HOME

TheInfoList



Click Here for Items Related To - US Navy Armed Guard
OR:
US Navy Armed Guard on:   [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Amazon]

The United States Navy Armed Guard was a force of
United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...
gunners and related personnel established during
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
to protect U.S.
merchant shipping Maritime transport (or ocean transport) or more generally waterborne transport, is the transport of people (passengers or goods (cargo) via waterways. Freight transport by watercraft has been widely used throughout recorded history, as it pro ...
from enemy attack.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, M

/ref> 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 (World War II), Axis
submarines A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or info ...
, surface raiders,
fighter aircraft Fighter aircraft (early on also ''pursuit aircraft'') are military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air supremacy, air superiority of the battlespace. Domina ...
and
bombers A bomber is a military combat aircraft that utilizes air-to-ground weaponry to drop bombs, launch torpedoes, or deploy air-launched cruise missiles. There are two major classifications of bomber: strategic and tactical. Strategic bombing is ...
. The NAG was headquartered in New Orleans, and had three training centers, at
Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...
,
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
;
San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...
,
California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
; and Gulfport,
Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...
. At the end of the war, there were 144,857 men serving in the Navy Armed Guard on 6,200 ships.Armed Guard - Sea Lane Vigilantes, Project Liberty Ship, 201

/ref>


Unit composition

The United States Navy Armed Guard (USNAG) were
U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...
gun crews consisting of Gunner's Mates,
Coxswain The coxswain ( or ) is the person in charge of a boat, particularly its navigation and steering. The etymology of the word gives a literal meaning of "boat servant" since it comes from ''cock'', referring to the wiktionary:cockboat, cockboat, a ...
s and
Boatswain A boatswain ( , ), bo's'n, bos'n, or bosun, also known as a deck boss, or a qualified member of the deck department, or the third hand on a fishing vessel, is the most senior Naval rating, rate of the deck department and is responsible for the ...
s, Radiomen,
Signal A signal is both the process and the result of transmission of data over some media accomplished by embedding some variation. Signals are important in multiple subject fields including signal processing, information theory and biology. In ...
men, an occasional Pharmacist's Mate serving at sea on merchant ships; toward the end of the war a few
radar Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), direction ( azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track ...
men joined the crews. 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

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 The Mark 12 5"/38-caliber gun was a United States dual-purpose naval gun, but also installed in single-purpose mounts on a handful of ships. The 38-caliber barrel was a mid-length compromise between the previous United States standard 5"/51 low ...
deck guns A deck gun is a type of naval artillery mounted on the deck of a submarine. Most submarine deck guns were open, with or without a shield; however, a few larger submarines placed these guns in a turret. The main deck gun was a dual-purpose w ...
. 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 A convoy is a group of vehicles, typically motor vehicles or ships, traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support and can help maintain cohesion within a unit. It may also be used ...
schedules.


In film

The 1943 film ''
Action in the North Atlantic ''Action in the North Atlantic'' is a 1943 American war film from Warner Bros. Pictures. It was produced by Jerry Wald, directed by Lloyd Bacon, and adapted by John Howard Lawson from a story by Guy Gilpatric. The film stars Humphrey Bogart and R ...
'', featuring
Humphrey Bogart Humphrey DeForest Bogart ( ; December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957), nicknamed Bogie, was an American actor. His performances in classic Hollywood cinema made him an American cultural icon. In 1999, the American Film Institute selected Bogart ...
,
Raymond Massey Raymond Hart Massey (August 30, 1896 – July 29, 1983) was a Canadian actor known for his commanding stage-trained voice. For his lead role in '' Abe Lincoln in Illinois'' (1940), Massey was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. He r ...
, and Alan Hale, illustrates the importance of the Naval Armed Guard and how it interfaced with the Merchant Marine officers and crew.''
Action in the North Atlantic ''Action in the North Atlantic'' is a 1943 American war film from Warner Bros. Pictures. It was produced by Jerry Wald, directed by Lloyd Bacon, and adapted by John Howard Lawson from a story by Guy Gilpatric. The film stars Humphrey Bogart and R ...
'', VHS, .


See also

*
Action off Cape Bougaroun The action off Cape Bougaroun (Cap Bougaroûn) ttack on Convoy KMF 25A was a ''Luftwaffe'' operation against an Allies of World War II, Allied naval convoy off the coast of Algeria during World War II. The convoy of United States, American ...
* Battle of Point Judith *
Battle of the Atlantic The Battle of the Atlantic, the longest continuous military campaign in World War II, ran from 1939 to the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, covering a major part of the naval history of World War II. At its core was the Allies of World War II, ...
*
Destroyer escort Destroyer escort (DE) was the United States Navy mid-20th-century classification for a warship designed with the endurance necessary to escort mid-ocean convoys of merchant marine ships. Development of the destroyer escort was promoted by th ...
* Kenneth Martin Willett *
Defensively equipped merchant ship Defensively equipped merchant ship (DEMS) was an Admiralty Trade Division programme established in June 1939, to arm 5,500 British merchant ships with an adequate defence against enemy submarines and aircraft. The acronym DEMS was used to descr ...
* *
Convoy PQ 17 Convoy PQ 17 was an Allied Arctic convoy during the Second World War. On 27 June 1942, the ships sailed from Hvalfjörður, Iceland, for the port of Arkhangelsk in the Soviet Union. The convoy was located by German forces on 1 July, shadowed ...
*
Deck gun A deck gun is a type of naval artillery mounted on the deck of a submarine. Most submarine deck guns were open, with or without a shield; however, a few larger submarines placed these guns in a turret. The main deck gun was a dual-purpose w ...
*
Liberty ship Liberty ships were a ship class, class of cargo ship built in the United States during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Although British in concept, the design was adopted by the United States for its simple, low-cost cons ...
*
Victory ship The Victory ship was a class of cargo ship produced in large numbers by American shipyards during World War II. They were a more modern design compared to the earlier Liberty ship, were slightly larger and had more powerful steam turbine engin ...


References

*''The Battle of the North Atlantic 1939-1943'', by Samuel Eliot Morison, * ''A Measureless Peril, America in the fight for the Atlantic...'', by Richard Snow,


External links


US Navy Armed Guard Veterans/Memorial Web Site


* ttp://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/Admin-Hist/173-ArmedGuards/index.html History of the Naval Armed Guard Afloat, World War II (US Naval Administration in World War II, Vol. 173) {{DEFAULTSORT:Armed Guard United States Navy organization United States Navy in World War II