Red Rebel wrote:I assume you are not talking about the France's Mediterranean Fleet which was destroyed by England, or surrendered/captured by the Germans. I know France was a world power so do you know which fleet (and where it was stationed) the US helped.
Here are some facts about French ships refitted in the US during WW2:
Bearn-Class Aircraft Carrier
Bearn (Converted into aircraft transport)
Richeilieu-Class Battleship
Richelieu. (This is after the British damaged her and she switched over to Free-French)
Eimile Bertin-Class Cruiser
Emilr Berton4 Le Fantasque-Class Destroyers
(Le Malin, Le Fantastique, Le Terrible, Le Triomphant)Other French Ships that fought on the Allied side in WW2:
2 Duquesne-Class Cruisers
Suffren-class Cruiser
SuffrenQuote:If the US was 'fighting and dying' before Pearl Harbor they would have entered the war just like WWI with the Lusitania (spelling?). So I guess you don't know of any US ships that were sunk before they entered the war.
US Ship and Atlantic actions before their official entry into WW2: 1939
Oct 16. Ranger (CV-4) and San Francisco (CA-38) are mobilized to locate and trail German tanker departed Tampico, Mexico, for Admiral Graf Spee.
1940
May 3 . Greenland, a crown colony of Denmark, seeks U.S. protection, so that Danish sovereignty can be maintained during the German occupation of the homeland.
Nov 16. Destroyer McCormick (DD-223), on neutrality patrol off Tampico, Mexico, radios attempt of German freighter Orinoco to make for European waters. Destroyer Plunkett (DD-431), by her presence, thwarts German tanker Phrygia's bid for freedom; Phrygia's crew scuttles her.
Dec 8 . Destroyer Sturtevant (DD-240) stands by while British light cruiser HMS Diomede intercepts German freighter Idarwald.
Dec 11. German freighter Rhein, having been tailed by destroyer Simpson (DD-221) and, later, MacLeish (DD-220), is intercepted by Dutch destroyer leader Van Kinsbergen near the Florida Straits, and is scuttled by her own crew to avoid capture. MacLeish and McCormick (DD-223) are present as the German ship's bid to escape fails.
1941
March 1. Support Force Atlantic Fleet established for protection of convoys in North Atlantic.
Mar 17. Coast Guard cutter Cayuga takes South Greenland Survey Expedition, US representatives to locate sites of bases on Greenland's soil.
Mar 27. ABC Conference. Atlantic Fleet is to help the Royal Navy convoy ships across the Atlantic. The agreement inextricably links the U.S. Navy in the effort against Germany.
Mar 30. U S seizes Axis ships in US ports.
April 10. Niblack (DD-424) a new, Benson class destroyer on "Neutrality Patrol", rescuing survivors, depth charged a contact off Iceland.
Apr 10. FDR authorizes the transfer of 10 "Lake"-class Coast Guard cutters to the Royal Navy. Transfers completed Apr 30-May 30.
Apr 18. US declares Greenland and Iceland in its sphere of interest.
Apr 24. Neutrality Patrol is extended east to 26°W, Iceland, and 20°S, almost to Rio.
Apr 26. US to supply French North Africa.
May 22. Part of US Pacific fleet ordered to Atlantic.
May 24. USN PBYs from Newfoundland search for Bismarck in the western Atlantic.
May 26. USN observers flying two separate RAF Catalinas sight Bismarck. British fleet units converge on the lone German capital ship.
May 27. Roosevelt proclaims unlimited state of emergency, including delivery of supplies to Britain, because of Axis battleship incursion of western Atlantic.
May 27. Elements of Pacific fleet move to Atlantic patrol.
May 29. US begins "Neutrality Patrols" in North, Central and Southern Atlantic.
June 12. Naval Reserve called to active duty.
June 14. US freezes German and Italian assets.
June 16. US closed German and Italian consulates.
