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Jaggedmallard26 t1_iwhkdxh wrote

Reply to comment by Riccma02 in TIL that the civilian sailors of the U.S. Merchant Marine had a higher casualty rate during World War II than any branch of the armed forces. by p38-lightning

It didn't help they did what America did in every other aspect of both world wars and ignore the lessons its allies had learned from already fighting the war for 3 years. The Americans were slower to adopt the convoy system the brits had been refining that made it significantly safer.

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SteveThePurpleCat t1_iwikdmj wrote

US admirals were famously Anglophobic, they actively rejected any advice from the British rather than just ignored it.

Convoys? Anti-sub escorts? Zig-Zag? Turning lights and radios off? Pfft, that's just for the weak English.

Hang on, where did all of our Merchants go? Oh, to bits you say...

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