World War 2 was a devastating period of
human history.
The human environmental and economic
costs of the war were enormous.
But at the end of the war, Sir Winston
Churchill credited
two ships for helping shorten the war, by
supporting the allied war effort.
I'm Chris Frame, 
and today we're going to be going back
to the dark days of WWII,
to look at how two ships helped to
shorten the war
and bring that terrible human conflict
to an end.
The two ships that we're looking at are
the RMS. Queen Mary and
RMS Queen Elizabeth, two of the largest
liners of their day, and the pride of
British engineering.
Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth were
designed during the interwar
years. At over 80 000 tons each,
both ships exceeded 1,000 feet in length
and were the largest ocean liners of
their time. Built to carry roughly 3 000
people,
both passengers and crew, these ships
carried upwards of 15,000
people during their WWII
service.
Dwarfing the passenger capacity of
today's largest cruise ships.
But more about that later in the video.
Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth were
envisioned to be the largest passenger
transports
in the world, with the goal of offering a
two-ship
weekly transatlantic service. This was
the age before mass air travel,
when ocean liners were the only way to
cross.
At this time, the main mode of
transportation for the majority of long
duration transcontinental travel
was by ship. The North Atlantic was a
highly contested body of water
and shipping lines on both sides of the
Atlantic had been battling it out for
supremacy
since the middle of the 19th century.
Queen Mary entered service in 1936
and her construction was not without its
own dramas -
you can check out my video about the
construction of the Queen Mary by
hitting the (i)
or in the description box below. By 1938
Queen Mary was celebrated as the world's
fastest ocean liner.
The newer Queen Elizabeth was to join
Queen Mary in passenger service in 1940,
but WWII put a hold on that. Instead the Queen Elizabeth was sent to
New York in complete secrecy on her
maiden voyage,
and I've also done a video about Queen
Elizabeth's maiden voyage, which you can
check out in the description box below.
By March of 1940, both liners were laid
up in NYC, awaiting orders, and they were not alone
with many other famous liners also
berthed in the harbour -
including the iconic French Line
Normandie.
Ocean Liners have been called into
military service for about as long as
ocean liners have existed.
In fact it's only relatively recently
that aircraft have been the main mode of
transportation
for military movements around the world,
with the majority of conflicts relying
on
transport by ship to move both troops
and materials between different parts of
the war zone.
This was certainly the case during World
War II.
The Queen Mary was requisitioned by the
British admiralty in March of 1940
while Queen Elizabeth was called up in
November of that same year.
Both of these ships were converted into
the world's largest troop carriers,
which the Admiralty hoped would be a
great asset to the allies.
But how did they go about converting
ships that were designed for the
luxurious transatlantic passage
with their art deco refined interiors
into troop carriers? 
While Queen Elizabeth hadn't yet been
completed as a passenger liner,
Queen Mary had been in active service
for several years,
with her last peacetime voyage leaving
her berthed in NY. 
So the first thing that took place
onboard Queen Mary while she was berthed in New York was the removal of valuable
items from aboard the ship.
This included the majority of furniture
carpets and art,
as well as anything that resembled the
ship's luxurious origins.
This kind of finery wouldn't be required
for her role as a troop ship.
The ship's hull and superstructure were
painted grey (gray), 
and her name was painted over in the
hopes of making the world's most
recognizable ocean liner a little bit
less recognisable.
Queen Elizabeth had already been given a
similar paint job before she left the
shipyard where she had been built.
Queen Mary then sailed for Sydney (Australia) 
arriving in the harbour on 17 April.
She was sent to the Cockatoo Docks and
Engineering Company where the true
conversion work was undertaken.
Queen Mary's public spaces were largely
repurposed,
with many of the ship's onboard
amenities taking on a more utilitarian
nature.
Space was of a premium on board so even
the first class swimming pool was
converted,
with bunks installed here as well as in
pretty much every other part of the ship
that was available.
While the ship's dining rooms retained
their meal time use,
the ambience and cuisine changed
dramatically. The large first class
dining room became the main mess hall
due to its large size, while offices were
welcomed into the smaller
and more intimate tourist class dining
room. The ship's highly acclaimed
international shopping promenade also
underwent a change,
with military officers setting up shop
here, although the barber shop was
retained with barbers on board
to see to the needs of the officers and
the troops.
Now, despite being a luxurious ship the
majority of the Queen Mary's staterooms
did not have private bathroom facilities,
rather there were shared bathrooms
located down the hall.
This probably made it easier for the
conversion process, because these spaces
could be expanded
allowing for more bathroom space with
the increased capacity.
Additionally they also increased the
space of the galleys to allow for an
increased food service.
Queen Elizabeth underwent a similar
conversion in Singapore.
Structurally both ships were altered
with reinforced protective covers on the
bridge windows,
sandbags were utilised to protect
vulnerable areas
and there was the installation of
degaussing coils to reduce the risk of
contact with sea mines.
Furthermore both ships were fitted with
anti-aircraft guns -
although in reality their speed of over
30 knots
was their primary defense against enemy
attack. The
conversion took two weeks for each ship,
a remarkably quick time frame when you
think about the scale of works that was
done.
