The charity behind a campaign to build a national Battle of the Atlantic memorial on Liverpool’s waterfront has urged the government to support the project with money from the LIBOR bank fines fund.
The Battle of the Atlantic Memorial (BOAM) campaign began fundraising in January. It hopes to secure £2.5millon to create a monument on Liverpool’s Pier Head, dedicated to the estimated 100,000 people who lost their lives during the World War Two battle, as well as those who served and survived.
BOAM chairman Vice-Admiral Mike Gretton has written to Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond, appealing for support via the LIBOR Charity Funding scheme. Established in 2012, the fund has handed out £773million to armed forces and emergency services charities, including £20million for a memorial commemorating British servicemen and women who gave their lives in the D-Day landings and in the Normandy Campaign.
In his letter to the Chancellor, Vice-Admiral Gretton said: “The planned D-Day Memorial has received £20million from the LIBOR bank fines fund to help pay for its construction. While the D-Day Memorial is very deserving, there is another national World War Two memorial – to the Battle of the Atlantic – being planned at a considerably lower cost of around £2.5million.
“You will be aware of the colossal loss of life in the Battle of the Atlantic of more than 100,000. The battle was the longest of World War Two beginning on 3 September 1939 and lasting until VE Day on 8 May in 1945. Without the lionhearted efforts of thousands of men and women from Britain and our allies during the Battle of the Atlantic we would not have been able to fight or feed ourselves – and there would have been no D-Day.
“As chairman of the Battle of the Atlantic Memorial campaign I would like to appeal for your help to secure funding from LIBOR or other fine funds to help construct our memorial.”
BOAM has raised £100,000 since the start of the year and received the full support of the First Sea Lord. It’s working with both the Royal Navy and the Merchant Navy, and has the backing of a number of international bodies, including US-based organisations American Merchant Marine Veterans and Project Liberty Ship.
Plans for a memorial also have the support of Sir Kim Darroch, Britain’s ambassador to the United States. With his help, BOAM supporters are set to travel to America in October for a tour of the British Embassy and consulates in New York, Chicago and Boston, with the aim of raising awareness and championing US-UK relations.
Vice-Admiral Gretton added: “If D-Day deserves LIBOR funding we firmly believe our memorial should receive fine funding too from LIBOR and other funds, in memory of those who died and those who served and survived.”
For more information on the campaign, sponsorship packages and to make donations visit: www.battleoftheatlantic.org email: info@battleofatlanticmemorial.org call: 01243 545939 Twitter: @BattleAtlantic Note: overseas donations must be made by cheque.
Notes to editors
Campaign background: The Battle of the Atlantic Memorial (BOAM) is a UK charity. It launched the campaign to build the memorial in January 2018 at a press conference in Liverpool attended by BOA veterans.
The campaign is aiming to unveil the monument in 2019, the 80th Anniversary of the start of the battle and the beginning of World War Two.
The memorial will work closely with Merseyside Maritime Museum and National Museums Liverpool to highlight the project and develop educational projects reinforcing just how fundamental the Battle of the Atlantic was to the war effort. The memorial will also be sited on National Museums Liverpool’s land, between the River Mersey and the Museum of Liverpool.
Backing the plans for the memorial in January, British Ambassador to America Sir Kim Darroch said: “Keeping the North Atlantic open to British and American shipping is as important now as it was 75 years ago at the height of the Second World War. At that time, the North Atlantic shipping channels were a vital lifeline, without which the war could not have been won. So it is entirely fitting that a campaign should have been launched to raise the funds to build a UK memorial to the brave and selfless men and women who were wounded or sacrificed their lives in the Battle of the Atlantic. I am delighted that the Battle of the Atlantic Memorial Fund are visiting the US to promote this worthy cause.”
