Post by Administrator on Apr 7, 2022 18:21:59 GMT
MERCHANT NAVY ROLL OF HONOUR
WORLD WAR II
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
FOREWORD
This Roll of Honour records the names of more than 33,000 merchant seamen and fishermen who lost their lives while serving in British merchant ships or fishing vessels or in foreign ships chartered by the Government of the United Kingdom in the world war of 1939-45.
This bare statement of the facts conceals an epic of sustained heroism unsurpassed in the annals of war. At no time were there more 200,000 officers and ratings serving in these ships: yet the dead numbered over 33,000. In no field of war did so high a proportion of those engaged lose their lives. This is a measure of a sacrifice which has laid our country and the whole British Commonwealth and its allies in their debt for ever.
They were civilians without the support of military discipline and training, yet they faced mortal danger in the service of others, and they did not waver. Never, in the darkest days, was there any lack of willing hands to man the ships however hazardous the voyage, though the seamen knew, often from bitter experience, the horrors which followed an enemy attack at sea. They took troops to the scene of battle and sustained them where they fought. They carried food without which whole populations would have perished and supplies without which the needs of the fighting forces and the civilian economy which nourished them could not have been met. They made victory possible.
The memorials which record their sacrifice and the headstones that mark their resting places are scattered throughout the world, some at home, some far overseas. But it is fitting that the names of all the great company who gave their lives should be recorded in one place. This book is the record. It is dedicated to them in humble gratitude.
The Merchant Navy Association