The Merchant Navy: Britain's Lifeline

Britain is an island nation that in 1939 imported 55 million tonnes of food and raw materials annually. Without the Merchant Navy, the country would have starved within weeks. The Battle of the Atlantic—the campaign to keep the sea lanes open—was, in Churchill's words, 'the only thing that ever really frightened me during the war.'

Over 30,000 British merchant seamen lost their lives during the war—a casualty rate of approximately one in four, higher than any of the armed services. They faced U-boats, surface raiders, mines, aircraft, and terrible weather, often in ships that were old, slow, and poorly armed. When torpedoed, survival in the North Atlantic was measured in minutes, not hours.

Merchant seamen received no campaign medals (they were civilians), no consistent pay when their ship was sunk (pay stopped the moment the ship went down), and little public recognition. Many who survived suffered from what we would now call PTSD. Their contribution was essential to victory—without them, Britain could not have fought the war.