Lieutenant Commander Heywood "Tex" Edwards, captain of U. S. Destroyer No. 245, peered into the pre-dawn darkness of the North Atlantic. Somewhere in the rolling seas to the left, the youthful Annapolis graduate suspected, a German U -boat was radioing the location of the convoy to other submarines.
Two thousand yards to starboard, 44 merchant ships churned a straight course through the chilly October night at a plodding 8.8 knots. Designated Convoy HX-156, the vulnerable ships were riding low under the much needed war material they were carrying to the British Isles. Moments earlier, at 0525, one of the five escorting U. S. destroyers had monitored radio signals originating from an unidentified source near the convoy.
Standing on the bridge of his destroyer, the young officer was justifiably proud of his command. Named for a seaman who had sacrificed himself to save Captain Stephen Decatur's life during a battle with the Barbary Coast pirates in 1804, the destroyer Reuben James was a trim and proper ship. In her tiny wardroom hung the curved scimitar which had sliced off the brave seaman's arm over one hundred years · earlier. Above the sword was a steel engraving of the past action.
Nicknamed "The Rube," Destroyer No. 245 had only one thing against her-she was obsolete. Finished too late to fight in World War I, she was too old for World War II. The ship's low-lined silhouette was characterized by four stacks and several outdated 4-inch guns. Its Parsons-geared turbines gave the 1,190-ton craft a top speed of 35 knots.
Riding herd on a convoy was not new to "The Rube"-over the past few months she had escorted hundreds of merchant ships from America to the so-called "Momp" area, where, according to an agreement between President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill, English escort vessels would take over. From this point, almost 600 miles west of Ireland, the American destroyers would execute a 90-degree turn north toward Iceland. Landing at the fleet anchorage at Hvalfjordur - nicknamed "Valley Forge" by Marines who found the Danish names more than they could handle - the men of Reuben James could look forward to a 23-mile shuttle to "Rinky Dink," as they called the liberty town of Reykjavik.
Commander Edwards noticed the first hazy overtones of dawn. Dawn meant the appearance of British ships on the horizon to take over the escort. But, it also meant that the convoy would be clearly outlined for lurking U-boats to see. "Tex" Edwards glanced at the growing light in the east. It was the last daylight the officer would see.
He had less than two minutes to live.
In the early dawn of 31 October, 1941-37 days before Pearl Harbor - Destroyer No. 245 sailed into history with Commander Edwards and most of her crew. Reuben James was the first U. S. warship to be lost in World War II.
At 0539, as her direction-finder gear locked on the mysterious radio signals, Reuben James leaned gracefully into a turn to port. Suddenly, a brightly-lit geyser of water accompanied by a muffled explosion rose from the left side of the destroyer near stack number one. The first blast disintegrated into a deeper roar as flames and smoke erupted skyward. The old destroyer was lifted from the sea, spewing jagged metal and broken bodies, as the German torpedo set off the ammunition magazine and blew Reuben James in two.
No time to save the destroyer ... no time to abandon ship. One moment Reuben James was a moving, manned craft. The very next she was gone. Men who seconds before had been at their stations or asleep in their bunks suddenly found themselves thrown into the freezing waters of the North Atlantic. Others never knew what happened.
As the angry blast subsided, a great pall of black smoke rose from the orange flames feeding from the doomed ship's ruptured fuel tanks. The entire ship forward of number four stack had disappeared. The stern section bobbed in the sea for several minutes. Then, her dripping propellers glistening grotesquely in the dancing firelight, the stern upended and gurgled under.
Successive undersea explosions rumbled to the surface as the destroyer's depth charges went off. Debris and men were tossed into the air.
The U.S. destroyers Benson, Hilary P. Jones, Niblack, and Tarbell rushed to the scene at top speed as a- handful of survivors from "The Rube" clung frantically to rafts and wreckage. Twisting around the blazing oil and floating debris, Niblack, passed over the spot where Reuben James had gone down before hoarse cries for help reached her bridge. The captain leaped to the engine telegraph and, ringing back the handle, stopped the ship. Moving slowly astern, Niblack was soon rigging cargo nets and lines over her side to pick up the survivors. Desperately, the oil covered men of the sunken destroyer tried to climb aboard.
