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Originally Posted by KaleunMarco
actually, the situation you describe is very real.
read any Battle of the Atlantic book and you will understand what i mean. Try Samuel Morison or E.B. Potter.
Ever heard of the USS Reuben James? She was neutral when she was sunk in 1941.
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I've heard about the Reuben James and and to be brutally frank right here, an US Navy destroyer escorting Convoys from Canada, a belligerent nation, until being sunk of off Iceland is anything but surely not neutral.
I would agree with the US Navy being neutral when they would have escorted britsh convoys inside US waters but Iceland is a bit far away of these waters.
Picking up a convoy in Nova Scotia (as Canada was a belligerent nation) and escorting it to England is generally not a act a neutral nation would do, it's a blatant violation of said neutrality.
In September 1941, Roosevelt publicly declared that he had ordered the American Navy and Air Force to shoot on sight at any German war vessel. In his speech of October 27, 1941, he once more expressly affirmed that this order was in force. Acting under this order, vessels of the American Navy, since early September 1941, have systematically attacked German Naval Forces. This also was a blatant breach of neutrality.
USS Reuben James, USS Greer and USS Kearney were explicitly named in the German declaration of war against the USA for exactly that reason.
Get yourself a copy it's in the National Archives.
TL;DR: The USS Reuben James was not a neutral, it was performing escort duties for a belligerent nation, which is nothing else than an act of war and was dealt with accordingly. End of story.