Although Queen Elizabeth did require
some extra works to be completed when
she arrived in Sydney.
After the conversion both ships could
carry up to 10,000 people per voyage.
Queen Mary was completed first and
departed Sydney on trooping voyages to
the middle east
carrying Australian and New Zealand
troops. Queen Elizabeth
joined her several months later and the
two ships sailed in convoys with other
requisitioned ocean liners.
When the United States entered the war
the Queens were redeployed to the North
Atlantic service, 
to aid in preparations for the D-Day
landings. Their original design -
to undertake regular transatlantic
crossings - as well as their speed
and their size made them perfect
candidates to assist
in the movement of troops on the North
Atlantic Ocean. As the need to move
more troops increased both ships were
altered to up their carrying capacity
even further,
with both Queens regularly transporting
over 15 000 people.
In fact the Queen Mary still holds the
record to this day for the most people
carried on a ship -
16 683 people on a single crossing!!
As you might imagine the experience of
sailing on the Cunard Queens during their
wartime service was very different to
how it was advertised in the peacetime
brochures. It was considerably more
crowded
so to maintain order and stability the
ships were divided into three zones
with movement controlled through these
zones. Keep in mind these ships were
designed to carry around about 3,000
people - that's both passengers and crew!
They also weren't huge ships by today's
standards, although they were
giants for their time they were only
about a third of the tonnage of the
Oasis Class of cruise ships,
but they were carrying more than twice
the number of people that the Oasis
Class carries.
Another thing to think about is that
Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth retained
their Cunard-White Star Captains and
Officers
for the duration of their wartime
service, so the experience for the
officers and crew on board was very
different!
And a lot more dangerous during the
wartime service on the Queens.
Too fast for convoys and outrunning
their escorts,
both Queens sailed solo across the
Atlantic for the majority of their
voyages,
maintaining high speeds throughout their
crossings
this was their best defence - but it did
mean that they were alone in dangerous
waters. In fact, unbeknown at the time
Queen Elizabeth passed in front of the
periscope of an enemy U-Boat
while Queen Mary was involved in a
tragic collision with the HMS Curaçao.
Both of these stories are best saved for
another video - so let me know in the
comment section below if you're
interested in hearing more about Queen
Mary and Queen Elizabeth's wartime
service.
Although Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth
were by no means the only ocean liners
being used for trooping services during
WWII, their sheer size and the
number of people they could transport
and the speed in which they could make
the crossing had a big impact on the
allied war effort.
The troop carrying capacity of the
Cunard Queens was, and still is, unmatched!
Never before have two ships carried so
many people
in such a relatively short period of
time. Their unique characteristics of
size and speed,
as well as the navigational skill and
professionalism that the Cunard-White
Star team brought to their operation
allowed the Allies to move entire
divisions in a single crossing.
Something that had never been possible
in any past conflict.
In fact at the height of their service
the Queens were transporting over
30,000 US. and Canadian troops per month
and the Queens were responsible for
transporting half
of the allied divisions involved in the
D-Day landings! It was this impact
and the advantage that it gave to the
Allies that led Sir Winston Churchill
to acknowledge the Cunard Queens as
having helped shorten the war,
saying in a letter to Cunard Chairman Sir
Percy Bates
that without their aid 'the day of final
victory must unquestionably
have been postponed,' When their wartime
Atlantic service came to an end
the two ships had moved more than 1.25
million people, but their service to the
war effort was not over.
In fact after the war the Queens
completed a stint as repatriation
vessels,
joining other Cunard-White Star Liners
including Aquitania,
Britannic and the second Mauretania in
transporting troops
and war brides across the Atlantic. In
1947 the two Queens were able to enter
transatlantic service as passenger liners,
on that two-ship weekly transatlantic
service. The ships were famous
on both sides of the Atlantic as well as
across the world. In fact in many
respects they were as
famous as many of the famous passengers
who sailed on them
during the golden age of travel. The two
Queens maintained
a weekly transatlantic service until the
middle of the 1960s,
and have gone down history as being two
of the finest ships to ever transit the
North Atlantic ocean.
Fortunately with the end of WWII,
we have never since needed ships to
carry such numbers in a wartime scenario,
and the Queens will hopefully remain as
the largest troop transports the world
has ever known.
Thanks so much for watching. I hope you
found the video interesting. These two
ships are
two of the most spectacular ships in the
world, in my opinion,
and I really do enjoy sharing their
story. So if you'd like to hear more
about the Queens,
you can either check out my website at
www.chriscunard.com or let me know in the
comments below what else you'd like to
know
about Cunard's famous Queen Mary and
Queen Elizabeth.
If you're interested in their backstory
don't forget to check out my videos
about the constructions and maiden
voyages of both of these ships -
I've linked them in the description
below. If you're interested in what's
going on
in the cruising world at the moment
check out my cruise news playlist
or if you're more interested in more
maritime history-  including looking at
the Carpathia, the ship that saved the
Titanic survivors
or the QE2, the successor to the original
Queens,
check out my maritime history playlist.
Thanks again for watching
and when we are next able to set sail, I
hope to see you
on board.
(Music)