Suddenly, a submarine contact was reported to Niblack's bridge and rescue operations were hastily broken off, leaving several men in the water. The engine telegraph slammed forward and the ship joined the other destroyers in their search for the U-boat. Dark columns of water shot up into the air as depth charges roiled the sea. But the sound contact was lost as quickly as it had been picked up and the submarine escaped. The destroyers completed the rescue operation and returned to the eastbound convoy.
The toll was high. When the search was abandoned, only 46 Reuben James men had been picked up - and one died two days later. Over 100 of the crew went down with the ship. Lieutenant Commander "Tex" Edwards was dead; so were all the other officers of "The Rube."
The sinking of Reuben James was the climax of a 2-year-long undeclared naval war between the United States and Germany - a war which cost America eight ships and innumerable lives.
It was not, however, the first undeclared war in which the United States had ever found itself. In 1798, indiscriminating French men-of-war had pulled us into a show of strength with France. Almost three-quarters of a century later, the country was conducting an amphibious operation against the Koreans, not to mention the numerous wars with the Western Indians. In 1899 and 1900, Filipino guerrillas and the Chinese Boxer Rebellion occupied American military attention in the Far East. In 1914, it was strife-torn Mexico, with its raids on American territory, that drew the United States into an unofficial war. Finally, American troops were dispatched to Russia and China during the post-World War I period.
America's undeclared naval war with Germany began on 3 September 1939. World War II was officially almost 64 hours old- Great Britain and France had met the Nazi invasion of Poland with declarations of war as Lieutenant Lemp of the German U-boat U-30 torpedoed the British liner Athenia. The ship sank a mere ten miles from the North Irish coast, taking over 100 persons, including 28 Americans, down with her. First blood had been drawn, but the American mood of isolation refused to be aroused beyond an initial stir.
Still smarting from the political wounds of World War I, the United States set out to protect itself from war while at the same time making its resources available to the enemies of Germany. This policy was in large part due to the guiding hand of President Franklin Roosevelt, who recognized the hands-off feelings of the American public, but nevertheless looked ahead to the time when the United States would be joining the Allies against Hitler. Even before the war in Europe started, the United States, in co-operation with Latin America in the Panama Conference, announced a "neutrality belt" extending into the Atlantic to an average of 300 miles around the Western Hemisphere south of Canada. Warring powers were told to avoid any belligerent action within this zone.
To emphasize the readiness of the U. S. Navy to defend the Hemisphere, President Roosevelt on 5 September 1939, called for the establishment of the famous Neutrality Patrol. American ships and aircraft were to report and track any belligerent forces approaching the coasts of the United States or the West Indies.
During this period of "limited national emergency," the Germans involved America in its first major direct contact with the war. The U.S. cargo ship City of Flint was plodding the North Atlantic en route to Liverpool, England. Six days and 1,250 miles out of New York, the appearance of smoke and masts on the horizon was called to the attention of Joseph A. Gainard, the Flint's captain. Peering through his binoculars, the naval reserve officer could make out the lines of a large warship. Warily, Gainard ordered a change of course. The approaching warship followed.
Soon the German pocket battleship Deutschland hove to off the port bow. A motor launch brought aboard a prize crew and, despite his protests, Captain Gainard found himself a prisoner aboard his own ship. As her startled crew watched, German sailors lowered the Stars and Stripes from Flint's flagstaff and raised the Nazi swastika. A new course brought the captive ship to rugged Tromso harbor in Norway; taking the ship directly to Germany would have made it a sitting duck for British bombers. Rebuffed by Norwegian officials who told them the American ship could not stay in the harbor with a prize crew aboard, the Germans sailed Flint to Murmansk, Russia. Reaching the Soviet Union on 24 October, the Nazis claimed the age-old privilege of "respite from damage at sea." The Russians, allies of Germany at the time, agreed to let them stay temporarily.
By the time the ship was once more plowing the icy waters of the Barents Sea, British warships were preparing to give chase. Flint made her way southward, hugging the Norwegian coast, until pursuing British ships forced it into Haugesund. Again the Norwegians shook their heads. But this time, not anxious to face the British guns, the Germans dropped anchor. Before the day was over, Norwegian troops boarded Flint, released the American crew and interned the Germans.
