The USS Greer Incident September 4, 1941
An American Destroyer is Attacked by a German Submarine
The USS Greer attack by a German submarine on September 4, 1941, could have provoked war between Nazi Germany and the United States months before Pearl Harbor. The Franklin Roosevelt administration had been drifting toward war since the Battle of Britain began in the summer of 1940. Isolationists used the Greer incident to demonstrate this slow drift toward war. In October 1941, Republican Senator Robert Taft stated that “the administration welcomes every incident which may possibly lead to war.” The incident was misrepresented to the American people, however, in an effort to promote anti-German sentiment.
Attack on the USS Greer
According to the captain’s log of the German U-652, the incident began after British planes dropped depth charges near the patrolling submarine. The submarine located a destroyer within 1200 meters of its position. What may be significant is that the submarine captain classified the destroyer as “one of the 50 American vessels that are now sailing for England.”
One year earlier, Roosevelt concluded an agreement with Britain exchanging fifty old American destroyers for a lease on several British bases in the American hemisphere. News of this would have been known to German officers. Without substantive evidence, it is not possibly to discover the meaning of the captain’s observation, but his words appear to indicate that he believed the Greer to be one of those fifty ships, thus making the destroyer a viable and legal target.
The Greer, commanded by a recent Annapolis graduate, also released depth charges, ultimately prompting the U-652 to fire two torpedoes, both of which missed. Press reports following the incident did not identify the submarine, but it was assumed to be German. It should also be noted that Hitler had given a direct order to Grand Admiral Raeder on May 22, 1941 that no German ships were to fire on American ships unless fired upon first. The captain of the U-652 must have been aware of this order.
Stretching Neutrality in the Mid-Atlantic
Since June 1941 American marines occupied Iceland, a strategically important island that had been protected by the British. This action freed British troops to fight elsewhere but also gave legal clout to American naval vessels escorting convoys carrying lend-lease material to Britain up to the area of Iceland. Additionally, American ships provided British ships with intelligence on German submarine activity. The Greer was, in fact, en route to Iceland carrying mail.
Roosevelt used the incident to galvanize American public opinion. During his September 11, 1941 “Fireside Chat,” he stated that “the German submarine fired first upon this American destroyer without warning, and with deliberate design to sink her.” His charges came only seven days after the attack and five days after the German government delivered a response to the attack that asserted that the first shots fired came from “depth bombs.” Additionally, the Germans claimed that the nationality of the destroyer could not be determined (some of the action occurred at night).
Effect of the Greer Incident
Although Americans were evenly split on U.S. support of Britain, most Americans were not ready to commit to war. Yet every administration action, from the resumption of a draft to Lend-Lease, appeared as one more step toward the inevitable. Germany did not want the U.S. to enter the war yet blundered into the inevitable when Hitler declared war after Pearl Harbor, honoring his pact with Japan.
Sources:
- Various original source documents as found in William Bruce Wheeler and Susan D. Becker, Discovering the American Past: A Look at the Evidence 5th Edition, Volume Two: since 1865 (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002).
- Alfred H. Kelly and Winfred A. Harbison, The American Constitution: Its Origins & Development 5th Edition (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1976)
USS Greer
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