MERCHANT NAVY IN WAR

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24797, 11 February 1946, Page 4

MERCHANT NAVY IN WAR

METHODS OF BRITISH SERVICE

An outline of how food and war supplies were taken to the United Kingdom by ’the British Merchant Navy during the war years was given by Mr Basil Sanderson, managing director of the Shaw Savill and Albion Company, in , a broadcast address last night. Mr Sanderson speflt almost six years with the Ministry of Shipping and the Ministry of War Transport. “The Ministry of Food, the Ministry of Supply and the service departments put forward to the Ministry of War Tiansport their projected programmes some months ahead,” he said. “These were collated and dissected at many committee meetings and scanned in relation to the shipping which would be available or could be made available at the various ports of loading month by month. Generally speaking, the ships could not carry all the various services and other ministries’ requirements; and the programmes had to be scaled down in consultation with all the departments concerned. “In past wars the services have been inclined to look somewhat askance at civilians; but this was a war of transport and was early recognised as such. From the earliest days until the bitter end there was not the slightest jealousy between the services and the Ministry of War Transport. Both had a job to do and these tasks were complementary. The Ministry’s task was not only to feed Britain and keep the wheels of industry humming, but to transport fighting men and their equipment and stores to all parts of the world. The Sea Transport Division of the Ministry took up the ships required and allocated them to the various operational voyages. These plans were made months and even years ahead.

“All the merchant ships, small, medium and large, ranging from 200 tonners to 10,000 tonners, were manned by civilian crews and not by service personnel. These crews volunteered without any hesitation for these highly dangerous operational jobs, the outcome of which was so uncertain. They expected and underwent shell fire and bombing, but it was all in the day’s work.”