Queen Mary At War | THE GREY GHOST

She was Britain's greatest threat against the Axis forces. RMS Queen Mary was instrumental in winning the Second Great War. The Mary was involved in so much, that she is more than just a veteran, she is practically a war hero.

#worldwar2 #steamship #queenmary #oceanliner

CHAPTERS:
0:00 The liner Queen Mary
7:06 The troopship Queen Mary
12:13 El Alamein
14:57 Life Aboard as a G.I.
25:12 Collision with Curacoa
29:32 The Rogue Wave
32:48 Colonel Warden
39:31 The War Ends
42:52 Legacy of Queen Mary

REFERENCES/SOURCES:

CREDIT:
Drone footage in this video is credited to:
AND
AND

Photo-altered image of Queen Mary striking HMS Curacoa created by Shilo from @henryhallfan

Some on-board footage taken in 2023 was done by my good friend Kris from the @LMGVids

MUSIC:

@SavfkMusic

"Alex Productions - Eglair" is under a Creative Commons (CC BY 3.0) license. @alexproductionsnocopyright

"Keys of Moon - Flowing Energy" is under a Creative Commons (CC-BY 3.0) license @KeysofMoonMusic

'Omega' by Scott Buckley is under a Creative Commons license (CC BY 3.0) @ScottBuckley

'Ascension' by @ScottBuckley :

@KeysofMoonMusic

"Keys Of Moon - North Edge" is under a Creative Commons (CC-BY 3.0) license

"Scott Buckley - Snowfall" is under a Creative Commons license Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) @ScottBuckley

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I plan to sail to the UK to film dozens upon dozens of historic places for this channel, if you would like to learn more about it, or help support the effort, visit the link below!

VENMO: @AlexAHistorian

To learn more about the Queen Mary, I have an online encyclopedia, rmsQMwiki:

DISCLAIMER: I am not a University-educated historian, Alex the Historian was a nickname I got while working at Disneyland as a tour guide. After 6 years of using it as a stage name for my channel, it would be detrimental to the channel to suddenly change the name.

[AlextheHistorian]

CHAPTERS:
0:00 The Liner Queen Mary
7:06 The troopship Queen Mary
12:13 El Alamein
14:57 Life Aboard as a G.I.
25:12 Collision with Curacoa
29:32 The Rogue Wave
32:48 Colonel Warden
39:31 The War Ends
42:52 Legacy of Queen Mary


Some of my sources, references, and credits for this video are listed in the description. If you need more sources for specific information, feel free to ask.

[derbuckeyetribe]

A very good video and an excellent portrayal of Queen Mary. I had 2 great-uncles that shipped out aboard Queen Mary during the war. One went from NYC to Scotland. The other went from NYC to Australia. One Uncle told me a story about his trip aboard to Australia. He said the Queen was in Rio De Janeiro for fuel and supplies and that during the night the crew got word there might be German surface raiders that knew the Queen Marys location. He told me that Queen Mary backed out from the pier without tugs, no lights, and navigated her way out of the harbor. Once they had cleared the harbor he said the Queen went to flank speed. If I recall right he told me they didn't stop until they got to Cape Town. 40 plus year old memories... I wish I had tape recorded that conversation.

[imsleepingbeauty]

This is one of the best documentaries I've ever seen! I wish everyone would watch it so they could have a better understanding of the Queen Mary and what a beautiful piece of history she is 🩵

[wawa]

Fun fact: for most of her wartime service the only escort assigned to QM was Polish ORP Błyskawica, as it was the only DD that could keep up with her speed. BTW. Błyskawica is still alive and repairs are being made to make her seaworthy again

[PumaPete]

I grew up in San Pedro just north of Long Beach. I’ve only been aboard her one time in 2009 for my wife’s 20th high school reunion. I never knew the extent of her history until this video. Thank you so much for this! It truly gave me an appreciation for the ship that I didn’t have before and brought a tear to my eye at the end. What a piece of history! Thank God she was saved. And God bless the city of Long Beach for standing by her.

