Скачать или смотреть Why American Supply Ships Were Worth More Than Warships

During World War II, one job was deadlier than being a soldier, sailor, or Marine. One in every 26 merchant mariners died—the highest casualty rate of any American service.
Why? Because they were sailing into danger again and again, delivering the supplies that won the war.

While everyone was watching the battleships and aircraft carriers, the real battle was happening in the cargo holds of merchant ships crossing thousands of miles of hostile ocean. German U-boats called the early months "the happy time" because merchant ships were sitting ducks—unprotected, unescorted, and easy targets. American merchant shipping losses in 1942 were catastrophic.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill said the only thing that truly frightened him during the entire war was the U-boat campaign.
But then something extraordinary happened.

Industrialist Henry J. Kaiser revolutionized American shipbuilding. Using assembly line techniques borrowed from the auto industry, he transformed shipbuilding from a craft into mass production. Liberty ships that took 244 days to build were eventually completed in just 4-5 days.

At peak production, Kaiser's yards built up to 50 ships per day.
The result: Approximately 2,700 Liberty ships delivered 200 million tons of cargo across the world's oceans—enough to supply 8 million soldiers fighting simultaneously on two continents.
The Hidden Story:

The SS Stephen Hopkins: A cargo ship that fought back against a German raider and sank it (the only German surface warship sunk by an American merchant vessel)

Convoy PQ-17: 24 merchant ships sunk in a single Arctic convoy disaster
Tanker crews: Called themselves "the men of death" because of their survival rates
Merchant casualty rates: Higher than the entire U.S. Army

Why It Mattered:
Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King, commander of the greatest navy in the world, later said his Navy could not have accomplished its mission without the merchant marine.
General Eisenhower said merchant mariners deserved more credit than anyone else.

President Roosevelt called them the "fourth arm of defense."
This is the untold story of the men and women—many of them civilians—who sailed supply ships into danger again and again, knowing the odds of survival. It's the story of how logistics, not firepower, determined victory in World War 2.