San Andreas [antikvár]

PrologueThere are three distinct but inevitably interlinked elements in this story: the British Merchant Navy (officially the Mercantile Marine) and the men who served in it; Liberty Ships; and the units of the German forces, underseas, on the seas and in the air, whose sole mission was to seek out and destroy the vessels and crews of the Merchant Navy.1) At the outbreak of war in September 1939 the Merchant Navy was in a parlous state indeed"pitiable" would probably be a more accurate term. Most of the ships were old, a considerable number unsea-worthy, and some no more than rusting hulks plagued by interminable mechanical breakdowns. Even so, the vessels were in good shape compared to those whose misfortune it was to serve aboard those ships, in appaU-ing living conditions.The reason for the savage neglect of both ships and men could be summed up in one word: greed. The fleet owners of yesteryearand there are more than1