The Official Chronology of the U.S. Navy in World War II. Robert J. Cressman

      U.S. steamship President Roosevelt off-loads the Navy’s first motor torpedo boat, the British-built Scott-Paine PT 9, onto crane barge Colossus, New York, 5 September 1939. (NHC, NH 44479)

      German submarines (previously deployed to operating areas in late August) begin attacks on British shipping. During these early operations, U 30 (Kapitänleutnant Fritz-Julius Lemp) torpedoes (without warning) British passenger liner Athenia south of Rockall Bank, 56°44′N, 14°05′W; 28 American citizens are among the dead. U.S. freighter City of Flint, Swedish yacht Southern Cross, Norwegian freighter Knute Nelson, and British destroyers HMS Electra and HMS Escort rescue survivors. Despite having been given strict orders that all merchant vessels are to be treated in accordance with naval prize law (giving a warning before attacking), Lemp’s torpedoing Athenia in the belief that she is an armed merchant cruiser gives the British the erroneous impression that Germany has commenced unrestricted submarine warfare (see 16 and 22 September and 7 November).¹

      European war comes to the Americas: Less than three hours after the British declaration of war on Germany, light cruiser HMS Ajax intercepts German freighter Olinda, outward bound from Montevideo, Uruguay, off the River Plate, 34°58′S, 53°32′W. Not having a prize crew available to seize the enemy merchantman, Ajax shells and sinks her (see 4 September).

      British Home Fleet deploys aircraft carriers to seek out and destroy German submarines: HMS Ark Royal off the northwestern approaches to the British Isles, HMS Courageous and HMS Hermes off the southwestern approaches (see 17 September).

      U.S. freighter Saccarappa, with a cargo of phosphates and cotton, is seized by British authorities (see 8 September)

      4 Monday

      British passenger liner Athenia sinks as the result of damage sustained the previous day when torpedoed by German submarine U 30. After the sinking of Athenia is confirmed through radio intelligence and news broadcasts, the German Naval War Staff radios all U-boats at sea that the Führer has ordered that no hostile action be taken “for the present” against passenger ships, even if they are traveling in convoy (see 16 September).²

      Office of the Chief of Naval Operations orders Commander Atlantic Squadron to establish, as soon as possible, a combined air and ship patrol to observe and report, in cipher, the movements of warships of warring nations, east from Boston along a line to 42°30′N, 65°00′W, then south to 19°N and around the seaward outline of the Windward and Leeward Islands, Trinidad.

      European war again comes to the Americas: British light cruiser HMS Ajax intercepts German freighter Carl Fritzen 200 miles east-southeast of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, 33°22′S, 48°50′W, and sinks the merchantman with gunfire.

      5 Tuesday

      Captain Alan G. Kirk, U.S. Naval Attaché, and Commander Norman R. Hitchcock, Assistant Naval Attaché and Assistant Naval Attaché for Air, are flown to Galway, Ireland, where they interview Athenia’s surviving officers and men. The attachés’ investigation concludes that Athenia was torpedoed by a submarine.

      President Roosevelt proclaims the neutrality of the United States in the war between Germany and France, Poland, the United Kingdom, India, Australia, and New Zealand, and orders the Navy to form a Neutrality Patrol (see below).

      Chief of Naval Operations (Admiral Harold R. Stark) directs Commander Atlantic Squadron (Rear Admiral Alfred W. Johnson) to maintain an offshore patrol to report “in confidential system” the movements of all foreign men-of-war approaching or leaving the east coast of the United States and approaching and entering or leaving the Caribbean. U.S. Navy ships are to avoid making a report of foreign men-of-war or suspicious craft, however, on making contact or when in their vicinity to avoid the performance of unneutral service “or creating the impression that an unneutral service is being performed” (see 9 October). The patrol is to extend about 300 miles off the eastern coastline of the United States and along the eastern boundary of the Caribbean (see 6 September). Furthermore, U.S. naval vessels are to report the presence of foreign warships sighted at sea to the district commandant concerned.

      Destroyers Davis (DD 395) and Benham (DD 397) (two 327-foot Coast Guard cutters will be assigned later) are designated as the Grand Banks Patrol. They are to render rescue and other neutral assistance in emergencies and to observe and report (“in confidential system”) movements of all foreign warships. They are to patrol across existing steamer lanes to the southward of the Grand Banks and to approximately 50°W.

      Maritime Commission (Hydrographic Office Special Warning No. 9) directs that all U.S. merchant ships en route to or from Europe are not to steer a zigzag course; are not to black out at night; are to paint the U.S. flag on each side of the hull, on hatches fore and aft, and on sundecks of passenger vessels; and are to illuminate the colors flying from the flagstaff at night. In Hydrographic Office Special Warning No. 12 (promulgated the same day), U.S. merchant vessels engaged in domestic, “near-by foreign,” or transpacific trade are not required to paint the flag on hull, hatches, and decks but otherwise are to follow the other instructions contained in Special Warning No. 9.

      U.S. freighter Black Osprey, bound for Rotterdam, Holland, and Antwerp, Belgium, is stopped by British warship off Lizard Head and ordered into the port of Weymouth, one of the five “contraband control bases” (the others are Ramsgate, Kirkwall, Gibraltar, and Haifa) established by the British government (see 13 September and 31 October). Freighter Lehigh, bound for Hamburg, Germany, is detained by the British (see 7 September).

      Philippine motorship Don Isidro, on her maiden voyage en route from her builders’ yard at Kiel, Germany, to Manila, P.I., clears the Suez Canal; U.S. government immediately protests British authorities having removed, at Port Said, Egpyt, two German engineers (on board “to guarantee construction and demonstrate proper manning” of the new vessel) from Don Isidro (which is under the American flag) as illegal and a violation of the neutral rights of the United States (see 29 April 1940).