The Merchant Marine Were the Unsung Heroes of World War II These daring seamen kept the Allied troops armed and fed while at the mercy of German U-boats Merchant Mariners aboard a.

German merchant marine ww2. Unarmed and without an escort the ship sank in two hours. In May 1941 an unarmed merchant ship SS ROBIN MOORE sank off the west coast of Africa after being torpedoed by a German submarine. By Paul Lakowski 12 Feb 2005 2314.

In the Med sea the merchant ships were used were most italian. The merchant marine has many responsibilities especially now that America is at odds with several global powers. Vann a Merchant Marine transport ship when it was hit by an underwater mine.

The Merchant Marine on their Liberty ships World War I vintage Hog Islanders and anything else that floated took part in every invasion of World War II. Germany produced very few surface vessels between 1940 and 1945. During World War II some gossip columnists claimed that merchant mariners were getting rich on outrageous salaries.

Generally war or not it is the job of the merchant marine to carry passengers and various cargo goods supplies or in the case of combat weapons through navigable waters. List of German merchant ships 1939 and their fate during World War II provisional Imperial War Museums. 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.

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. Many families committed suicide rather than drown in the icy minus 18 degree water. 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. On June 9 2018 Reinhard Hardegen the last surviving German submarine commander of World War II died at the age of 105. But due to German U-boats and other attackers the mariners actually operated in an extremely dangerous niche.