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American Liberty ship "Stephen Hopkins

Discussions on all aspects of the United States of America during the Inter-War era and Second World War.
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American Liberty ship "Stephen Hopkins

Postby Carl Schwamberger on 12 Aug 2012 04:32

Picked up the links to these two site from another forum. Can anyone confirm or rebuke the accuracy of the events described on them?

http://www.usmm.org/hopkins.html

http://www.ahoy.tk-jk.net/MaraudersWW2/17Stier.html

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Re: American Liberty ship "Stephen Hopkins

Postby binder001 on 14 Aug 2012 16:35

Yes, the action really ocurred. It sounds like something that Hollywood should have made a movie about :-) This account is in several other naval books. It's a classic "David and Goliath" and stands as a tribute to the US Merchant Marine and the Naval Armed Guard personnel. The Hopkins was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, but a Liberty ship can't run from much of anything let alone a German raider, so the crew bravely opted to fight. The action might not get more notice because that it was a "secondary" area versus one of the big battle fronts and also the ship wasn't "Navy" it was Merchant Marine - the USN has a better PR machine.

This action, and a few others is why I chuckle inwardly when the arship fans start going on about the capabilities of one ship over another. The Hopkins/Steier action shows that fortune and bravery can match technical superiority.

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