14 June 1941. San Francisco, USA.
The stevedores noted that the ships they’d just loaded were raising steam. Another day’s work was coming to an end and their efforts would be sailing with the tide to some far off place. The men, as they left the waterfront, didn’t really care where the ships were going to, just that they had been paid.
On board the ships were sixty-nine brand new M3 Light Tanks destined for the Middle East. The rest of the cargo included a large number of trucks, some of which had been shipped down from Canada, but most had come from the USA with all sorts of spares and tools. The stevedores noted that most of the Canadian boxes had been locked pretty well, obviously someone was concerned about pilfering, the American packing was less rigorous.
If any of the stevedores were interested, and there was usually a few who kept count of things, these weren’t the first ships carrying military supplies since the Lend Lease Act had been passed. Ships started sailing in April to the Middle East from the West Coast of the United States, taking the long route over the Pacific. April had been the first month that the Americans thought it had been safe to send ships through the Red Sea. Nine had sailed that month, and with a stop at Sydney, Australia, to deliver some goods there, the first ships would be arriving at the Suez Canal within days.
Those sailing on the tide tonight would make sixteen just this month, and it wasn’t just tanks and trucks they were carrying. Fighter and bomber aircraft in crates, anti-aircraft guns, and a large amount of machinery, tools, plant for roadwork, engineering and signal equipment, as well as general stores were on the ships pulling away from their berths.