REMEMBER THE MERCH

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: february 2020 :: RMTnews 18 The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest continuous military campaign of the Second World War which raged from 1939 until the defeat of fascism in 1945 in a theatre covering millions of square miles of ocean. The savage battle pitted U- boats and other German warships and the Luftwaffe against the Royal Canadian Navy, Royal Navy, United States Navy, and Allied merchant shipping. Convoys, coming mainly from North America and predominantly going to the Britain and the Soviet Union, were protected for the most part by the British and Canadian navies and air forces. These forces were aided by ships and aircraft of the United States beginning September 1941. The Nazis were joined by Italian submarines after their Axis ally Italy entered the war in June 1940. As an island nation, the United Kingdom was highly dependent on imported goods. Britain required more than a million tons of imported material per week in order to be able to survive and fight. Battle of the Atlantic memorial committee chairman Bill Anderson, a former RMT regional organiser, said that the proposed plinth would be dedicated to all combatants, men and women of all nationalities and be, hopefully, situated at the Pier Head on Liverpool’s water front. He said that RMT and the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) have already expressed full support for the memorial. “It will cover all the battles across the world from the Arctic, Pacific, Caribbean and Mediterranean seas. “Over 3,500 merchant ships were lost during the conflict and over 38,000 seafarers from all over the world including around 9,000 lascar Indians, 6,000 Chinese and many other nationalities all serving under the Red Ensign,” he said. The Battle of the Atlantic has been called the "longest, largest, and most complex" naval battle in history which involved thousands of ships in more than 100 convoy battles and over 1,000 single-ship encounters, The situation changed T H E D E F E AT O F F A S C I S M - 7 5 Y E A R S REMEMBER THE MERCH Union backs appeal for a memorial in Liverpool dedicated to all Merchant Navy personnel who perished in the Battle of the Atlantic REMEMBRANCE: Russia erected a monument to the men of the WWII Arctic Allied Convoys in St Petersburg in 2017 on Bolshoi Smolensky Prospekt Street in gratitude for the sacrifice they made in the struggle for the defeat of fascism. LEST WE FORGET: Proposed memorial front