thumb|300px|Insignia of the United States Armed Guard
The US Navy Armed Guard was a force of United States Navy gunners and related personnel established during World War II to protect U.S. merchant shipping from enemy attack. 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 submarines, surface raiders, fighter aircraft and bombers.
thumb|Navy Armed Guard Training Center
Unit composition
The United States Navy Armed Guard (USNAG) were U.S. Navy gun crews consisting of Gunner's Mates, Coxswains and Boatswains, Radiomen, Signalmen, an occasional Pharmacist's Mate serving at sea on merchant ships; toward the end of the war a few radar men joined the crews.
See also
- Action off Cape Bougaroun
- Battle of Point Judith
- Battle of the Atlantic
- Destroyer escort
- Kenneth Martin Willett
- Defensively equipped merchant ship
- Convoy PQ 17
- Deck gun
- Liberty ship
- Victory ship
References
- The Battle of the North Atlantic 1939-1943, by Samuel Eliot Morison,
- A Measureless Peril, America in the fight for the Atlantic..., by Richard Snow,
External links
- US Navy Armed Guard Web Site
- US Navy Armed Guard Veterans/Memorial Web Site
- Arming of Merchant Ships and Naval Armed Guard Service (US Naval Administration in World War II, Vol. 172)
- History of the Naval Armed Guard Afloat, World War II (US Naval Administration in World War II, Vol. 173)