On September 4, 1941—three months before the United States formally entered World War II—a volatile naval confrontation in the North Atlantic brought the country closer to open war with Germany.
The USS Greer, a Wickes-class destroyer en route toward Iceland, was alerted by a British patrol aircraft that a German submarine was nearby. The destroyer located the U-boat, later identified as U-652, and maintained underwater sound contact for more than three hours. During that pursuit, the British aircraft attacked the submarine with depth charges before departing.
The encounter escalated when U-652 fired two torpedoes at the American destroyer. Greer evaded both and retaliated with 19 depth charges, beginning the first direct exchange of fire between an American warship and German forces in World War II. Neither vessel was sunk, and accounts differ over whether the depth charges damaged the submarine, but the incident marked a decisive break from the practical limits of American neutrality.
The political repercussions were immediate. In a September 11 fireside chat, President Franklin D. Roosevelt characterized the attack as an act of “piracy” and announced the policy that became known as “shoot on sight.” Under this approach, U.S. naval forces would no longer wait to be attacked by Axis warships or submarines in waters Washington considered necessary to American defense. The order did not constitute a formal declaration of war, but it moved the United States into an undeclared naval conflict in the Atlantic.
Image: USS Greer, U.S. Navy photograph via Wikimedia Commons; public domain in the United States.
