The USS Reuben James

 

On October 31, 1941, a German U-boat torpedoed and sank the American destroyer, the USS Reuben James, hull number 245. The Clemson-class destroyer, built soon after the end of World War I, was the first United States Navy ship to be sunk in World War II. The United States had not yet entered the war and would not until after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Even so, German ships had been attacking American ships in the northern Atlantic Ocean throughout that fateful year.

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The attack on the Reuben James was a brutal one, for the torpedo tore off the front (bow) of the ship. Within five minutes, it sank, taking 100 lives. Only 46 of the men aboard ship survived.

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Why would the Germans torpedo an American navy ship before the United States entered the war? Unarmed American merchant ships were ferrying supplies to England and other allied nations to help them in their war effort. The United States Navy was using its ships to protect the merchant ships from German attack during their trans-Atlantic crossings.

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Why was the Navy protecting merchant ships? Franklin Roosevelt had drafted merchant mariners into active duty under the Merchant Marine Act of 1936. As such, America was in the war in an under-the-table sort of way, even though no formal declaration of war had been made at that time. Germany took full advantage of that detail and did not hesitate to attack Navy ships, as well as merchant ships, en route to help the allied nations.

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