War came as less of a shock to the east coast. In effect, hostilities between the United States and Germany had begun several months before Pearl Harbor. A de facto war had erupted 4 September, 1941, when U-652 fired torpedoes at destroyer Greer, which was en route to Iceland. President Roosevelt reacted bitterly, terming the attack "piracy" and declaring that "from now on, if German and Italian vessels of war enter the waters the protection of which is necessary for American defense, they do so at their own risk." Thus ended the "short of war" policy. It had been inaugurated soon after Dunkirk with the controversial exchange of fifty old destroyers for British bases in Newfoundland and the West Indies, and had been continued with little significant change, other than hemispheric defense measures, until the 1st Marine Brigade was lifted to Newfoundland by Task Force 16 in June, 1941. At this time, the United States Navy undertook the escort of convoys to Iceland (by Admiral King's definition within the Western Hemisphere and therefore in our purview) on a regular basis. Now a second destroyer, Kearney, was attacked by a U-boat, and on October 31, a third, Reuben James, was torpedoed and sunk with a heavy loss of life. The disaster brought home the full impact of the vicious submarine warfare in territorial waters.
Noted illustrator and muralist Griffith Baily Coale, a reserve Lieutenant Commander, was in the next convoy astern of the doomed Reuben James. In his memoirs, he speaks of the fateful night.
--S.E. Smith
The United States Navy in World War II
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