You are right to be proud of your late husband and of his service, and sincere condolences that he is no longer with us. The managers of this site can explain how to update the list you found. I’m impressed – never seen that list before on the website. But don’t be alarmed that Ponie Star’s name is not on that list. My grandfather served in the Armed Guard, and his name is not on there, either.
As for the Armed Guard itself, they served a less glamorous role than the flyboys and the leathernecks – but a role those guys depended upon for everything. People overlook the fact that every bullet, every gallon of fuel, every meal ration had to be shipped across the ocean in wartime. So to give those civilian cargo ships a fighting chance against submarines and shore-based aircraft, weapons were installed on board those ships (nicknamed “Liberty Ships”) and crewed by active duty Navy personnel: the Armed Guard. Your husband & his mates and the civilian crews of his ships all shared the same hazards on those voyages.
If you’d like to more about those voyages, Webmaster Ron Carlson posted a reply to me on this site last year:
“…go to this excellent website, http://www.convoyweb.org.uk/hague/index.html , and perform a Ship Search for the name of each ship. From this you will get a list of all the wartime convoys in which the ship sailed, the originating and destination port, the inclusive dates of the convoy from departure to arrival, and sometime a very little bit of information about the ship itself, such as the cargo carried or its position within the convoy. At the bottom of the results page for each ship there will be a phrase, "To continue the search for OTHER voyages of [name of ship], click here." When you click there you will get a complete listing of the ship's whereabouts during the war, in chronological order, including instances in which the ship sailed independently, i.e., not in convoy and without warship escort. That list is even more useful than the list by convoys.”
Warmest regards,
-JP
Responses « Back to index | View thread »