View source for United States Navy Armed Guard

{{short description|Naval crews on merchant ships in WWII}}

[[Image:USNAG.JPG|thumb|300px|Insignia of the United States Armed Guard]]

The '''[http://www.armed-guard.net/ US Navy Armed Guard]''' was a force of [[United States Navy]] gunners and related personnel established during [[World War II]] to protect U.S. [[United States Merchant Marine|merchant shipping]] from enemy attack.<ref name="NAG">World War II U.S. Navy Armed Guard and World War II U.S. Merchant Marine,  2007-2014 Project Liberty Ship, Project Liberty Ship, P.O. Box 25846
Highlandtown Station, Baltimore, MD [https://www.armed-guard.com/about-ag.html#:~:text=There%20were%20three%20basic%20training,California%3B%20and%20Gulfport%2C%20Mississippi.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220514224645/https://www.armed-guard.com/about-ag.html#:~:text=There%20were%20three%20basic%20training,California%3B%20and%20Gulfport%2C%20Mississippi. |date=2022-05-14 }}</ref>  A shortage of escort vessels to provide unarmed merchant vessels with adequate protection shifted the burden to onboard crews to help counter the constant danger presented by [[Axis (World War II)|Axis]] [[submarines]], [[surface raiders]], [[fighter aircraft]] and [[bombers]].<ref name="NAG"/>   The NAG was headquartered in New Orleans, and had three training centers, at [[Norfolk, Virginia|Norfolk]], [[Virginia]]; [[San Diego]], [[California]]; and [[Gulfport, Mississippi|Gulfport]], [[Mississippi]].<ref name="NAG"/>  At the end of the war, there were 144,857 men serving in the Navy Armed Guard on 6,200 ships.<ref name="NAG1">Armed Guard - Sea Lane Vigilantes, Project Liberty Ship, 2014 [https://www.armed-guard.com/item07.html] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000118132226/http://www.armed-guard.com/item07.html |date=2000-01-18 }}</ref>
[[File:NHHC UA 542.02.jpg|thumb|Navy Armed Guard Training Center]]

== Unit composition ==
The United States Navy Armed Guard (USNAG) were [[U.S. Navy]] gun crews consisting of [[Artillery|Gunner]]'s Mates, [[Coxswain]]s and [[Boatswain]]s, [[Radioman|Radiomen]], [[Flag semaphore|Signal]]men, an occasional [[Pharmacist's Mate]] serving at sea on merchant ships; toward the end of the war a few [[radar]] men joined the crews.<ref name="NAG1"/>  The Armed Guard served on Allied merchant marine ships in every theatre of the war.  Initially, a shortage of trained officers found chiefs and even petty officers in command; later a single commissioned officer would be in charge.

== Duty ==
The assignment as an Armed Guardsman was often dreaded because of the constant danger. Merchant ships were slow, unwieldy, and because of their lack of armor, firepower, and the important cargoes they carried, priority targets of submarines and planes. Furthermore, merchant ships were among the last to receive updated equipment.  Early on in the war, some ships only had a few machine guns, so the crews painted telephone poles to imitate the barrels of larger guns.  The most common armament mounted on merchant ships were the [[Oerlikon 20 mm cannon|MK II 20mm Oerlikon autocannon]] and the [[3"/50 caliber gun|3"/50]], [[4"/50 caliber gun|4"/50]], and [[5 inch (127 mm)/38 caliber gun|5"/38]] [[deck guns]].

When practicable, the Navy Armed Guard aboard a merchant ship would provide cross-training to merchant crew members in the use of the guns in the event of casualties.  The Navy Armed Guardsmen would typically sail round trip on the same ship, occasionally they would get a different assignment upon reaching their destination depending on [[Allies (World War II)|Allied]] [[convoy]] schedules.

== In film ==
The 1943 film ''[[Action in the North Atlantic]]'', featuring [[Humphrey Bogart]], [[Raymond Massey]], and [[Alan Hale, Sr.|Alan Hale]], illustrates the importance of the Naval Armed Guard and how it interfaced with the [[United States Merchant Marine|Merchant Marine]] officers and crew.<ref name=cineref>''[[Action in the North Atlantic]]'', VHS, {{ISBN|0-7928-0745-6}}.</ref>

== See also ==

* [[Action off Cape Bougaroun]]
* [[Battle of Point Judith]]
* [[Battle of the Atlantic]]
* [[Destroyer escort]]
* [[Kenneth Martin Willett]]
* [[Defensively equipped merchant ship]]
* {{SS|Stephen Hopkins}}
* [[Convoy PQ 17]]
* [[Deck gun]]
* [[Liberty ship]]
* [[Victory ship]]

==References==
{{reflist|2}}
*''The Battle of the North Atlantic 1939-1943'', by Samuel Eliot Morison, {{ISBN|0-7858-1302-0}}
* ''A Measureless Peril, America in the fight for the Atlantic...'', by Richard Snow, {{ISBN|978-1-4165-9110-8}}

== External links ==
*  [http://www.armed-guard.net/ US Navy Armed Guard Web Site]
* [http://www.armed-guard.com/ US Navy Armed Guard Veterans/Memorial Web Site] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060911125409/http://www.armed-guard.com/ |date=2006-09-11 }}
* [http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/Admin-Hist/172-ArmedGuards/index.html Arming of Merchant Ships and Naval Armed Guard Service (US Naval Administration in World War II, Vol. 172)]
* [http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/Admin-Hist/173-ArmedGuards/index.html History of the Naval Armed Guard Afloat, World War II (US Naval Administration in World War II, Vol. 173)]

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[[Category:United States Navy organization]]
[[Category:United States Navy in World War II]]