At 05:15 PM 3/30/2002 +1000, you wrote: > > >Brett > > >Roosevelt authorised the US Navy to hit back after 2 destroyers were > > >attacked by U-boats in September and October 1941 (one of them sunk). > > ><snip> > > > > > >From: "John Garcia" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > U.S.S. Reuben James, torpedoed by a U-Boat, and went down with practically > > all hands. Also the subject of a folk song by (if memory serves) Woody >Guthrie. > > > > >Looks like that makes 3. The two I knew of, courtesy of "The World at War" >p97 are: > >* USS Grear in Sept 41, attacked but not sunk > >* USS Kearney attacked and sunk in October 41 > >I vaguely recalled that a US destroyer sank a U-boat before Pearl Harbour, >but after checking www.u-boat.net, found that wasn't so. US ships had >attacked U-boats during 1941 but hadn't sunk any. > >Apparently there are rumours (and that's all they are) of U-boats off the US >coast sending crew ashore to buy bread and other supplies. Looks like the >idea I had of a U-boat attack inside New York falls into the same category - >urban myth. But some 397 ships were sunk off the US coast during 1941/42, >and only about 7 U-boats sunk in that time (off America). > >Brett
According to Samuel Morison's history of the US Navy in WW2, USS Greer and U-652 stalked and fired upon each other on Sept 4, 1941; they both missed. In October, USS Kearny was torpedoed with the loss of 11 men, but she reached port safely. At the end of October, the oiler Salinas was torpedoed but survived. On October 31, USS Reuben James, escorting a fast convoy from Halifax, was sunk by U-562 and lost 115 officers and crew. john
