Word: merchantmen
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...ceded provinces-Nord and Pas-de-Calais-fortifications were being built and the last French inhabitants evacuated. Five destroyers, two tugs and many French merchantmen were being taken over by German crews to carry and convoy supplies to German forces in Tunisia. A 140-man German mission arrived in Paris to inventory French industry and arrange to increase poverty-stricken France's already big exports to Germany...
Besides these battle carriers the U.S. is producing literally dozens of carriers converted from merchantmen. These are too slow for efficient battle use, but they are invaluable for getting land-based air power to points of contact across the seas...
...Tokyo admitted the loss of 65 merchantmen. The U.S. claimed 108. But Premier Hideki Tojo, warning the Japanese that their shortage of shipping is serious, described Japan's sea problem in terms much like those which the U.S. Navy uses on the same subject. Said Tojo: "The success or failure of southern reconstruction [in the conquered Pacific areas] depends chiefly ... on the efficiency of water transportation. . . . Japan does not have surplus vessels, for Japan must maintain transportation within the extensive area of the Greater East Asia sphere, while she must [also] continue her gigantic [war] operation, continuously fighting...
...cruiser Belleau Wood, are being announced with increasing frequency, but probably very few new carriers will be ready for action before next spring. The loss of four leaves the U.S. with only three big flattops in service, but at least seven more, not including increasing numbers of small, converted merchantmen, should be carrying planes into battle before...
...battle of supply rose in intensity (see p. 34), the British avenged their losses. By week's end Royal Navy cruisers, destroyers, submarines and Allied planes had accounted for 20 Axis merchantmen and three escorting destroyers, all trying to run the gantlet from Italian bases to North Africa...