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    The Real Cruel Sea: The Merchant Navy in the Battle of the Atlantic 1939-1943
    Unavailable
    The Real Cruel Sea: The Merchant Navy in the Battle of the Atlantic 1939-1943
    Unavailable
    The Real Cruel Sea: The Merchant Navy in the Battle of the Atlantic 1939-1943
    Ebook1,339 pages27 hours

    The Real Cruel Sea: The Merchant Navy in the Battle of the Atlantic 1939-1943

    By Richard Woodman

    4.5/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    For the British, the Battle of the Atlantic was a fight for survival. They depended on the safe transit of hundreds of convoys of merchant ships laden with food, raw materials and munitions from America to feed the country and to keep the war effort going, and they had to export manufactured goods to pay for it all. So Britain's merchant navy, a disparate collection of private vessels, became the country's lifeline, while its seamen, officially non-combatants, bravely endured the onslaught of the German U-boat offensive until Allied superiority overwhelmed the enemy.

In this important, moving and exciting book, drawing extensively on first-hand sources, the acclaimed maritime historian Richard Woodman establishes the importance of the British and Allied merchant fleets in the struggle against Germany and elevates the heroic seamen who manned them to their rightful place in the history of the Second World War.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPen and Sword
    Release dateJul 6, 2011
    ISBN9781844689750
    Unavailable
    The Real Cruel Sea: The Merchant Navy in the Battle of the Atlantic 1939-1943
    Author

    Richard Woodman

    Richard Woodman has previously worked for The Trinity House Service. He is also the author of the Nathanial Drinkwater stories and other maritime works.

    Read more from Richard Woodman

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    Reviews for The Real Cruel Sea

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    • 4/5
      The subtle factors behind decisions that are made during wartime are often hidden even though they may have a substantial impact on many lives. Richard Woodman, in The Real Cruel Sea, describes the economic disincentive to form convoys of ships during World War I, even though there was substantial evidence that more ships were saved through this method. Ship owners were against the plan because ever since the introduction of the steam engine, they were no longer at the mercy of the wind and could sail on a regular schedule. Anything that might interfere with regular sailings would have an impact on their profits. Naval aficionados disliked the idea of using naval forces in a defensive manner. It was somehow less manly. But the most scurrilous reason was that investors reaped enormous benefits from having a ship sunk. Since the government requisitioned the ships for war support, it would indemnify the ship investors should the ship be torpedoed. Even with an Excess Profits Tax, Mr. Bonar Law, Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1917 described the substantial profits he made following liquidation of a ship. Meanwhile, the poor seaman had his wages stopped the minute the ship went down.

      Follow the money, a Watergate dictum that we might wish to observe as more and more funding goes to Iraq.

      In WW II we prided ourselves on our ability to produce ever increasing numbers of ships to replace those that had been sunk. Unfortunately, we all too often forget that irreplaceable people went down with those ships. This book is a reminder.

      Corrections: 11/21/10
    • 5/5
      This is probably the best book I have read on the Battle of the Atlantic. It details the conflict in exquisiste detail from 1939 through 1943 with great detail and examples. It was such a good book that I had to obtain a copy after reading it in the library.