D-Day's Liberty Ships Return

As thousands of American Second World War veterans prepare to return – many for the first time since 1945 – to the mainland of Europe for the fiftieth anniversary of D-Day, with them will be coming, under their own steam, a unique trio of survivors from the flotillas that played a leading part in the provisioning of supplies that were crucial to Allied success in Europe.

Project 'Liberty Ship' – bringing a 'last convoy' of three ships – SS John Brown, Jeremiah O'Brien and Lane Victory – is perhaps the most unusual and ambitious of the D-Day commemorative events being organised stateside. In the process it will remind onlookers of the key role played in the war effort by a section of participants often sidelined – the merchant marines.

Nearly 3,000 'Liberty' ships were built during the Second World War as assembly-line prefabs to cope with supply-lines, not just across the Atlantic but also to the frontlines in the Pacific and elsewhere. Hundreds were sunk in the 1941-45 period by the Germans and Japanese – with the loss of thousands of merchant seamen.