Returning to the United States with his ship after unloading her at Bergen, Captain Gainard was awarded the first Navy Cross of the war "for distinguished service in the line of his profession."
On 4 November 1939, the arms embargo act forbidding the sale of weapons to warring nations was repealed and a Neutrality Act was inaugurated. Under this legislation, war goods could be purchased on a cash and carry basis, which meant the Allies had access to supplies denied to blockaded Ger many. Among its other provisions, the act forbade American citizens and ships to enter the war zones.
It was then, in the growing tension of late 1939, that Roosevelt's decision to fight fire with fire became clear for all to see. Turning Hitler's hesitation to antagonize the United States against the Nazis, the President resorted to a series of actions that were ironically similar to the Fuehrer's own prewar tactics. It has been pointed out that while none of the American actions alone was serious enough to bring on a war, all of them together added up to a smashing blow against Germany. Whether the United States was right or not in getting so directly involved in the European war is still a moot point. But the fact remains that American men and ships were sent into a war that had not been officially recognized by either side.
In December 1939, the U. S. cruiser Tuscaloosa followed the German liner Columbus as it left a Mexican port and radioed its location for the British to hear. Some 450 miles off Cape May, the German captain scuttled his ship to prevent it from falling into British hands. In November 1940, the Neutrality Patrol destroyer Broome hounded the Nazi freighter ldarwild until a British warship caught up with it. As the American destroyer circled at a distance, HMS Diomede shelled the German ship to the bottom.
As the German juggernaut squeezed the fight out of western Europe during the spring and summer of 1940, the U. S. government was faced with the possibility of a hostile Germany controlling the eastern side of the Atlantic Ocean. Two important preparedness measures, signed by F.D.R., were passed by Congress. One was the voting of funds for a two-ocean navy, authorizing over 1,000,000 tons of warships and laying the groundwork for a reorganization of the fleet. The other was the United States' first peacetime draft bill. A Pan American Conference in Havana announced that any territory in the Western Hemisphere in danger of conquest by unfriendly powers might be seized by the American republics. This, in effect, warned Germany to keep hands off European possessions in the Americas.
During the famous Dunkirk evacuation, three American warships led by the cruiser Vincennes skirted the action zone to steam into Lisbon, Portugal, to "protect the interests of the United States." These interests were to prevent French gold reserves from falling into Axis hands. For the sake of legality, the U.S. government had purchased the gold to give France credit for American weapons which were never delivered. France fell a few weeks later.
On 3 September 1940, the highly-publicized destroyer deal with Britain was announced by Acting Navy Secretary James Forrestal. Under this plan, President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill agreed to exchange 50 over-age American destroyers for the 99-year use of British bases stretching from Canada to South America. The intensified U-boat campaign against Allied shipping gave Britain a desperate need for destroyers as escort vessels.
The first U. S. ship to be sunk during World War II from war causes was City of Rayville, which struck a mine on 8 November 1940. Although an American warship, Panay, was sunk by Japanese planes in 1937, this action was not considered an occurrence of World War II.
America's undeclared naval war with Germany reached its peak in 1941. To meet the Nazi threat, President Roosevelt was forced to assume the role of the Roman god Janus - for the U. S. public he took the stand for isolation, while in his policies he prepared for a war he knew was inevitable. Adolf Hitler, on the other hand, ordered a passive role, turning cheek if necessary, to keep the United States from entering the war. The Nazi leader recalled with a frown the effects of American intervention in World War I.
With the signing of the Lend Lease Act on 11 March 1941, all pretenses were cast to the wind as the United States openly sided with the Allies. "We must," said Roosevelt, "be the great arsenal of democracy." The nation sanctioned the shipment of war supplies on a loan basis to any countries whose defense was considered necessary to the security of America. U. S. naval ships, accustomed to a quasi-neutral role, suddenly found themselves cast into a more positive part as Navy Secretary Frank Knox announced, "We cannot allow our goods to be sunk in the Atlantic. We must make good our promise to Great Britain." As of 24 April, U. S. warships were given the go-ahead to patrol the Atlantic west of 25 degrees longitude, which put some two-thirds of the ocean within American jurisdiction. Although still forbidden to attack unfriendly ships, U. S. vessels were told to radio the location of detected German craft.
