Titel
The Red Duster at War : A History of the Merchant Navy During the Second World War
Ausgabensprache
Englisch
Autor(en)
John Slader
Originaltitel
The Red Duster at War
Verlag
William Kimber
ISBN
0718306791
EAN
9780718306793
Ausgabe
Gebundene Ausgabe
Inhalt/Klappentext
"The Merchant seaman has never faltered. To him we owe our preservation and our very lives," sait the Minister of War Transport after the war had been won. It was estimated after the close of hostilities that at least 32,000 merchant seamen lost their lives through carrying out their duty. And yet the Merchant Navy, the Red Duster as it has been familiarly known for centuries, is not a fighting service.
Britain's survival, however, depended on her merchant ships getting through to bring in essential supplies of food and material. Indeed, without the merchantmen victory on the battlefield was impossible. But thei task was frustrated by U-boats bent on the destruction of their service, and they scored horrific successes until the Battle of the Atlantic changed the fortunes of the Merchant Navy. One shipping firm lost its entire fleet of 24 ships.
The author, himself a former merchant seaman and four times torpedoed, abandoning ship each time, has written a comprehensive and authoritative account of the role of the Red Duster in the war. He chronicles the hundreds of dramatic events, its successes, its grievous losses, giving the tonnage and number of men lost on each occasion.
The crews were of varied race, varied creeds, but a common purpose united them in the face of danger; from, as the author says, the youngest cabin boy to the most wheatherbeaten old skipper. All were gallant seamen who acted in the finest tradition of British maritime history.
Britain's survival, however, depended on her merchant ships getting through to bring in essential supplies of food and material. Indeed, without the merchantmen victory on the battlefield was impossible. But thei task was frustrated by U-boats bent on the destruction of their service, and they scored horrific successes until the Battle of the Atlantic changed the fortunes of the Merchant Navy. One shipping firm lost its entire fleet of 24 ships.
The author, himself a former merchant seaman and four times torpedoed, abandoning ship each time, has written a comprehensive and authoritative account of the role of the Red Duster in the war. He chronicles the hundreds of dramatic events, its successes, its grievous losses, giving the tonnage and number of men lost on each occasion.
The crews were of varied race, varied creeds, but a common purpose united them in the face of danger; from, as the author says, the youngest cabin boy to the most wheatherbeaten old skipper. All were gallant seamen who acted in the finest tradition of British maritime history.
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