Posted on 10/31/2018 1:55:32 PM PDT by iowamark
On this day in 1941, USS Reuben James is torpedoed by a German submarine. She would become the first American warship sunk during World War II. But how could that be? Wasn’t America then still neutral? After all, the attack on Pearl Harbor was still weeks away.
Reuben James wasn’t even the first to clash with Germany during those months. As early as April 1941, USS Niblack dropped depth charges to ward off a potential German U-boat attack. In mid-October, USS Kearny was hit by a torpedo, but she survived. (See October 17 post). Now Reuben James would take a mortal hit.
Perhaps you’re wondering why America maintained an official position of neutrality for so long?
Reuben James was then part of a U.S. Navy task unit, escorting a convoy of merchant ships across the western Atlantic. The convoy was just south of Iceland by the morning of October 31. Most of the ships weren’t equipped with radar, nor was the convoy zigzagging to avoid submarine strikes. Unfortunately, a German submarine chose that moment to come on the scene.
Reuben James was hit, suddenly, just as she was turning to investigate a strong direction-finding bearing. The explosion slashed through the fore part of the ship, igniting the forward magazine and tearing the ship apart. The front half of the ship sank immediately. The stern remained afloat for maybe five minutes before it sank, too.
The men struggling in the water were covered with oil, which made it hard to climb into rafts. Their hands were simply too slick! Men began vomiting black oil. Some suffocated on the oil instead. Others were too badly hurt to help themselves in the water, and they drowned.
Then things got even worse. As the stern went down, Reuben James’s own depth charges began exploding. Life rafts were thrown into the air. One survivor would remember “a blinding flash. I felt like I was swimming. Then I realized I couldn’t feel any water under me. I turned head-down. I was about 25 feet above the water.”
Oily, slippery men were forced to find their way onto rafts. Again. Some didn’t make it.
Finally, USS Niblack and USS Hilary P. Jones arrived to help. Rescue efforts were difficult because the survivors were still too covered in oil to help themselves. Finally, a few dozen men were dragged aboard, still choking and gagging on oil and water.
In the end, Niblack saved only thirty-five men out of the 160-man crew. Hilary P. Jones saved only ten. Every officer had been killed.
Most Americans still didn’t want to be in World War II, and Reuben James didn’t get the attention it should have. Perhaps singer Woody Guthrie saw what was coming down the pike, though? He wrote his famous folk song soon after Reuben James went down.
Tell me, what were their names?
Tell me, what were their names?
Did you have a friend on the good Reuben James?
Pearl Harbor was just around the corner. The sleeping giant would soon be jolted wide awake.
Primary Sources:
Some would say that the USS Panay was the first US ship lost in WWII.
Tom Clancy used the name “USS Reuben James” in his book “Red Storm Rising”...
The Sinking Of The Reuben James
Words and Music by Woody Guthrie
Have you heard of a ship called the good Reuben James
Manned by hard fighting men both of honor and fame?
She flew the Stars and Stripes of the land of the free
But tonight she’s in her grave at the bottom of the sea.
Tell me what were their names, tell me what were their names,
Did you have a friend on the good Reuben James?
What were their names, tell me, what were their names?
Did you have a friend on the good Reuben James
Well, a hundred men went down in that dark watery grave
When that good ship went down only forty-four were saved.
‘Twas the last day of October we saved the forty-four
From the cold ocean waters and the cold icy shore.
It was there in the dark of that uncertain night
That we watched for the U-boats and waited for a fight.
Then a whine and a rock and a great explosion roared
And they laid the Reuben James on that cold ocean floor.
Now tonight there are lights in our country so bright
In the farms and in the cities they’re telling of the fight.
And now our mighty battleships will steam the bounding main
And remember the name of that good Reuben James.
I had not thought about it but the Panay was the first.
USS Reuben James was a brand new OHP Class FFG when RSR was published. She had one of the fleet's best nicknames, the "Rubber Jimmie". She decomm'd about 5 years ago.
Didn’t Reuben James save a captain or maybe and admiral’s life?
Off North Africa?
I would agree. The USS Panay was attacked by Japan in a unquestioned act of aggression. Sort of like what happened in 1941.
Germany attacked the Soviet Union in June, 1941. Woody Guthrie was very motivated to help the Soviet Union by convincing the US to join the war. Before this, the Communists worked to keep American out of the war.
US Communists and fellow travelers went from isolationists to interventionists after the USSR was attacked in June 1941.
During the expedition against the Barbary Pirates, there was hand to hand fighting and an officer was about to be slashed with a sword or a scimitar or something.
Reuben James put himself between the sword and the officer and died saving his life.
Seems like a Marine I once worked with told me this story as he was taught it in boot camp, so I'm sure someone will come along momentarily to refresh my memory.
I once years ago got banned from FR for posting the painting of Reuben James saving Lt. Stephen Decatur’s life, while Decatur was in the process of blowing the head off of a Barbary pirate. Boy have times ever changed.
He was supposed to have saved Lt. Stephen Decatur in a fight off Tripoli in 1804 (some say it was Daniel Frazier, who was treated for a head wound while James was not).
The slang term "Leatherneck" is supposed to come from a heavy leather collar the Marines wore to prevent throat cuts during that war.
Like Dalton Trumbo who wrote about the horrors of war through a quad amputee in Johnny Got His Gun, but then said, "eh, never mind" when Uncle Joe got his nuts in a wringer.
Admiral Doenitz’ U-Boats nearly accomplished what Herman Goering’s Luftwaffe did not: bring England to her knees.
My late wife’s Great Uncle grew up with Woody and went to the same high school.
At a family reunion someone asked him what he thought of Guthrie. He thought for just a few seconds and said. “He was just plain sorry”.
Thanks.
I listened to it and came away thinking, "This guy sure thought a lot of himself..."
His kid didn't turn out much different. JMHO.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.