Start: American Armed Forces at the European Theater during the Second World War: The Increased Difficulties of High Command. Part one

American Armed Forces at the European Theater during the Second World War: The Increased Difficulties of High Command. Part two

American Armed Forces at the European Theater during the Second World War: The Increased Difficulties of High Command. Part three

______________________________________

I

While these discussions were taking place inside the country and the armed forces were being restructured, the undeclared Roosevelt War, concealed by Lend-Lease, was growing stronger.

Carried out in great secrecy, the "ABC" talks between the US and British headquarters in Washington in the late winter of 1940/41 actually meant the beginning of American participation in the Second World War.

Despite the fact that the American and British military headquarters were destined to spend long months and even years in the heated discussions about a strategy that should be followed to defeat Germany, they quickly found common ground on issues such as the distribution of aircraft manufactured by American industry, a systematic exchange of views on military issues through the staff of permanent military missions.
But the most important was that there was a unity of views on such sensitive issues as the delivery of military materials to England and the release of the British from certain duties to protect their interests in a vast territory. The Americans were to assume the defense of the North and South Atlantic as quickly as possible, with the exception of the British Isles themselves, thereby freeing the British troops and navy to carry out combat missions in other areas; while it was envisaged that, in the event of war, the US Navy would assume the security of transatlantic convoys.

As the "ABC" negotiations were nearing completion, the threat to the existence of England from both the Luftwaffe and the preparation of a direct invasion of the islands did not fail, especially because of the actions of German submarines, aviation and surface ships against British ships. The blows of German submarines, which operated by groups - the so-called "wolf packs", were merciless. By March 1941, the British lost 5 times more ships than they put them into operation. Without a reduction in these losses or a sharp increase in the construction of new ships, England soon faced a crisis - more dangerous than the one that followed Dunkirk.

(*)

Assisting the British in the early stages of the crisis in the training of English pilots at American airfields, as well as repairing English merchant ships in US ports, President Roosevelt showed great efficiency in getting Lend-Lease funds for the construction of merchant ships and escort ships for England, and also for the repair of both commercial and military ships in American docks. At the end of March, the United States detained 69 Axis and Danish Axis ships in US ports and handed them over to the British. In the course of this, 875 sailors of the Axis Powers were arrested for "attempts to commit sabotage."
A few days later, the president announced that the Red Sea was no longer a war zone; Thus, he circumvented the neutrality law, enabling American ships to supply British troops in a difficult situation in the Middle East. In May, the United States seized French ships in American ports, including the luxury liner Normandy, which was in the harbor of New York.

Meanwhile, the Germans announced that the combat zone, in which submarines would sink ships of both the enemy and neutral countries, spread to the North Atlantic regions - from the coast of Iceland to the east coast of Greenland.

The German statement on the extension of the zone of military operations at sea again drew the attention of the Western powers to the area of ​​Iceland and Greenland. After Germany captured Denmark and Norway, British troops occupied Iceland at the invitation of the Government of Iceland, and the United States declared Greenland, as the American newspapers wrote, its "unofficial protectorate."
However, the announcement of Greenland as a protectorate did not result in anything, except for the conduct of reconnaissance in the area by the Coast Guard, until in early December 1941 the military ministry came to the conclusion that the airfields in Greenland would be a good intermediate base for the delivery of aircraft to England. In April, the Danish ambassador to the United States signed an agreement under which the United States assumed the role of Greenland's protector and pledged to supply and protect the island until Denmark was free. Two months later, the sappers and antiaircraft units of the US Army began to land on the island.

Meanwhile, the events at sea turned abruptly towards real combat operations. The first incident - as it turned out later, bloodless - occurred in April off the coast of Iceland. When the American destroyer "Nyblak" brought aboard the last of the three longboats with the surviving sailors from the sunk torpedo of the Dutch vessel, the instruments detected the noise of the approaching submarine. "Niblac" threw several depth charges. The submarine left.

(*)

In May, two more incidents followed. At the very beginning of the month, a German raider in the South Atlantic sank a neutral passenger ship under the Egyptian flag carrying 150 American passengers. A few days later, a German submarine sank in the coastal waters American merchant ship "Robin Mor", on board which was a general cargo.

Although all these cases were without victims from the American side, the incidents in themselves were quite alarming. They showed to the doubters that the neutrality laws did not constitute a reliable guarantee of restraining the United States from participating in the war. True, these attacks did not show the impudence and the horror of unlimited submarine warfare, which at one time forced the United States to enter the First World War.
Nevertheless, on May 27 the president in his speech dwelt on these incidents and warned the country that the war "was approaching the very borders of the Western hemisphere." Even before the end of his speech on the radio, he announced the introduction throughout the country of an unlimited emergency.