo. In addition to their crew, the Liberty ships
were manned by Naval Armed Guard gunners, the Park Ships were manned by
Naval Volunteers who were known as Defensively-Equiped-Merchant-Ship,
or DEMS gunners, who were assisted by the merchant seamen.
The Liberty
ship SS John W Brown
Typical Liberty Ship Specifications
Displacement: 10,000 tons standard; 5 holds with over 9,000 tons capacity
Dimensions: 441 x 56 feet
Propulsion: 3 cylinder, reciprocating steam engine, 2,500 hp, 11
knots
Crew: 44 and between 12 to 25 Naval Armed Guard
Armament: 1 x 4 inch stern gun, 2 x 37 mm bow guns, 4 x .50 cal
machine guns , 2 x .30 cal machine guns
In addition to the
cargo carried in her holds, a Liberty ship would also carry freight such
as aircraft, armoured vehicles, and locomotives lashed to her decks. The
Liberty ship could carry 2,840 jeeps, 440 tanks, or 230 million rounds
of rifle ammunition. The Liberty ship having a maximum speed of only eleven
knots was of relatively easy prey for the U-boats and in early 1942 designs
for a 15 knot ship, the Victory ship or VC2, were begun. The first of
the 534 Victory ships built, again using the mass-production techniques
of the car industry, the SS United Victory was launched on February
28, 1944. In comparison to the Liberty Ship, the Victory ship was of sleek
lines and her hull was strengthened.
The SS United
Victory being fitted out
Typical Victory Ship Specifications
Displacement: 10,000 tons standard; 5 holds with over 9,000
tons capacity
Dimensions: 455 x 62 feet
Propulsion: cross-compound steam turbine developing 6,000 or 8,500
hp , 15 knots
Crew: 44 and between 12 to 25 Naval Armed Guard
Armament: 1 x 5 inch stern gun , 1 x 3 inch bow gun , 8 x 20 mm
cannon
Tankers had been developed around the turn of the century to carry bulk
liquid cargo. During World War II the T-2 was the workhorse of the tanker
fleet and in 1943 'skeleton decks' were attached about 7 or 8 feet above
the decks to enable tankers to carry carry planes and PT boats in addition
to their bulk liquid cargo. Tankers were always a prime U-boat target.
The SS Mission
Purisima above, and to the right, aircraft lashed to a tanker's skeleton
decks
Typical T-2 Tanker Specifications
Capacity: between 90,000 to 140,000 barrels
Dimensions: 523 x 68 feet
Propulsion: Turbo-Electric propulsion , 6,000 hp , 16 knots
Crew: 42 and 17 Naval Armed Guard
Images of the SS
John W Brown, SS United Victory, SS Mission Purisima and skeleton
decks, kindly provided by US
Merchant Marine - A site dedicated to the Mariners who died in service
of their country during all Wars
Sources: Purnell's History of the Second World War, World War
II Orbis Publishing and The Battle of the Atlantic by John
Costello and Terry Hughes
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