HMS PEMBROKE Shore based naval facility, headquarters of the Royal Navy Patrol Service. When war broke out in 1939 a vast number of fishing trawlers were requisitioned, converted and given the name RNPS. Their home base was at Lowestoft on an estate originally owned by the Marchioness of Salisbury and given the name of Pembroke X. The task of the trawlers was mainly minesweeping and protection of coastal convoys. Armed only with small calibre guns they nevertheless fought U-boats and dive bombers, swept channel ports and harbours and acted as anti-submarine escort vessels. In September, 1939 a total of one hundred Patrol Service trawlers were actually in commission. By 1945, some 70,000 officers and men had served on the trawlers. By D-Day 1944, a total of 947 such vessels were operating in home waters and 547 in other theaters overseas. Around 260 of RNPS vessels were lost by various means during WW11. On October 7th. 1953, a memorial was unveiled on the site of Pembroke X in remembrance of the 2,385 men of the Royal Navy Patrol Service who gave their lives in defence of their country and whose bodies were never recovered. They have no grave but the sea.

DEEP SEA RESCUE TUGS (D.S.R.T) Thousands of seamen of all nationalities owe their lives to the brave men who manned the Deep Sea Rescue Tugs. Introduced in September, 1939 they were manned by volunteers from the Merchant Navy and from the Fishing Fleets. All came under the authority of the Royal Navy. A base facility was set up at Campbeltown on the Mull of Kintyre in Scotland and named HMS Minona. As the war progressed, the tugs were based at Loch Ewe, Oban and Londonderry in Northern Ireland and even at a base in Iceland. Later on in the war, the Deep Sea Rescue Tugs were based at ports around the Mediterranean. As more tugs became available, they even accompanied the slower convoys across the Atlantic and were responsible for saving hundreds of ships that were towed to safety after being torpedoed or bombed. On and after D-Day about 160 of these tugs were deployed in the transportation of the Mulberry Harbour across the English Channel to the Normandy beaches. The 59 merchant ships, used to form the breakwater, were also towed across to be sunk. The huge drums containing the Pluto pipeline, which supplied 1.25 million gallons of fuel every day to the Allied armies, were also towed across the Channel by these tugs. In all, 41 Deep Sea Rescue Tugs were lost during WW11. The American equivalent is the N.A.F.T.S. (National Association of Fleet Tug Sailors)

The British Commonwealth lost 154 destroyers during World War II.

A total of 71 American destroyers were lost.

Japan lost 134 destroyers, 41 were sunk by US submarines.

Germany lost 44 and Italy 54. Russia lost 37.

The first destroyer lost by the Royal Navy was the HMS Blanche which struck a mine off the Thames estuary in 1939. 0ne of the crew was killed and twelve injured. The destroyer was escorting the minelayer HMS Adventure which was also lost.

A total of 2,710 Liberty ships were built, the first, SS Patrick Henry, was launched Sept. 21,1941.

Only 531 Victory ships were built. The first was SS United Victory, delivered Feb. 29, 1944.

The U.S. Distinguished Service Medal was awarded to 140 U.S. mariners during WW11 for 'Service Beyond The Call Of Duty': 604 of them became POWs.

About 5,000 Chinese seamen were employed on British registered ships at the beginning of the war. In early 1942, after the fall of Hong Kong, this number was doubled. By March, 1943, a total of 831 Chinese seamen had lost their lives on British ships due to enemy action and 254 were missing presumed dead. Some 268 were accounted for as prisoners-of-war.

In 1942, the average sinkings of Allied merchant ships was thirty three ships each week. In all, 5,150 Allied ships of all types were sunk, total tonnage 21,570,720. (including 2,426 British registered vessels amounting to 11,331,933 tons) 2,828 were sunk by U-boats. This includes 187 warships and 6 aircraft carriers.

Germany lost 754 of the 1,158 U-boats built. A total of 25,871 U-boat men died. 713 u-boats were sunk by British Empire forces, 151 by United States forces and 100 were sunk by mines.

As more ships were being built in the USA, crews to man them were urgently needed and Indian seamen (known as Lascars) were recruited mainly from Bombay and Calcutta.

By September, 1940, about 3,000 British merchant ships were armed with guns. To man the guns, the army loaned soldiers to the Royal Navy as complete gun crews. They were called Maritime Regiments within the Royal Artillery. They numbered around 10,000 men.

At its peak, in 1943, America produced a grand total of 11,448,360 tons of merchant shipping. In the same year, Japan produced only 769,085 tons. From 1939 to 1945 merchant ship production in the U.S. totaled 33,993,230 tons compared to Japan's 4,152,361 tons. The USA employed around 640,000 workers in the construction of merchant ships.

BRITISH MERCHANT MARINE LOSSES....25,070 MEN KILLED on the 2,426 SHIPS SUNK.

US MERCHANT MARINE LOSSES...6,838 MEN KILLED, 1,800 NAVAL ARMED GUARDS AND 848 SHIPS SUNK.

ITALIAN MERCHANT NAVY LOST........2,513 SHIPS.

JAPANESE MERCHANT NAVY LOST.......1,178 SHIPS.

Of the 5,150 Allied merchant vessels sunk during WWII, 2,828 were sunk by Axis submarines.

Seventy-six merchant ships were lost in Australian waters. Twenty-nine of these were Australian vessels on which 349 seamen died. A further 37 died in POW camps.

Forty-three U.S. Merchant Ships were lost with all hands, eight were lost with only one survivor.

A special camp for merchant seamen prisoners of war was set up in 1942 at Westerimke ten miles north of the German port city of Hamburg. Prisoners were made to build their own camp on the site of the former Sandbostel Concentration Camp. Around 5,000 men, including 2,985 from 211 British ships, were interned at this camp commonly known as Milag Nord.

SEPTEMBER 3. MERCHANT NAVY DAY. MEN OF THE FORGOTTEN FOURTH SERVICE ARE REMEMBERED.

"When final victory is ours there is no organization that will share its credit more deservedly than the Merchant Marine".
General Dwight D. Eisenhower.