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in this episode VJ days transports
victory class cargo ships
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join World War two the press and
raptured by the scale of the lend-lease
program wrote that Liberty class
transports carried in their holds
another cargo the most important one
victory
it is true but these vessels became
famous first of all thanks to the
outstanding performance and
standardization of the US industry and
the courage of their multinational crews
as for the liberties themselves they
were quite old fashioned steam ships
designed for a five-year operation cycle
u.s. shipbuilders closely studied the
experience of their use in the first
half of World War two and in 1943 they
created the project of a new mass
transport for wartime when developing
the victory ships us engineers were
already thinking about the outcome of
the war and the post-war period that's
why they took the Liberty vessel
improved it and build victory class
cargo liners they were reliable spacious
and remained in service until the mid
1990s
the project for transports of a new type
was developed by Bethlehem the biggest
u.s. shipbuilding company and on April
the 28th 1943 it received a resounding
name victory however the mass production
of these vessels began only nine months
later because the war industries board
which controlled the US industry
required time to organize the production
of a sufficient number of engines for
them this particular vessel is red oak
victory she's moored in Richmond
California general specifications of the
victory class cargo ship red oak lent
139 meters beam 19 meters draft 8.5
meters displacement fifteen thousand two
hundred tons tonnage ten thousand eight
hundred and fifty tons the two main
differences were that the victories were
about a thousand tons heavier and they
had a steam turbine engine giving them
an extra six knots or so of speed allow
us a little bit more survivability
against torpedoes armament one dual
purpose mark 12 gun with a caliber of
127 millimetres one dual purpose gun
with a caliber of 76 millimeters the
three-inch 50 is only the middleweight
gun on the victory class an excellent
duel purpose weapon found on pretty much
most naval ships in world war ii for the
US it's arguably one of the best guns of
the war this would have been a
significant threat particularly to
surface submarine eight 20-millimeter
Oerlikon anti-aircraft cannons behind me
you can see one of the Oerlikon 20
millimeter cannons this is an
outstanding weapon that would have seen
service pretty much all over the world
it was a dual purpose gun primarily used
for anti-aircraft defense so though it
could be used against any small raiders
such as Obito boat which may happen to
be encountered
red oak victory would have carried a to
these four on each side cruise speed 15
knots with the powerplant of 6,000 HP or
17 knots with the powerplant of 8,500 HP
Kru 62 merchant fleet sailors and 28
Navy sailors cruising range 20 3,500
miles
Engineers try to keep the victory
project as close to the Liberty design
as possible to preserve the
technological effectiveness of mass
production at US shipyards
well they did a lot of prefabrication
and so a lot it was built you know in
sections and then what they did is they
you know they quit sections together
when in other words it just wasn't one
at a time they're building different
sections in different parts of the
shipyard nevertheless the new transport
turned out to be quite recognizable a
forecastle tall smokestack and three
cargo masts with wide cross trees they
allowed for installation of quite
powerful electric cranes and hoists that
enabled victories to carry out loading
and unloading of their holds
independently apart from that the whole
lines were changed which together with
more powerful engines resulted in a
higher speed the ship structure was also
improved a greater distance between
bulkheads
allowed engineers to make the hull less
rigid and avoid the deformation that
liberties were vulnerable to in rough
seas
the first victory class transport began
service in March 1944
however only 15 vessels of this class
were commissioned in the first six
months the main bulk of victory ships
were built when the war in Europe was
near its end and a battle for the
Atlantic was won by the Allies that's
why none of the new transports fell prey
to German u-boats it's no accident
though that five out of the six
shipyards that built victories were
located on the west coast of the US
these cargo vessels became a crucial
part of a colossal supply machine that
provided US troops in the Pacific region
with everything necessary to
successfully wage war flotillas of
victory ships made up entire mobile
supply bases for the Army and Navy and
deserted Pacific atolls in total 531
victory class ships were built in the US
during the war they were the biggest
series of line cargo ships in the 20th
century according to calculations by US
historians during the Pacific War one
ton of cargo was required to supply one
soldier with a monthly ration of food
medicine fuel and ammunition the
Americans built such a large number of
victories that they could provide a
monthly allowance to an army of 5.7
million people the same number of people
in the Soviet armed forces including the
Air Force and Navy
when Germany attacked the USSR On June
the 22nd 1941 the first ship received
the name United victory and the
following 33 ships were named after the
allied countries fighting against the
Axis powers 218 vessels were named after
small US cities for example red oak
victory got her name from a town in Iowa
that suffered the heaviest losses per
head among all US towns in world war ii
the following 150 ships were named after
u.s. colleges and universities the names
of the few remaining transports were
quite random but they all contained the
word victory
117 more victories were commissioned as
Haskell class attacked transports they
were classic attack transports of the US
Navy
apart from being loaded with troops and
vehicles they carried landing crafts of
different types to participate in
landing operations every ship of this
class could transport up to 1,500 troops
with armament vehicles and equipment
thus to attack transports like this
could carry an entire regiment of US
Marines of the World War 2 era
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soon after victory the US Navy carried
out the last major operation of world
war ii operation magic-carpet
aimed at bringing home millions of
American soldiers fighting overseas
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not only did all Pascal class attacks
transports take part in it but so did 97
victory ships whose cargo holds were
converted to accommodate the troops
returning home in the second half of the
1940s 170 vessels were sold to private
shipping companies where they made up
the core of the US merchant fleet just
like the project's creators had planned
several dozen transports were
transferred to the US Army's supply
service and the rest were sent to the
reserve fleet and mothballed the lost of
them was stricken from the reserve fleet
in only 2010 however the Cold War began
and the service of victory ships was
required again 36 transports of this
class participated in the Korean War
while 100 of them were recommissioned
during the Vietnam War in August 1966
Baton Rouge victory was severely damaged
by a mine laid by Viet Cong combatants
at the exit of Saigon sport in 1950
North Korean troops defeated the South
Korean army and an enormous number of
refugees fled towards the only Freeport
Pusan one of the victory ships Baretta
victory had arrived there saving people
from approaching North Korean troops the
vessel took 14,000 refugees onboard
14,000 refugees what does that mean from
a shipbuilding point of view the vessel
could have capsized any moment because
his carrying capacity was seriously
exceeded they consciously took this risk
a tremendous risk and save those 14,000
people they ferried them to goj Island
to safety
three victory class vessels survived
they are preserved in the US as museums
red oak victory was commissioned on
December the 5th 1944 and was one of 10
transports of this class specially
equipped to deliver artillery ammunition
at the final stage of the Pacific War
red oak victory served in the 10th
squadron of material and technical
support based at the Eniwetok Atoll and
the Philippines where she supplied US
warships fighting through to Japan after
the war the transport was assigned to
the reserve fleet in California but she
was recommissioned several times when it
was necessary she delivered cargo to US
troops in Korea between 1950 and 1953
and in Vietnam from 1966 to 1968 red oak
victory was decorated with eight medals
for her service in 1993 the ship was
going to be scrapped but the Richmond
Museum Association solicited before the
US Congress for the transfer of the ship
to the local History Museum
five years later red oak victory became
a part of the National Historical Park
dedicated to the work of the US military
industry during World War two she's one
of the last modest workers of war who
crossed the oceans to bring victory in
her cargo holds
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