[gordonfrickers]

Now I understand why some Americans felt they had to buy the Queen Mary.
Thank you for a splendid video about one of the grandest ships in history so understandably your favourite ship and of may other people too.
(I don't have a 'favourite' but would enjoy trying to list my top 10!)
It's rare for any Allied merchant seamen to have their gallant actions credited so thank you for this too.
You have rendered us a great service.
Merchant seamen took wartime risks as all in a days work, which we today can barely comprehend.
Those men all knew of the fate of the great liner Lusitania and what the U-boats were doing to merchant ships.
Imagine for a moment, how would you like to man the engine room sited amidships of a slow merchantman heavily laden and separated from the sea by a mere 1/2 inch of steel while knowing your ship is a sitting duck with an essential cargo?
If that's not hard enough for you, imagine carrying a cargo like iron ore.
Ships with cargos like that often sank in under 3 minutes; or explosives, or oil fuel.
Worse, if sunk your pay was immediately stopped.
More than twenty four thousand British merchant seamen plus many allied others lost their lives.
The majority have gone to unmarked graves.
Thank you for this video that gives us a glimpse into the invaluable service of the Queen Mary and a hint of what it means to sail a merchant ship in wartime.
Your splendid video is a memorial and celebration of the Queen Mary and more.

[ManWhoLovesTheMary]

It gets me every time how hospitable and accommodating the Queen Mary was to the Jewish people. I was so happy to see an exhibit dedicated to it aboard the last time I visited. More people need to know about it, I feel, despite current antisemitism hopefully not making her a target. It just makes me appreciate the ship that much more knowing all she did during World War II alone. To come aboard and imagine the wild, cinematic hubbub that must have occurred on all those decks while at war!

Good idea putting all videos into one singular documentary. It really does make the impact of it all more...impactful. So many golden nuggets of information that I feel is touchingly palpable to share with friends and family so they can appreciate the ship the way we do.

[Alcyone]

Is it OK to get teary-eyed over a documentary of a ship? Asking for a friend...

This was AWESOME ☆☆☆☆☆

💪🏾🪖🇬🇧🌐🫡

[henryhallfan]

That was one of the finest videos pertaining to the Queen Mary I have ever seen! Truly astounding, and in my opinion, you should be making commercials for them! Great work!

[SAOS]

Another great video about our favorite ship. You were not lying; it does bring a tear to the eye.

[carltrotter]

Amazing video! In the photo of the British Admiralty, the chap at the bottom right at 7:07, Sir James Lithgow, went to my school. He owned the largest shipping empire in the world and was in charge of britains shipbuilding efforts during the war. He was also on QM's sea trials and commented on her vibrationless qualities.

[hueyiroquois]

I like these documentary style videos more than the livestreams. I like the livestreams too, but if I had to choose, I'd vote for theses.

[dr-mnld]

This brought tears to my eyes. This amazing documentary deserves ten times the number of views.

[ellee]

Thank you for the feels. Your work is appreciated, thank you for your research & I will not look at the Queen Mary the same 👍👏👏👏

[docjc]

Alex THIS WAS WONDERFUL!!! I cannot say enough about how I adore your long form content. You are a wonderful documentarian. So few can produce AND narrate the content. ❤❤❤❤

[martinross]

Thank you for this excellent collection of film and stories about RMS Queen Mary. My stepfather was a young radio operator during her troopship days on the North Atlantic run. It was his favourite vessel of the war and he told me plenty of stories of those times.

[davidhewson]

Clear, concise and beautifully spoken commentry . Saw her in 2006 but no time to look inside . History of this gorgeous ship is awsome . ❤ Thanks all . Dave 47:20

[patrickcotter]

Alex you should have the City of Long Beach play this Queen Mary video on a tour route, it's very well produced.

[sturmgesutz]

Superb video of quite simply thee finest Transatlantic Liner ever built, Mary was [ and is ] a masterpiece of Naval Design, Engineering and Workmanship. Immensely strong, incredible power, and utterly reliable whatever the weather could throw at it. The old adage springs to mind, ' they don't build them like they used to ' Mary's sidekick Lizzie was equally as strong and reliable and... even more fuel efficient. but Mary had the edge [ just ] from Lizzie. In fact the trio of Queens built by John Brown at Clydebank were all incredible ships. Thankfully we still have 2 of the trio still with us.
Thanks so much for making this quite superb video. Hail Queen Mary.

[RedDukeYt]

Thank you for bringing more videos of the Queen Mary. I enjoy learning about the ship and hope to go on it one day.