80 years ago, this last week: The Mid Atlantic

Most Americans (and people in general) remember Pearl Harbor as the first shots fired by or at US ships, planes and people in World War II.

 

But the conflict had been ragging in Europe and the Atlantic since 1939 (as those who live there are keenly aware of), but few remember or are aware of the US involvement during this “pre-Pearl Harbor attack” period.

 

In an effort to help relieve the UK of some of the stress of escorting vital supply convoys to the UK, the US established the “Lend-Lease Program” in which we “lent” the UK 50 old US WWI destroyers, they badly needed for escort duties and they provided “leased” basing rights to the US on UK controlled islands in the Atlantic.

 

The US would then use these “Leased bases” to provide a “neutral escort” to these said convoys to near the mid-Atlantic, where UK and other allied ships would then take over escort duties.

 

While technically not at war with Germany, we were definitely putting our forces between them and their target convoys.

 

The Germany did not want to bring the US into the war as an active ally of the UK (fearing a repeat of WWI), so they tried to avoid conflict with US ships and planes but doing this in a combat zone is usually impossible to maintain and so combat did happen.

 

The first US ship sunk was the SS Robin Moor, a cargo ship stopped and sunk on May 21, 1941 on its way to South Africa.

 

The USCGC Modoc on May 24 1941 became entangled in the hunt for the Germany battleship Bismarck, while helping rescuing sailors from ships sunk from a nearby convoy. The Modoc radioed the Bismarck’s location after it had escape into the fog after its battle with the HMS Hood several days before. It was nearly fired upon by the Bismarck and also UK ships and planes during the hunt for the Bismarck.

 

Several US aircrews, who had been involved in ferrying US built PBY Catalina patrol planes to the UK, also flew as “instructor pilots” as the new UK crews were transiting to these new aircraft. US Ensign Lenard Smith was the pilot when his plane (now flying UK markings) found the Bismarck again on May 26 1941, before it was finally sunk the following day.

 

On September 4th 1941, the destroyer USS Greer became the first US ship to fire upon a German submarine, although still technically a neutral power. The US claim the German submarine had fired a torpedo at it first. Which may technically be correct, but a UK patrol plane had dropped depth changes on it minutes before and the German submarine may have believed it was attacked first.

 

And finally on Oct 17` 1941, some 51 days before Pearl Harbor, the USS Kearny sustained the first US military casualties of the war, when she was torpedoed by U-568 off the coast of Iceland. 11 sailors were killed and another 22 wounded (out of a ships crew of only 276 men)

 

This is a picture of the Kearny tied up along side a fellow US destroyer shortly after the attack. The hole from the torpedo can be clearly seen amidship at the waterline. By this point the US and the Germans were engaged in an undeclared “shooting war” although formal recognition of that war was still nearly two months away.

 

So, while the coming attack on Pearl Harbor was indeed a surprise, our coming entry into WWII was not. Each of these episodes was widely reported at the time, although some specifics remained unpublished until after the war.

 

On a personal note, I’ve nearly finished archiving my flickr stream and have trimmed it back by about 20% so far. I expect to trim further, as most of my postings have not been actively engaged with for several years by this point. Exactly how I will proceed is still TBD, but it will be somewhat different for sure.

 

My best to all of you, as we move forward in this still totally crazy and upside-down world.

 

PS I do plan to get out and about for a Holiday Party in the coming days. Whether it will create any input for here is TBD, but I at least will be doing ”my thing” yet again.

 

Be well, Hugs Becky

 

Done