Unsung Sailors: The Naval Armed Guard in World War II

Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. Very Good+ in Very Good+ dust jacket. 1990. First Edition; Second Printing. Hardcover. 0870217704 . DJ and boards show light shelf wear, a touching gift inscription from one shipmate to another on front pastedown. ; A bright, solid book. Dust jacket in Mylar jacket protector. On the front pastedown the previous owner has pasted on a card with a Walt Whitman poem - 'The Song for All Ships, All Seas' and taped on a photo of a ship at sea. On the back pastedown is taped a photo of four shirtless shipmates at their post on board their ship. ; Large 8vo 9" - 10" tall; 432 pages; "During World War II nearly 150,000 Americans served in the U.S. Naval Armed Guard protecting merchant ships and their precious cargoes around the globe, yet this branch of the Navy and its significant contributions to the war effort are little known to the public. As gunners, radio operators, signalmen, and medics assigned to some six thousand merchant ships, the guardsmen helped get desperately needed supplies to their destinations. Often working under horrendous conditions, they frequently engaged the enemy in the U-boat-infested Atlantic, on the deadly Murmansk Run, and in the Mediterranean Pacific, and Indian oceans. " .