It is not widely known that about 6.5 per cent of all Merchant Navy personnel died on Second World War service, a higher percentage than any other Service, and that during the Allied recapture of the Philippine Islands there were more Merchant Navy casualties than those of all other Services combined.
Of the seventy six merchant ships lost in Australian waters to mines, torpedoes, shelling and bombing, twenty-nine were Australian. Australian seamen killed on these numbered 349 and a further 37 died while prisoner of war. The number of Australian merchant seamen lost on all the oceans will probably never be known.
The Royal Australian Navy supplied gunners to Defensively-Equipped Merchant Ships (D.E.M.S.) and thirty-eight of these gunners lost their lives.
From:
The Australian Merchant Navy | British Fleets