Chronicle Commentary: April 11, 1941

First shots?

While not mentioned in the paper, this day marks what would have been the first hostilities between the United States and Germany.

U-52 (Korvettenkapitän Otto Salman, commanding) hit the Dutch steamer Saleier with two torpedoes on April 9 in the North Atlantic, sinking the vessel in just 15 seconds. Today, the destroyer USS Niblack has reached the shipwrecked survivors and spots a submerged contact on their sonar during the rescue operation. Believing it to be the enemy submarine, Niblack attacks the target with three depth charges. However, Kriegsmarine records indicate no submarine was in the area (about 420 nautical miles southwest of Iceland) at the time. All hands are rescued.

Incidentally, Niblack will also rescue survivors of another U-boat attack in six months when U-552 sinks the destroyer USS Reuben James in the North Atlantic. While 115 American sailors are killed in the Reuben James attack — just two weeks after 11 sailors were killed aboard the destroyer USS Kearny as they hunted a German wolfpack — we won’t officially be at war with Nazi Germany until December.

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Featured image: USS NIBLACK during builder’s trials, 1940.