Many Libertys had temporary accommodations for 200 troops and headed for the beaches under enemy fire with invasion barges in.

German merchant marine ww2. But due to German U-boats and other attackers the mariners actually operated in an extremely dangerous niche. Flag were risking their lives to carry arms ammunition and food to keep. Waldemar Semenov and the SS Alcoa Guide On April 16 1942 a German submarine surfaced near the SS Alcoa Guide off the coast of Cape Hatteras North Carolina and opened fire with its deck gun.

Even before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941 American merchant mariners on freighters and tankers flying the US. The Merchant Marine in World War II was supposed to just tool around the worlds oceans delivering supplies to ports and troops in Europe Africa and the Pacific while the real fighting was done by sailors soldiers and Marines. In all 17 US.

Germany produced very few surface vessels between 1940 and 1945. The merchant marine has many responsibilities especially now that America is at odds with several global powers. Merchant ships of the German Empire 1 C 10 P Merchant ships of the Hanseatic League 6 P Merchant ships of West Germany 1 C 32 P.

In a 1943 letter to the American Legion Admiral Telfair Knight of the War Shipping Administration compared salaries for equivalent positions in Navy and Merchant Marine and found salaries to be equivalent or even higher for Navy personnel. Many families committed suicide rather than drown in the icy minus 18 degree water. Total merchant ship production Axis forces 3792000 tons.

Vann a Merchant Marine transport ship when it was hit by an underwater mine. Seaman Second Class Joseph Shannon an 18-year-old sailor from Greenwich Conn was stationed aboard the SS Robert L. During World War II some gossip columnists claimed that merchant mariners were getting rich on outrageous salaries.

She sank in 70 minutes near the Danish island of Bornholm. Total merchant ship production Allied forces 44431300 tons. This forced these men into the worst of the fighting despite their largely non-combat role.