A Passage to Normandy

ISBN: 1477501975

Author: Will, N. Bradford

Condition: New

This story is about a Liberty ship born in Jacksonville, Florida, in March of 1944, and told through the eyes of a Kings Point deck-cadet, a specialized segment of training for future Merchant Marine officers sanctioned by Congress and supervised by the War Shipping Administration. An Allied victory in Europe was dependent on being able to transport the vast array of material pouring out of American factories to the battle theaters where needed. The assembly-line produced Liberty ship was a key, but who would man the ships? The solutions were imperfect. The Merchant Marine Academy's only function was to supply trained officers who could make the Liberty ships run. And therein lies the story. The James L. Ackerson, on her maiden voyage, was thrust into a host of situations as unordinary as could be devised. The convoy she joined outside Ambrose Lightship was trailed by German submarines, chased by a hurricane for six days and endured tumultuous seas with scant escort protection; the crew was sick and almost useless and rules of conduct evaporated. Four days late, she arrived in Gourock, Scotland - exhausted but still afloat. After her block-buster bombs were unloaded, the ship was converted to a troop transport in Glasgow. She eventually appeared at Omaha Beach on D+3 with about 500 Signal Corps combatants destined to rendezvous at St. Lo. The Beachhead in those early days was fraught with frustrations, night enemy sorties, disastrous weather, 88-mm German concealed cannon, and chaos. Nothing seemed to go right. This book tells that story. N Bradford Will (1922-2007) enrolled in the United States Merchant Marine Academy at King's Point, NY, the then-fledgling sister to the better-known United States Service Academies and participated in D-Day,Omaha and Utah Beaches via one of the U.S.'s recently commissioned Liberty ships, the James L. Ackerson. The crew of the Ackerson is what makes this a special tale. The story is true, and will never happen again. Following World War II, Brad returned to King's Point Academy to complete his mariners officer training.