We shall see them as they convert Armed Guard duty from the most hazardous duty afloat to the best duty in the Navy. We shall see them as happier days come and better guns are placed on their ships. We shall see them as they return haggard and worn to the United States to take other ships to the battle zones. We shall see them as they defy all the laws of nature and remain at general quarters beside their guns for unbelievable periods of time. We shall follow them as they go down with their ships, their guns still blazing, as they die in the sea or endure the tortures of hell for days on life rafts. We shall see men who had never been near the ocean in mortal combat with the enemy after only a few brief months of training. Later chapters will describe the most important and spectacular clashes with the enemy in the battle of the supply lines. We shall see how the Navy which went to sea on merchant ships was administered and learn something of the problems involved in training in four brief years more men than were in the entire United States Navy in 1937. In this chapter, attention will be given to the men of the Armed Guard, their training, and to the guns which were placed aboard merchant ships. This story, which for reasons of military security was veiled in secrecy during the war, deserves to be told. It is as thrilling a story of triumph over difficulties, of heroism, devotion to duty, sacrifice, and courage as exists in the annals of the nation. This study describes the defense of merchant ships by the Armed Guard of the United States Navy. If the war gave merchant ships their greatest role in history, it also gave the men who defended these ships against submarines and planes a mission of supreme importance. The Chairman of the Maritime Commission has said that the merchant marine did not win the war, but that without merchant shipping the Allies would have lost. Upon the success or failure of our efforts to move men and goods across the oceans hinged the destiny of the nation. Given such a crucial situation, the problem of moving vast numbers of men and vast supplies of material across submarine infested waters and against land based aircraft became as difficult as the problem of training men and producing the weapons of war. Never had this country faced so many well nigh insuperable problems at one time. Never has the United States faced such a threat to her national existence. There was, in fact, a grave danger that a union between Japanese and German forces might take place somewhere in Asia and that Europe, Asia, and Africa might pass under the effective control of the Axis before the resources of the Americas and of the British Empire could be thrown against the victorious invaders. Not only did Germany have control of the resources and communications of western Europe, her armies were also advancing deeply into Russia and were threatening to spread through large parts of Africa. When the United States became involved in the titanic world struggle, the odds were heavily stacked against her from the standpoint of logistics. Other factors being equal, the side usually wins which is able to get there first with the most men and material. World War II, like every other war which has ever been fought, was in large part a battle of the logisticians.
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