Cargo Ships, II. How Effective Was It in World War II?

In the cold autumn of the 1940s, when Nazi Germany’s submarines launched a relentless attack on allied shipping in the Atlantic Britain’s supply needs has reached a critical point.

As hundreds of ships were sunk by German submarines, the Allied response to this emergency was to launch a revolution in shipbuilding. This US-led effort will change the course of the war and contribute to the victory of the allies Construction of more than 2,700 Liberty ships It contained.

By the end of 1940 most of Europe had fallen to Nazi Germany and the Commonwealth was now alone in the war.

But the island nation was too busy for the war effort. of the materials needed was being deprived. German U-boats; It was destroying warships, aircraft and incoming ship traffic faster than Britain could replace them.

Although the United States was not yet at war, Britain was involved in the war effort. played a vital role in supplying and its enormous industrial capacity was critical to helping Britain stay in the war.

But the Germans He was sinking ships every day, England and America needed another way to deliver all these war supplies.

In the face of this problem, US President Franklin Roosevelt announced the Emergency Shipbuilding Program in 1941.

A great effort was made to produce ships on an unprecedented scale, but they did not take their design very seriously. Ships considered ugly by many, Time magazine “ugly duckling” This is how he started to be called since he got his nickname.

They may not look very nice, but 10,000 tons of cargo capacity It was more important for the USA and England to have them.

Their crew consisted of 45 volunteer marines and two dozen navy armed guards.

Most of the Liberties had light defense systems, and those who served on these ships The soldiers were not very well equipped. However, for the USA, these were not an important factor anyway, because the purpose of these ships was not to fight, but to build them as easily as possible and start producing supplies.

Until 1943, these shipyards were A new ship every eight hours He was going to launch it into the sea. Behind this tremendous success was a group of workers, mostly farmers, almost a third of whom were women.

By the middle of the war, the increase in the number of Libertys at sea and their armed escorts overwhelmed the German forces.

Developments in anti-submarine technologies also U-boat threat started to eliminate it. After the war, many Liberty ships were placed in the reserve fleet or Sold to commercial cargo fleets. By the 1960s, their old designs made them too expensive to operate and they were sold for scrap.

Today there are 2,710 Liberty ships left. only three left and themselves, II. It still reminds us of their tremendous contribution to winning World War II.

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