----------------------------------------------------------------- NAVY & MARINE CORPS WORLD WAR II COMMEMORATIVE COMMITTEE A service of Navy Chief of Information Office (703)695-3161/DSN 225-3161 ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Navy Armed Guard: "We Aim to Deliver" By Jack Gallant WWII Committee Known as the "other Navy" during World War II, Navy Armed Guard crews manned the guns of merchant ships struggling to deliver men and materiel to Europe and the Pacific. The story of the Navy Armed Guard, particularly its exploits in the Battle of the Atlantic, is a little-known legend of heroism, sacrifice, cruelty by an unforgiving sea and violent death from torpedoes, gunfire and bombs. Navy Armed Guard members served on 6,236 merchant ships around the world; one in nine, or 710, were sunk. A total of 1,810 men perished, 13 of whom were prisoners of war. Additionally, every 17th man earned a personal citation. Five received the Navy Cross, the nationžs second highest tribute for heroism. More than 36,000 wore battle stars on their campaign ribbons. With war raging in Europe and German submarines, aircraft and surface raiders inflicting a heavy toll on merchant shipping, the U.S. Navy began preliminary training for gun crews aboard merchant ships in April 1941. The first formal class of 207 officers and enlisted personnel was held at Little Creek, Virginia, that October, and on Nov. 17, the armed guard was officially activated. There were eventually more than a dozen armed guard schools, and by waržs end nearly 145,000 men were assigned to shipboard and shore support duties. Oversea and U.S. ports where convoys formed had an armed guard headquarters where crews reported and were assigned. The United States had only 11 merchant ships supported by armed guard detachments of six to 11 men each when America formally entered the war after Pearl Harbor. Merchant ship guard crews were comprised of up to 27 by waržs end, normally with an officer in charge of a radio operator, several signalmen and the gun crews. Some armed guard merchant ship detachments were larger. Around the world there were 86,198 armed guards who served aboard Navy destroyer escorts and on infantry and tank landing craft delivering Marines and soldiers to the invasion beaches. Initial armament on a merchant ship was light, usually a World War I vintage 4-inch gun mounted on the shipžs stern. Occasionally there were several 37mm cannons and .30- and .50-caliber machine guns, which might be mounted on the bow, bridge or amidships. The inadequate and light-caliber weapons were seldom a match for gunfire from surfaced submarines, raiders or attacking aircraft. There were heroic exceptions. On Sunday morning, Sept. 27, 1942, the Liberty ship Stephen Hopkins was on her first voyage, sailing alone in the south Atlantic bound from Cape Town to Dutch Guiana. The ship and her armed guard crew of naval reservists were intercepted by the heavily armed German raider, Steir, which was accompanying the blockade runner, Tannenfels. Steir, with far superior firepower, considered the Hopkins an easy target and her crew prisoners waiting to be taken. At 1,000 yards the battle began. After 15 minutes of intense firing, only the single 4-inch gun remained in action as the Liberty ship was splintered by shells. The lopsided battle continued for three hours until the sinking Liberty ship was abandoned. Forty-two men died. The survivors sailed in an open lifeboat for 28 days to a tiny Brazilian coastal village. Steir, hit repeatedly by fire from the armed guard crew, was heavily damaged. On fire, Steir exploded and went to the bottom. By 1944, the firepower for armed guard defense of merchant shipping had improved significantly. A 27-man armed guard crew had a 5-inch gun, a trio of 3-inch guns and 16, rapid-fire 20mm cannons for defense against dive bombers and surface gunfire. Coupled with the antiaircraft batteries and surface guns of convoy escorts, the armed guard now had heavier firepower to defend against surface and aircraft attacks. The majority of armed guard crews sailed the globe aboard slow-moving ships packed with explosives, or aboard decks-awash tankers with their volatile cargos of aviation fuel. Much safer were convoy duty aboard troop transports and the high-speed runs of ex-cruise liners. The trans-Atlantic "Murmansk run" to the frozen Russian port was the most dangerous route for armed guards and merchant crews. "Wolf packs" of German submarines stalked the ships across the Atlantic, and German aircraft shadowed and battered the convoys sailing in the Norwegian and Barents seas. Crews abandoning flaming and sinking ships in sub-freezing temperatures struggled for survival in open lifeboats as they floated amidst Arctic ice flows. Armed guard crewmen were decorated for heroism by the Soviets during the war, and more recently with a bronze medal by the Russian government to commemorate their service in World War II. Adopting the motto "We Aim to Deliver," armed guards fought in 45 combat actions across the globe and participated in the American, European-African-Middle Eastern and Asiatic-Pacific campaigns. SOURCES Carse, Robert. Lifeline: The Ships and Men of Our Merchant Marine at War. New York: William Morrow & Co., 1943. Gleichauf, Justin F. Unsung Sailors: The Naval Armed Guards in World War II. Annapolis, Maryland: U.S. Naval Institute, 1990. Middlebrook, Martin. Convoy. New York: Quill William Morrow, 1976. Morison, Samuel Eliot. History of U.S. Naval Operations in World War II, Vol. 1, The Battle of the Atlantic, Sept. 1939 - May 1945. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1951. Polmar, Norman and Allen, Thomas B. World War II - America at War 1941-45. New York: Random House, 1991. Researched by Alexander Molnar Jr., USMC/USA (Ret.) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Navy & Marine Corps World War II Commemorative Committee Navy Office of Information (CHINFO) The Pentagon, Room 2E352 Washington, DC 20350-1200 -----------------------------------------------------------------