In the Month of September 1941

US NAVY

1 September 1941, Monday

ATLANTIC—Navy assumes responsibility for trans‑Atlantic convoys from point off Argentia to meridian of Iceland.

            Commander in Chief Atlantic Fleet (Admiral Ernest J. King) designates a task group as a Denmark Strait Patrol to operate in waters between Iceland and Greenland.  

PACIFIC—U.S. Consul General in Shanghai, China (Clarence Gauss), Commander Yangtze Patrol (Rear Admiral William A. Glassford) and Commanding Officer Fourth Marine Regiment (Colonel Samuel L. Howard, USMC) recommend that all naval forces in China (river gunboats and Marines) be withdrawn.

4 September 1941, Thursday

ATLANTIC—Destroyer Greer (DD‑145), while tracking German submarine U‑652 175 miles southwest of Iceland, is attacked but not damaged. Soon thereafter, Greer damages the U‑boat with depth charges.

6 September 1941, Saturday

ATLANTIC—Destroyer Lansdale (DD‑426) rescues only three survivors from Panamanian freighter Sessa, sunk on 17 August; 24 crewmen (one of whom is an American) perish.

7 September 1941, Sunday

GULF OF SUEZ—Unarmed U.S. freighter Steel Seafarer (carrying cargo earmarked for the British Army in Egypt) is bombed and sunk by German plane (identified as a JU 88) off the Shadwan Islands; her 36‑man crew is rescued unharmed.

9 September 1941, Tuesday

UNITED STATES—Naval Coastal Frontier Forces are formed.

11 September 1941, Thursday

UNITED STATES—Executive order provides that such additional Coast Guard vessels, units, or people, should be transferred to the Navy as should be agreed upon between the Commandant of the Coast Guard and the Chief of Naval Operations (see 6 August and 1 November).

ATLANTIC—President Roosevelt, in the wake of the Greer‑U 652 incident, announces order to Navy ("Shoot on Sight") to attack any vessel threatening U.S. shipping or ships under American escort. Roosevelt declares that if German or Italian vessels of war enter American‑protected waters, they "do so at their own risk."

            German submarines attack convoy SC 42; unarmed Panamanian freighter Montana is torpedoed and sunk by U‑105 at63°40'N, 35°50'W.

GULF OF SUEZ—Unarmed U.S. freighter Arkansan is damaged by antiaircraft shell fragments during heavy air raid on Port Suez; there are no reported casualties among the 38‑man crew.

US MARINE CORPS

UNITED STATES—President orders Navy to attack any vessel threatening U. S. shipping.

12 September 1941, Friday

US NAVY

ATLANTIC—Coast Guard cutter Northland, assisted by cutter North Star, seizes Norwegian trawler Buskoe in MacKenzie Bay, Greenland, thwarting Buskoe's mission of establishing and servicing German radio weather stations in that region. This is the first capture of a belligerent ship by U.S. naval forces in World War II.

14 September 1941, Sunday

UNITED STATES—Army General Headquarters (GHQ) maneuvers commence in Louisiana. Army's neglect of aviation support for its ground troops during the interwar period compels it to ask the Navy to provide planes to take part. Five Navy (VB 2, VF 41, VF 72, VS 5, and VS 42) and four Marine Corps (VMF 111, VMO 151, VMSB 131, and VMSB 132) squadrons take part in the large‑scale war games.

ATLANTIC—As TF 15 proceeds toward Iceland, destroyer Truxtun (DD‑229) reports submarine emerging from the fog 300 yards away, but low visibility and uncertainty as to the position of MacLeish (DD‑220), also in the screen of TF 15, prevents Truxtun from opening fire. After the submarine submerges, Truxtun, MacLeish and Sampson (DD‑394) make depth charge attacks with no verifiable result.

18 September 1941, Thursday

ATLANTIC—U.S. Navy ships escort eastbound British trans‑Atlantic convoy for first time: TU.4.1.1 (Captain Morton L. Deyo), comprising destroyers Ericsson (DD‑440), Eberle (DD‑430), Ellis (DD‑154), Dallas (DD‑199), and Upshur (DD‑144), assumes ocean escort duties for convoy HX 150, 150 miles south of Newfoundland.

19 September 1941, Friday

UNITED STATES—Secretary of State Cordell Hull sends note to German Chargé d'Affaires Hans Thomsen concerning settlement of the Robin Moor incident, citing reparations to the amount of $2,967,092.00. German Embassy acknowledges receipt of the note the same day (see 26 September 1941).

20 September 1941, Saturday

ATLANTIC—Army shore battery fires across the bow of destroyer Charles F. Hughes (DD‑428) as TU 4.1.2 (Commander Fred D. Kirtland) enters Hvalfjordur, Iceland in foggy weather conditions.

            German submarines attack convoy SC 44; among the ships lost in the onslaught are Panamanian freighter Pink Star (ex‑Danish Landby) and tanker T.J. Williams, torpedoed and sunk by U‑552 at 61°36'N, 35°07'W and 61°34'N,35°11'W, respectively.

24 September 1941, Wednesday

ATLANTIC—Destroyer Eberle (DD‑430), in TU 4.1.1, screening convoy HX 150, rescues crew of British freighter Nigaristan, which has suffered an engine room fire.

25 September 1941, Thursday

ATLANTIC—U.S. Navy escorts (see 18 September) turn over convoy HX 150 to British escort vessels at the Mid‑Ocean Meeting Point (MOMP). All convoyed vessels reach port safely.

26 September 1941, Friday

ATLANTIC—Navy orders protection of all ships engaged in commerce in U.S. defensive waters‑‑by patrolling, covering, escorting, and by reporting or destroying German and Italian naval forces encountered.

UNITED STATES—German Chargé d'Affaires Hans Thomsen replies to Secretary of State Hull's note of 19 September concerning reparations for the loss of Robin Moor: referring to the notes of 20 June and 19 September 1941, Thomsen replies that “the two communications made are not such as to lead to an appropriate reply by my government" (see 3 November).

27 September 1941, Saturday

UNITED STATES—First Maritime Commission EC‑2 type freighter (Liberty Ship), Patrick Henry, is launched at Baltimore, Maryland. This standardized type of ship is to be put into mass production in American shipyards to fulfill the need for merchant vessels in a wartime economy.

28 September 1941, Sunday

UNITED STATES—Army GHQ Maneuvers in Louisiana conclude.

30 September 1941, Tuesday

ATLANTIC—TU 4.1.5 (Commander William K. Phillips) assumes escort duty for convoy. During the rough passage to the MOMP, which concludes on 9 October, all destroyers of the unit, Mayo (DD‑422) (flagship), Broome (DD‑210), Babbitt (DD‑128), Leary (DD‑158) and Schenck (DD‑159) suffer varying degrees of storm damage.

            TU 4.1.3 (Commander Dennis L. Ryan) assumes escort duty for convoy ON 20 at the MOMP (see 2 October).

PACIFIC—Rear Admiral Harold M. Bemis, incapacitated by illness, is relieved as Commandant, Sixteenth Naval District and Navy Yard, Cavite, P.I., by Captain Herbert J. Ray (see 5 November)."