Battle of the Atlantic factfile
“The Battle of the Atlantic was the dominating factor all through the war. Never for one moment could we forget that everything happening elsewhere, on land at sea or in the air, depended ultimately on its outcome.” — Winston Churchill
The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest campaign of World War Two. It began on September 3 1939 and lasted until VE Day May 8 in 1945, in total five years eight months and five days. The cost of the battle was extremely high for both sides. It is impossible to be sure how many died but an estimated 26,500 British merchant seamen were killed while the Royal Navy lost more than 23,000 seamen. The allied war dead of naval and merchant seaman is estimated at more than 20,000 from Canada, USA, India, China, Poland, Norway, Holland, Greece, Belgium, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Russia. In total around 3,500 merchant ships were sunk and 15 million tons of allied shipping was lost. Many thousands of civilians were also caught in bombing raids at ports and shipyards on both sides of the Atlantic. In Liverpool, for example, the ‘May blitz’ of 1941 saw 1,746 Merseysiders killed and 1,154 injured in eight nights of bombing. Meanwhile, the U-Boat memorial near Kiel has the names of 28,000 crewmen who died, more than 60pc of those who served. Of the 859 U-boats 648 were lost, across all seas in which U-Boats operated. Statistics from Royal Navy Historical Branch and Battle of the Atlantic, Andrew Williams, BBC books.
The Battle of the Atlantic’s core was the Allied naval blockade of Germany, announced the day after the declaration of war, and Germany’s subsequent counter-blockade. It was at its height from mid-1940 through to the end of 1943. The Battle of the Atlantic pitted U-boats and other warships of the Kriegsmarine (German navy) and aircraft of the Luftwaffe (German air force) against the Royal Navy, Royal Canadian Navy, United States Navy and Allied merchant shipping. The convoys, coming mainly from North America and predominantly going to the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union, were protected for the most part by the British and Canadian navies and air forces. These forces were aided by ships and aircraft of the United States beginning September 13, 1941. The Germans were joined by submarines of the Italian Royal Navy (Regia Marina) after their Axis ally Italy entered the war on June 10, 1940.
As an island nation, the United Kingdom was highly dependent on imported goods. Britain required more than a million tons of imported material per week in order to be able to survive and fight. In essence, the Battle of the Atlantic was a tonnage war: the Allied struggle to supply Britain and the Axis attempt to stem the flow of merchant shipping that enabled Britain to keep fighting. From 1942 onwards, the Axis also sought to prevent the build-up of Allied supplies and equipment in the British Isles in preparation for the invasion of occupied Europe. The defeat of the U-boat threat was a pre-requisite for pushing back the Axis. The outcome of the campaign was a strategic victory for the Allies—the German blockade failed—but at great cost: 3,500 merchant ships and 175 warships were sunk for the loss of hundreds of U-boats.
The name “Battle of the Atlantic” was coined by Winston Churchill in February 1941. It has been called the “longest, largest and most complex” naval battle in history. It involved thousands of ships in more than 100 convoy battles and perhaps 1,000 single-ship encounters, in a theatre covering millions of square miles of ocean. The situation changed constantly, with one side or the other gaining advantage, as participating countries surrendered, joined and even changed sides in the war, and as new weapons, tactics, counter-measures and equipment were developed by both sides. The Allies gradually gained the upper hand, overcoming German surface raiders by the end of 1942 and defeating the U-boats by mid-1943, though losses due to U-boats continued until war’s end. (Source Wikipedia)
The final victory in the Atlantic was assured by the American entry to the war. The USA was able to bring overwhelming military and industrial muscle to the campaign with formidable contributions from the US Navy and its Hunter Killer Task Groups. Furthermore, the rapid production of merchant ships in the USA, mainly Liberty ships, was a key factor in the balance between those sunk and new replacements. Canada too played a key role, by the end of the war it had more than 400 ships, almost half the North Atlantic escort force, an extraordinary contribution from a country that could only boast six warships in 1939. In total, 1,600 Merchant Navy personnel from Canada and Newfoundland were killed. One out of every seven Merchant Navy sailors who served was killed or wounded. The RCN and RCAF paid a high toll in the Battle of the Atlantic. Most of the 2,000 RCN officers and men who died during the war were killed during the Battle of the Atlantic, as were 752 members of the RCAF
In 2013, Battle of the Atlantic events were staged in Liverpool, Londonderry and London to commemorate the 70th Anniversary of the Battle. The Ministry of Defence made clear those events would be the final official commemoration of the BOA, hence the need for a permanent memorial.