The tug of war for Greenland and Iceland grew hot as U. S. Coast Guardsmen landed in Greenland on 17 March to neutralize German weather stations on the huge island . Hitler reacted eight days later with a new blockade order which expanded the war zone to include the northern islands. On 9 April, following a period of limited warfare, the Marines landed in Greenland. The very next day, the first action between U. S. and German naval forces in World War II occurred off the coast of Iceland.
Having rescued three boatloads of survivors from a sunken Dutch merchant ship, the American destroyer Niblack made a submarine contact. Depth charges thudded in the deep as an attack was ordered. No kill was made, but the shooting war had begun in earnest.
In June 1941, patrolling war zone waters outside of the U. S. area of influence, the commander of the German submarine U-203 stared through his periscope in amazement. Moving through the summer swells with an escort was the U. S. battleship Texas. As soon as he was able, the Nazi commander, Lieutenant Mutzelburg, radioed Germany for instructions. Within hours, an order signed by Hitler was broadcast to all U -boats: "... all incidents with United States ships must be avoided in the coming weeks. Until further notice, attacks may not be made on battleships, cruisers and aircraft carriers unless definitely identified as hostile." This order meant a halt to night attacks on warships in the war zone.
The month of May carried the clouds of war to the South Atlantic, where, on the 19th, the neutral Egyptian steamer Zamzam was attacked by a German Q-boat. The raider Atlantis scored six hits in the early morning moonlight before the merchantman's identity was established. Over 100 Americans were among those taken aboard an accompanying German supply ship as Zamzam went down.
Two days later, the U. S. merchantman Robin Moor, en route from New York to South Africa, was torpedoed by a U-boat commander who disregarded Berlin's "hands-off American ships" order. Although no lives were lost, the crew and passengers were left to drift hundreds of miles for three weeks. On 27 May, Americans sitting before their radio sets heard the President proclaim an unlimited national emergency and call for a further expansion of naval patrols in the Atlantic.
On 7 July, 1941, a U.S. task force appeared off the southwest coast of the independent kingdom of Iceland. Aboard the transports, 4,000 Marines preparing to disembark viewed the island with a jaundiced eye. Aside from scrub brush and a few scattered settlements, the land was barren and rocky. The Marines had heard, too, that Iceland's 120,000 inhabitants, fiercely jealous of their freedom, were not too happy to receive them. British troops, who had landed in Iceland in 1940 a step ahead of Hitler, had earned the trust and co-operation of the people. Now, with the English soldiers needed elsewhere and the island too strategic to desert, the Marines and the local population would have to learn to live with each other. By 12 July, the occupation was completed - D.S. troops 1,300 miles from America now stood some 600 miles from Nazi Europe.
As the Marines were landing at the Icelandic capital of Reykjavik, the destroyer Charles F. Hughes arrived with four American women aboard. The ship had been detached from the Marine convoy three days earlier to pick up 14 survivors, including the four Red Cross nurses, from the torpedoed Norwegian steamer Vigrid. Two other nurses were rescued by other ships, while four perished in the sinking.
On 11 July, President Roosevelt initially okayed a plan to "escort convoys of United States and Iceland flag shipping, including shipping of any nationality ..., between United States ports and Iceland." This meant that U. S. warships would escort convoys as far as Iceland, where British vessels would take over to shepherd the merchantmen the rest of the way. From now on, American ships could not only trail and expose hostile ships, they could literally gun them down. F.D.R. had chosen his moment well, for Hitler was deeply committed to his invasion of Russia.
During this period, German credits in the United States were blocked, Axis ships interned in U. S. ports were seized, Hitler's consulates in the nation were closed and Allied pilots began to train in the United States. Overseas, American laborers were sent to North Ireland to build a naval base, while U. S. air patrols over the northern seas were increased.
Secret talks between the British and the Americans culminated, in mid-August, in the famous Atlantic Charter Conference. Meeting on shipboard in Argentia Harbor, Newfoundland, President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill discussed the "common defense" against Hitler and promulgated the aims for peace to be adopted after Germany's defeat.
