The North Atlantic shuttle, the run the giant ships had been built for, became crucial to the battle to keep freedom alive in the world. New Yo rk, including, besides the two Queens, C unard's new bu r Italy were invaded the fo llowing yea r. Hider was forced to fight smaller Mauretania and the ve nerable four-stac ker Aquitania as hard on these fronts, in grinding campaigns that wore down well as other vessels. The Mauretania, foll owed by the Queen German forces. M ary, had set sail soon after Elizabeth's arrival in New York, even Bur the critical front was northern France. Larger for ces were before the storm broke. The two lin ers went halfway round th e ti ed down there by the Alli ed buildup in Britain than we re ever world to Sydney, Australia, where they we re adapted to carry engaged in the active battl es in the Mediterranean theater on Australian troops across to So uth Africa. T here other transports Europe's so uthern flank. An d on 6 June 1944, the A nglo-Am erirook the viral reinforcements on ro embattled Britain. On the next can fo rces landed in No rmandy in an offensive that soon liberated voyage the Mary went right th ro ugh to Scotland, in response to France and by the following year drove deep into Germany, to urgent need . meet the Soviet armies adva ncing fro m th e east. It was Hid er's The Queen Mary was soo n joined by her younger sister Eliza- plan, over h is generals' pro tests, to concentrate German fo rces beth. Between them the two great ships co uld carry 10,000 troo ps against the "effete" Western democracies, to fo rce a negotiated halfway round the world. T his powerful lift was multiplied by the peace when they invaded France. The huge buildup of forces in ships' high speeds, which enabl ed th em to make three trips when Britain had effectively defeated that strategy. T he big ships relied on their speed fo r safety from U-boat the normal fast transport made two. T heir courses followed the changing fortunes of the desperate war in which they played such attacks whi ch rook a near-disas tro us toll of conve ntional shipa viral role. The first concern was to get troops to England. ping. Twice the Queen M ary was endangered-once when she C hurchill soon boldly switched this priori ty to North Africa, rammed and sank the cruiser Curacao, one of her escorting ships where Australian and N ew Zealand troops made all the difference that strayed across her path, in O ctober 1942, and again, later in in holding the Mediterranean front against Italian and later the war, when a rogue wave smashed aboard the heavily laden ship German offensives. and held her over at an acute angle where she hovered fo r a painful American entry into the wa r fo llowing the Japanese attack on interval until righting herself to resume her voyage. W hen Germany surrendered in May 1944, the liners turned to Pearl H arbor in D ecember 194 1 fo und the big ships back to the run they were built for, from New Yo rk to the British Isles. In M ay taking American troops home under the same crowded , rushed 1942 the Queen M ary lifted a total of 10,000 troops and crew conditions in which they'd been brought to the European battleacross the dangerous ocean- the first rime such a number had fronts-bur under infinitely happier circumstances, which their been embarked on one ship. And in August 1942 she carried an sailing helped bring about. ,!, entire American division across ro ScotQ ueen Mary, foll of American troops returning.from the war in Europe, nears N ew Yo rk on land- no t for defense bur for the ultimate a halcyon spring day in 1945-still wearing the grey coat she wore in her wartime service, liberation of Europe! which sp ed the day ofpeace. No one complained about the crowding on this trip! General Marshall, in overall co mmand of the fas t-growing USArmyandAir Co rps, rook to heart the US-British milita1y chiefs' decision, backed by Roosevelt and C hurchill, to concentrate all effo rts ro defeat Germany. The G erman war machine in the summer of 1942 threaten ed to knock our the Soviet U nion and the British forces in Afri ca, leading to German takeover of the M iddle Eas t and the defeat of rhe oceanic strategy under which the N azi armies had been contained in Europe. T he rapid training and equipment of American troops, one of the mi racl es of World W ar II, would have done little good without swift transport to the European theater. And so the North Atlantic shuttle, the run the giant ships had been built for, became crucial to the battle to keep freedom alive in the world. Through 1942 and 1943 the buildup of force in Britain compelled the Germans to allocate armies urgently needed in Russia and Africa to a defensive role in France. T o co me to grips with the Germans and deplete their fo rces, the invas ion of Africa was successfull y laun ched in October 1942, and Sicily and
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SEA HISTORY 95, WINTER 2000- 01