Liberty Ships 9/19/42

Ultradog MN

Well-known Member
Location
Twin Cities
As of this day US Liberty ship production outpaced their rate of sinking.
And at this point in the war American maritime priduction was just getting started.
Their stupendous rate of production prompted one Uboat commander to comment "For every one of these ships we sink, three replace it."
Liberty ships
 
What is also interesting is that the US subs succeeded in doing to Japan's shipping exactly what German subs failed to do to US/British shipping; sinking all of it.
 
Many historians today consider the "Battle of the Atlantic" won the month production of the Liberty Ships exceeded sinkings. Our production of all types of equipment by 1943 was so high that neither Germany or Japan had any hope of winning.

And yes, the "Silent Service" did in fact do to Japan what the Uboats tried to do to England. Germany was able to maintain most of their war production to very near the end of the war. Japans inability to replace losses occurred before were could bomb their factories due to lack of raw material.

Rick
 
An interesting read is "Iron Coffins" by Oberlieutnant Herbert Werner, one of three German U-boat captains who fought through the entire WWII and survived. During the war, Germany lost over 700 U-boats with about a 93% attrition rate among the crews.

In March, 1945, Werner's boat was damaged and had to be put in drydock for repairs. Repairs were estimated to take 6-8 weeks. This gave Werner time to think, and to realize that there was no way Germany could win the war.

He hatched a plan. He was single, and his parents, sister, and girlfriends were all lost in the war. So he combed through personnel files looking for men in similar circumstances. His plan was to assemble a skeleton crew and as soon as his boat was fixed to scram to South America and seek what asylum he could. His boat had the range, as he'd once been on a mine laying mission in Chesapeake Bay. Then the war ended before his boat was fixed.
 
"The 93 German U-boats stationed in Belgian ports downed more than 2,500 ships but were also a target themselves, with 70 of them lost at sea, killing 1,200 sailors."
 
We were also getting very good at finding uboats by that time. Subs had to surface periodically and the hunter-killer groups had 'diesel exhaust sniffers'. Also among other tactics they could listen for known sub noises or radio transmissions and pinpoint their exact location with direction finding.
 
(quoted from post at 08:14:17 09/20/17) We were also getting very good at finding uboats by that time. Subs had to surface periodically and the hunter-killer groups had 'diesel exhaust sniffers'. Also among other tactics they could listen for known sub noises or radio transmissions and pinpoint their exact location with direction finding.

Actually at the time that Liberty ship production exceeded losses we were not that good a finding Uboats. Early on ADM Donitz made the boats report in daily. We, the allies used radio direction finding to try to steer the convoys around known locations of Uboats. It wasn't until we could cover the entire routes with air searches that the Uboat arm admitted that they had lost the fight. By 1944 airborne radar was the key. They could detect a Uboat on the surface and attack. Good short read on this subject: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter-killer_Group

Rick
 
If this comes through ok. This plane I flew on. First went into service in the Atlantic as a sub hunter. Three confirmed kills
<image src="http://forums.yesterdaystractors.com/photos/mvphoto3697.jpg"/>
 
Great article, UD.

Aside from being enormously important to the war effort, the Liberty Ships were the last hurrah for the "inexpensive" and reliable triple-expansion marine steam engine. Fascinating machines.

Dean
 
My Dad was stationed in Iceland as an Army Intelligence Officer during part of WWII.
Had a big map of the North Atlantic on his office wall. When German subs came up and used their radios, we would triangulate the signal and Daddy would send out bombing missions. Said they destroyed quite a few subs while he was there.
Richard in NW SC
 
(quoted from post at 09:11:01 09/20/17)
Actually at the time that Liberty ship production exceeded losses we were not that good a finding Uboats.
That depends on where. One of the major trouble spots was along the outer banks of North Carolina. The US was having good success there earlier on with just destroyers because they became familiar with how the subs would run for deep water and where able to trap them in shallow water. Air attacks were effective in daylight even before the good radar came along.
 
When I was in the Navy I was in a anti-submarine squadron--VS-27 and I don't know where the name came from but we were called the GRIM REAPERS OF THE EAST COAST!!!---Tee
a172384.jpg
 
The movie " Das Boot" was actually a made for TV German production. Was something like 6 hours long over several nights. Werner was all POed because the producers dumbed down his book. The really hairy stuff they left out. At the beginning of the movie it says 40 thousand sailors went to sea and 30 or 35 thouusand didnt come back. When they are sitting on the bottom right at crush depth you cant hold your breath long enough. I saw it the first time at the movies in German with sub titles. Had a couple of years of high school german so I could atually follow along somewhat. The only bad thing about the movie is the ending. What a bummer!
 
My grandmother was a welder in the Alabama Ship yard and she worked on many of these ships during WW2. I have a picture some where of her in her welding hood and tools, if I can find it I will post it.
 

The book "Mathews Men" is a very good read if you are interested in the great success that the U-boats had against our merchant marine along our Atlantic coast
 
The Jeep carriers did have that in mind. Though a lot of them were used in the Pacific on missions that the fleet didn't want a full size carrier doing. They used them in a Cas role. They'd hover off a island and perform bombing missions while the main fleet stood further off.

In the Atlantic they made them into hunter killer groups.
At first they had older acft like F4Fs and early TBFs. They relied on the RDF stations like one of the earlier posters mentioned to help guide them in. Later they operated independently with radar equipped acft. Through that was pretty late war. I believe late 44 on.
 
Something to add. In today's paper there is an artical. Just off the coast of Belgium they have found a WW I sub with the crew.
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Actually you brought another thing to mind. They would have shipyard to shipyard competitions to build them. They had them in sections all ready to go and they actually "assembled" some of them in just a little over 48 hours? * That would make you feel safe to sail. Suffered from cold weather where 5he steel would turn brittle. Several ships just split in half because of that and being over loaded. They only went around 11 mph. at full tilt. Still two of 5hem around out of over 1700 built.
 
Henry Kaiser built one in 4 days just to show the world that he could do it. What he did was to prefab most of the ship in large assemblies at different places in the US and ship them all to Calif. facility as I recall and it took 4 days to hook it all together....much the same as we do with airplanes (to name one) where Boeing puts it all together from parts subbed out from Martin, Lockheed, and such. Too bad his Kaiser, Frazier and Henry J didn't make it on the market place. All 3 nice simple, reliable cars. A great man.
 
Among the many treasures, antiques,collectibles and assorted junk in my eclectic collection I have a hatch cover from a Liberty Ship. It's about 4' x 3' feet with zinc bindings and pulls. Weighs about 125 pounds. I was gonna put legs under it and use it as a coffee table, but at this stage of my life...Nah. Gonna put it on Craig's List.
 
I have a 1/700 scale plastic model (kit built) of said ship in my collection. Goes along with the Indianapolis and some 100 other noteworthy relics of a bygone era in scales from that to 1/32.
 
I remembered it being 4 days which was a remarkable feat in intself. They did have some structural problems encountered in high seas, where the center section with the superstructure, wheelhouse and all, met the lower halves. As a result they put a steel "band"..........aid (of sorts) rectangular strip along the hull on both sides, along the top of the hull, spanning the connection at the weak point. Seemed to have fixed the problem as I never read any more about it. If you will look at one of the later models or a repaired one you can see it in photographs. My model doesn't go to that detail as at 1/700 scale it's only 8" long but it still had plenty of detail.
 

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