With the Atlantic Charter Conference fresh in the wind, the American-owned Panamanian merchantman Sessa was torpedoed and shelled to the bottom off the Greenland coast.
Dawn of 4 September 1941, found the old U. S. four-stack destroyer Greer in that area of the war zone aptly named Torpedo Junction with a load of supplies and mail for the American garrison in Iceland. At 0840, 175 miles from Reykjavik, a British patrol plane appeared to warn Lieutenant Commander Laurence H. Frost, Greer's skipper, of a submerged submarine ten miles ahead. Greer acknowledged the message and zigzagged at 20 knots toward the U-boat's reported position. Less than 40 minutes later, slowed to 10 knots to accommodate her sonar gear, the destroyer detected the submarine. Trying to follow the ticklish path of a neutral in a war situation, the U. S. warship trailed the submersible and broadcast its position.
At 1000 the British plane asked Greer if she intended to attack the U-boat. A negative reply was given, whereupon the aircraft dropped four depth charges. Low on fuel, the aircraft soon returned to base.
At 1240 the sound man called out that the submarine had reversed course. Captain Fraatz of the German U-652, weary of being hounded, turned on the hunter. Homing on the American destroyer by sound, the U-boat fired a torpedo. Lookouts on Greer pointed to a disturbance and discoloration of the water several hundred yards to starboard. Impulse bubbles marked the torpedo's discharge at 1248 as the destroyer swung to avoid the deadly missile. The men on deck followed the torpedo track as it passed 100 yards astern. Germany had fired its first shot against the U.S. Navy.
Greer counterattacked with eight depth charges at 1256. Only 120 seconds later, a second torpedo raced for the American warship. Greer evaded the fish with a turn to port.
As Greer continued her pursuit, an English destroyer arrived to ask if help was needed. The American replied in the negative, whereupon the British warship released some random depth charges and left. Alternately losing and regaining sound contact, the U. S. destroyer attacked again at 1512. Eleven depth charges produced no results. At 1840, Greer received orders from Iceland to proceed to her destination.
Three days after the Greer incident, the U.S. merchant ship Steel Seafarer was attacked and sunk by German aircraft 220 miles south of the Suez Canal.
On 11 September, President Roosevelt gravely announced that Greer " ... was attacked by a submarine ... We have sought no shooting war with Hitler ... The aggression is not ours." From that moment on, F.D.R. warned, German or Italian warships entering American defense waters would do so "at their own risk." It was now shoot-on-sight.
The U. S. Navy's escort duties, initially called for in July 1941, now began in earnest. Operating under wartime conditions, American destroyers based at Argentina picked up convoys from the Royal Canadian Navy off Newfoundland and passed them on to British escorts at the "Momp" - the agreed meeting place south of Iceland.
On 20 September, punching her way through the fog patches of dusk during convoy duty, the U.S. destroyer Truxtun suddenly found herself passing a German submarine at 50 yards. The U -boat dove deep as the Truxtun and other escorting vessels seeded the ocean with depth charges. No hits were scored.
The 50 slow-moving ships of eastbound convoy SC-48, escorted by four corvettes, were attacked on 15 October by a submarine wolf pack several hundred miles south of Iceland. Their call for help was answered from Iceland by five American destroyers, a British destroyer, and a Free French corvette. By the following day, they had taken their escort stations around the convoy.
At midnight of October 16-17, the new five-million-dollar U . S. destroyer Kearny was moving through the seas at reduced speed some 1,300 yards from the nine-column convoy. Launched from the Kearny, New Jersey, shipyards in March 1940, the 1, 700-ton Kearny boasted 5-inch guns and a 40-knot speed. Her special compartmentation and double bottoms were designed to sustain all but the heaviest damage. Her captain was Lieutenant Commander Anthony L. Danis, a survivor of the 1935 crash of the Navy dirigible Macon.
It was close to 2 a.m. that general quarters squawked through the ship for the third time that night. Distress rockets streaked the dark sky above the helpless merchantmen as four ships were fatally struck by German torpedoes.
At 15 knots, Kearny moved onto the fire-lit scene. Turning to port some 1,200 yards from a torpedoed tanker, the destroyer began dropping depth charges to scare off submarines in the immediate area. The American ship slowed down to avoid a British corvette maneuvering to pick up survivors from the blazing tanker. At that instant, as Kearny stood silhouetted between the burning ship and a lurking submarine, the U-boat commander fired a spread of three torpedoes.
