The Red Duster at War - Buch
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Autor
Buch
Originaltitel
Originalsprache
nicht angegeben
Erstveröffentlichung
1988
Band (Reihe)
-
Typ
Buch
Genre
Sachbuch: Geschichte, Zeitgeschichte
Auflage
Sprache
Englisch
Übersetzt von
-
Verlag
Jahr
1988
Seitenanzahl
352
ISBN
0718306791
EAN
9780718306793
Ausgabe
Gebundene Ausgabe
Auflage
Erstauflage
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.