Word: merchantmen
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...size and importance of the convoy could be judged from the fact that 75 British warships of various sizes (among them at least one aircraft carrier*) had escorted the merchantmen laden with planes, guns, tanks and ammunition. Much of the convoy was shot to pieces in a six-day running battle north of Norway, but much more of it stayed afloat...
Said Admiral Boddam-Whetham: "I won't complain if the next time they give someone else the chance to make this trip." The British Admiralty announced the loss of the destroyer Somali and the minesweeper Leda. Admiral Boddam-Whetham said that about twelve out of 40 merchantmen went down...
...Roving U.S. submarines returned to their bases with word that they had sunk two Japanese merchantmen and a transport in mid-Pacific and a big Japanese merchantman off the occupied Aleutians. The U.S. submarine score to date: 60 Jap merchantmen and naval ships sunk, 31 probably damaged...
...Then there Were ...? In today's sea & air fleets, the most important ship is the aircraft carrier. Nobody knows exactly how many carriers Japan had when the war started. Best guess: nine regular carriers, plus ten or more converted merchantmen, which are not so effective as carriers built for the job. Of her regular carriers, Japan has certainly lost four, plus three laid up for repairs. She probably lost six, and she may have lost seven...
...moment, Japan's converted merchantmen may help to redress the balance of carrier power. But the U.S. is rapidly converting merchant ships into carriers; it is pushing a big program of regular carriers (eleven had been announced up to Dec. 7). And it is doing even more. Last fortnight, Rhode Island's Senator Peter Gerry put on the public record a hopeful and hitherto secret fact about U.S. carrier construction: "The Navy is converting to aircraft carriers a number of ships planned as cruisers. . . . You can imagine what will happen to the rest of the Japanese fleet when...