Armament Aboard the JOHN W. BROWN

ike all U.S. and Allied merchant ships during World War II, the JOHN W. BROWN was armed with defensive weapons.

The armament carried aboard the JOHN W. BROWN in World War II included:

• one 3-inch/50 caliber gun in the bow;

• one 5-inch/38 caliber gun and two 3-inch/50 caliber guns in the stern; and

• eight 20mm anti-aircraft guns, two of which flanked the 3-inch/50 bow gun, four more were in gun tubs at the corners of the flying bridge, and two were in elevated gun platforms on the port and starboard after deck.

The number and power of the defensive weapons aboard the JOHN W. BROWN are greater than that found on most Liberty ships. Because the BROWN carried troops as well as cargo, she was equipped with additional weapons compared with merchant ships that carried cargo only. A cargo-carrying Liberty ship would typically have had one 5-inch/38 caliber gun in the stern, one 3-inch/50 caliber gun in the bow, and eight 20mm guns positioned at several places around the ship.

The guns on the JOHN W. BROWN, and on other U.S. and Allied merchant ships during World War II, were manned by a detachment of men of the U.S. Navy Armed Guard. In some cases members of the merchant marine crews assisted the Armed Guard gun crews. A typical Armed Guard detachment on most merchant ships would have included one officer and about 24 enlisted men, most of whom served as gunners. (Others would have been radio operators and signalmen.) The Armed Guard detachment on the JOHN W. BROWN was somewhat larger due to the additional weaponry on the vessel due to its service as a troop transport.

The guns on the JOHN W. BROWN are not original to the ship. Project Liberty Ship obtained the guns as surplus from the Navy during the restoration of the ship beginning in 1988. Several of the guns can be mock-fired using propane during Living History Cruises.