Posted on 09/07/2020 7:17:30 PM PDT by CheshireTheCat
1. US was neutral. German warships could enter the harbor, buy fuel, whatever, just get out within a certain time (48 hours?). (See slso, “Admiral Graf Spee” in Montevideo.)
2. US declared war on Germany in 1917. Word got to Guam before soldiers got to Europe.
3. There was a German warship in the harbor. It could have been engaged by US ships or shore batteries and wouldn’t have had a chance.
4. A boat full of US Navy went out to, I guess, talk to the Germans to get them to surrender and be interned. Meanwhile a boat from the ship started toward them.
5. On order or being trigger-happy, a US Sailor fired a warning shot across or over the German boat.
IIRC, the Germans surrendered with no more shots, but scuttled the ship in a deep part of the harbor.
If only Britain, and subsequently, the US, had stayed out of it, both would be much stronger today.
SMS Cormoran rests 110 feet (34 m) below the water of Apra harbor on her port side. A Japanese cargo ship, the Tokai Maru, which was sunk during World War II leans up against her screw. Together the ships are one of the few places where a diver can visit a sunken vessel of World War I next to a sunken vessel of World War II.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scuttling_of_SMS_Cormoran
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