Posted on 10/31/2021 7:50:39 AM PDT by DFG
Most of us tend to associate the start of America’s involvement in World War II with the tragedy that struck Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. Technically, we aren’t wrong. The United States did in fact make the decision to officially enter the war following the events of that terrible day. However, the Attack on Pearl Harbor was not the first deadly attack against U.S. forces during the overall duration of the war, nor was it the first time a U.S. warship was ravaged by the Axis.
The story I am about to tell you may sound familiar to any Woody Guthrie fans out there. In 1942, Guthrie released a song entitled, “The Sinking of the Reuben James”, whose recognizable chorus reads,
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?
Guthrie’s song recounts the fate which befell the Clemson-class destroyer USS Reuben James (DD-245) on 31 October 1941, 78 years ago to this day, making her the first U.S. Navy ship to be sunk during World War II.
(Excerpt) Read more at navalhistory.org ...
I’ve got a record of the Kingston Trio singing that song.
Thanks for the history lesson.
The Reuben James was of the same class of destroyers as many of those given to the UK as part of the Lend Lease Act. Moreover, she was off the coast of Ireland when she was torpedoed.
Even though it was perfectly understandable a German sub skipper would assume that it was a British ship at the time (based on the class of ship as well as its location), it made no matter to the interventionists; they would pull out all of the stops to make this their "Lusitania".
Fortunately, the American people still had enough of a healthy skepticism of those in positions of influence (we're getting this back now) to recognize when they were being lied to, and resisted the push for entering the war.
I had heard of the song but did not know the meaning.
All 7 officers went down with the ship and 93 enlisted.
We should have declared war on Germany then.
Thanks for posting
True, if one ignores the USS Panay.
The US was the aggressor at that point. They should have declared war before hunting down the German naval forces. At one point the battleship USS Texas was involved in the aggressive pursuit of German naval forces. U-203 Almost got a shot at the Texas in June 1941, but wasn't fast enough to get into position.
FDR’s “Arsenal of Democracy” speech pretty much was for all intents and purposes a declaration of war on Germany.
No relation to the Kenny Rogers version
USN ships were escorting convoys between Newfoundland and Iceland where the RN was picking up the convoys and bringing them into port. This allowed the RN to concentrate it’s limited destroyer force over a smaller zone. That level of cooperation looks like the US was a participant in the naval war while not actually a declared combatant. If FDR had made a stink it would have been obvious what kind of game he was playing.
“Fortunately, the American people still had enough of a healthy skepticism of those in positions of influence (we’re getting this back now) to recognize when they were being lied to, and resisted the push for entering the war. “
Hopefully you don’t feel that it was a mistake that we were involved in WWII?
The Almanac Singers were Communists who slavishly followed Moscow's party line. The previous year, when the Soviet Union and Germany were at peace, they were waxing anti-war songs such as this:
Plow Under (1941)
And Woody Guthrie only put the “This Machine Kills Fascists” on his guitar after the Germans invaded the Soviet Union.
No, I don't think it was a mistake.
My point is that our involvement for that war (as it must for war) had to come through a deliberative process. At the time of the sinking of the Reuben James, no such deliberative process had taken place. The US had actively taken sides in the war, but we had still maintained an official veneer of neutrality; the government of this country was simply lying, both to the world community and to its citizens.
Totally agree with you about WWI. The way the “peace” was handled made WWII an inevitability. And that was a fight we could not stay out of.
The Isolationist Movement in the USA was a direct result of the American experience of WWI. FDR was trying to maneuver the USA into greater participation in the European war during 1940-41. That may not have been necessary had we not fought WW1.
After France fell, most of the country realized that most likely we would have to get involved sooner or later. That’s probably where I would have parted ways with the isolationists.
I think everyone knew we would be involved.
We were building ships and airplanes well before Pearl Harbor..
It was just a question of what the trigger would be to pull us in.
Isolationism was mostly based on the assumption that it would be another stalemate, like WWI was. That all changed once France fell, and it became clear that Germany would be a real threat, along with the other Axis powers.
FDR made a good case that with the Nazis controlling Europe, Italy controlling Africa, and the Japs controlling Asia, the Western Hemisphere would be in peril.
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