| I think one needs to differentiate between the way that the Merchant mariners were seen during the war and the public perception after the war. I don't think that they were seen as lesser than uniformed men - the propaganda machine in Britain was very active in portraying them in a positive light. The Mercant Marine was one of the few non-military units for whom propaganda booklets were published and distributed. Actually, apart from the, I can't think of any other "civilian" profession who had such a booklet published - all the others that I have seen have been on military units or military campaigns.
However, after the war, their contributions were indeed quickly forgotten. I think this was partly due to the lack of films and programmes about them - whereas there have been a plethora of films about all the other services and campaigns, I can't think of a single post-war film covering the Atlantic convoy system. As the public are pretty fickle about these things, they soon forget.
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