Only as the destroyer swung back into its turn to port were the lethal fish spotted. The pale wake of a torpedo streaked ahead of the warship, while a second passed astern. But the third torpedo erupted into Kearny's starboard side just below the waterline. Blowing forward and upward at fireroom No. 1, the explosion blasted through the overhead, blew away the starboard wing of the bridge, crumpled the deck house, and bent the forward stack. Four men on deck were blown over the side. The howling of a jammed open steam whistle drowned out the screams of the injured. Destroyer No. 432 came to a stop as water poured into her wounded side. But minutes later, as control shifted from the damaged bridge to an aft conning tower, Kearny began to make headway. Ten minutes after the attack, while repair crews fought to keep the ship afloat, the destroyer got up to 10 knots.
Lashed to a sister ship to prevent capsizing, Kearny slowly made her way across the Hvalfjordur anchorage in Iceland to berth next to the repair ship Vulcan. Lacking a drydock, the repair crew controlled the list of the destroyer to weld a plate over Kearny's wound. Following permanent repairs in the United States, the warship rejoined her squadron several months later and saw action during the Mediterranean campaign.
The undeclared naval war had cost Kearny 11 dead and 24 wounded.
In a Navy Day speech, on October 27, President Roosevelt announced, "The shooting war has started. And history has recorded who fired the first shot ..." Whoever fired the first shot, the torpedoing of Kearny was received with indifference by the American people. While the administration realized the United States was at war, an isolation-minded public was reluctant to admit it. This indifference was reflected in the hesitation of Congress to repeal the restrictive clauses of the Neutrality Act of 1939 and to renew the selective service law.
The early morning hours of 30 October 1941, were black and starless as the old naval tanker Salinas moved her 16,000 tons through the North Atlantic southwest of Iceland. Having delivered a cargo of precious oil, the highstack tanker was returning to the United States in ballast. Without warning, two torpedoes slammed into her side, stopping Salinas and giving her a list. As a submarine was sighted circling to starboard, a spread of three torpedoes fingered through the water toward the oil tanker. One missile smashed into the damaged ship between the engine room and the stern. Repair crews deftly managed emergency work below decks, while above them the gun crews lobbed 3-inch shells at the elusive U-boat. The battle was decided by the opportune arrival of the destroyer Dupont. Salinas got underway and continued her voyage home.
The following night, as previously related, Reuben James was broken in two and sunk by a U -boat. Public interest, Washington inner circles lamented, appeared to be more concerned with the Army-Notre Dame football game than with the more than 100 Americans who went down with the destroyer.
A light touch was added to the undeclared war on 6 November, when the U. S. Neutrality Patrol captured its first prize. Steaming through South Atlantic waters toward Brazil, the cruiser Omaha and the destroyer Somers sighted a northbound steamer flying the U.S. colors. As the warships turned to investigate, the merchantman identified herself as Willmota of Philadelphia. Ordering the suspicious craft to heave to, Omaha dispatched a boarding party. As the American seamen clambered aboard the ship, muffled explosions greeted them - the captain of the merchant ship was attempting to scuttle his command. Quick action by the Americans saved the steamer, which turned out to be the Nazi blockade runner Odenwald, carrying rubber from Japan to Germany. Five days later, Odenwald was escorted into Trinidad, where Captain T. E. Chandler of Omaha contemplated the legality of his capture. Reaching back into 19th century history, he remembered the U. S. Navy's African patrol and reported that he had captured a "suspected slave trader." Chandler of Omaha contemplated the legality of his capture. Reaching back into 19th century history, he remembered the U. S. Navy's African patrol and reported that he had captured a "suspected slave trader."
Congress, finally aroused by these developments, amended the Neutrality Act on 13 November. U. S. merchant ships were now to be armed and permitted to travel into combat zones. Since gun crews had already been undergoing training for seven months, it was only a matter of days before the first quota of men was ready to board ship.
On 7 December 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, thereby plunging America into World War II. Four days later, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. The undeclared naval war between the United States and Germany had ended-the shooting war had finally become official.