United States Navy Armed Guard
The United States Navy Armed Guard was a force of United States Navy gunners and related personnel established during World War II to protect U.S. merchant shipping from enemy attack.[1] A shortage of escort vessels to provide unarmed merchant vessels with adequate protection shifted the burden to onboard crews to help counter the constant danger presented by Axis submarines, surface raiders, fighter aircraft and bombers.[1] The NAG was headquartered in New Orleans, and had three training centers, at Norfolk, Virginia; San Diego, California; and Gulfport, Mississippi.[1] At the end of the war, there were 144,857 men serving in the Navy Armed Guard on 6,200 ships.[2]
Unit composition
[edit]The United States Navy Armed Guard (USNAG) were U.S. Navy gun crews consisting of Gunner's Mates, Coxswains and Boatswains, Radiomen, Signalmen, an occasional Pharmacist's Mate serving at sea on merchant ships; toward the end of the war a few radar men joined the crews.[2] The Armed Guard served on Allied merchant marine ships in every theatre of the war. Initially, a shortage of trained officers found chiefs and even petty officers in command; later a single commissioned officer would be in charge.
Duty
[edit]The assignment as an Armed Guardsman was often dreaded because of the constant danger. Merchant ships were slow, unwieldy, and because of their lack of armor, firepower, and the important cargoes they carried, priority targets of submarines and planes. Furthermore, merchant ships were among the last to receive updated equipment. Early on in the war, some ships only had a few machine guns, so the crews painted telephone poles to imitate the barrels of larger guns. The most common armament mounted on merchant ships were the MK II 20mm Oerlikon autocannon and the 3"/50, 4"/50, and 5"/38 deck guns.
When practicable, the Navy Armed Guard aboard a merchant ship would provide cross-training to merchant crew members in the use of the guns in the event of casualties. The Navy Armed Guardsmen would typically sail round trip on the same ship, occasionally they would get a different assignment upon reaching their destination depending on Allied convoy schedules.
In film
[edit]The 1943 film Action in the North Atlantic, featuring Humphrey Bogart, Raymond Massey, and Alan Hale, illustrates the importance of the Naval Armed Guard and how it interfaced with the Merchant Marine officers and crew.[3]
See also
[edit]- Action off Cape Bougaroun
- Battle of Point Judith
- Battle of the Atlantic
- Destroyer escort
- Kenneth Martin Willett
- Defensively equipped merchant ship
- SS Stephen Hopkins
- Convoy PQ 17
- Deck gun
- Liberty ship
- Victory ship
References
[edit]- ^ a b c World War II U.S. Navy Armed Guard and World War II U.S. Merchant Marine, 2007-2014 Project Liberty Ship, Project Liberty Ship, P.O. Box 25846 Highlandtown Station, Baltimore, MD [1]
- ^ a b Armed Guard - Sea Lane Vigilantes, Project Liberty Ship, 2014 [2]
- ^ Action in the North Atlantic, VHS, ISBN 0-7928-0745-6.
- The Battle of the North Atlantic 1939-1943, by Samuel Eliot Morison, ISBN 0-7858-1302-0
- A Measureless Peril, America in the fight for the Atlantic..., by Richard Snow, ISBN 978-1-4165-9110-8
External links
[edit]- US Navy Armed Guard Veterans/Memorial Web Site
- Arming of Merchant Ships and Naval Armed Guard Service (US Naval Administration in World War II, Vol. 172)
- History of the Naval Armed Guard Afloat, World War II (US Naval Administration in World War II, Vol. 173)