June 20. FDR addresses Congress concerning the German sinking of U.S. freighter Robin Moor.
July 4 . US marines under US air cover relieve British troops in Iceland for duty elsewhere.
Aug 9 . Atlantic Charter, a strategy meeting in Newfoundland between President FDR and Prime Minister WSC. Agree, when the US enters the war, Germany first. US warships to escort British merchant ships between the United States and Iceland.
Sept 4 . Recommissioned destroyer Greer (DD-145), tracked U-652 for several hours. Each attacked the other without injury.
Sep 10 . First Liberator bomber to England.
Sep 11. FDR broadcasts "shoot on sight" order.
Sep 12. Coast Guard cutters seize Norwegian trawler Buskoe in Mackenzie Bay, Greenland, thwarting establishing German radio weather stations.
Oct 5 . Naval Conference between US and British commanders in Sinapore.
Oct 16-Nov 1. DDs escorting Atlantic convoy make depth charge attacks daily after six merchant ships sunk in five hours.
Oct 25-Nov 8. Yorktown (CV-5), New Mexico (BB-41), and 11 other American warships were screening convoys to and from MOMP.
Oct 28. Screening destroyer Anderson picked up a submarine contact and dropped depth charges noticing "considerable oil slick".
Nov 1-4. PBYs and PBMs provide air coverage for convoy ON 31.
Nov 4 . Omaha (CL-4), Memphis (CL-13) and 3 DDs search for German surface raider.
Nov 6 . Omaha (CL-4) and Somers (DD-381), en route to Recife, Brazil, returning from the 3,023-mile patrol, captures German blockade runner Odenwald, disguised as U.S. freighter Willmoto, in Atlantic equatorial waters . See reader provided story.
Nov 10. First United States-escorted troop convoy, transporting more than 20,000 British troops, in six USN ships sailed from Halifax for the Far East.
Nov 10-20. DDs attack numerous sound contacts.
Nov 11. Lend Lease for de Gaulle's Free French.
Nov 11. Navy ordered to attack any vessel threatening US shipping.
Nov 13. Amend Neutrality Act: arm US ships, enter war zones.
Nov 17. Archer (BAVG 1) is the first of 38 escort carriers transferred to the UK during the war under Lend-Lease program.
Nov 25. US troops to Dutch Guiana to protect bauxite mines.
Dec 3 . Turkey has "for sometime" been receiving lend lease aid.
Recorded German actions against the US in the Atlantic before US entry into WW21941
Jan 30. Germany announces that ships of any nationality bringing aid to Great Britain will be torpedoed.
Apr 17. Neutral Egyptian steamship Zamzam is shelled and sunk by German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis (Schiffe 16) in South Atlantic; 138 Americans (including 24 ambulance drivers) are among rescued passengers . See reader provided story.
May 21. Unarmed U.S. freighter Robin Moor, en route to South Africa and Mozambique, is stopped and sunk by German submarine U-69 (torpedo and gunfire) about 700 miles off the west coast of Africa. First American merchantman sunk by a U-boat in World War II. Crew given food and directions by submarine.
Sep 7 . SS Steel Seafarer bombed and sunk in Red Sea.
Oct 17. Kearney (DD-432) escorting a convoy was attacked by U-boat off the coast of Iceland with 11 killed.
Oct 19. Unarmed U.S. freighter Lehigh is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-126 off Freetown, Sierra Leone
Oct 28. Oiler Salinas (AO-19), in convoy ON 28, is torpedoed by German submarine U-106 about 700 miles east of Newfoundland.
Oct 31. Reuben James (DD-245), an older destroyer on convoy duty west of Iceland, was sunk by U-boat with loss of 115 men.
Oct 31. DuPont (DD-152) is attacked by U-boat, but missed.
Dec 2 . German submarine U-43 torpedoes and sinks unarmed U.S. tanker Astral and her 37 man crew.
Dec 3 . Unarmed U.S. freighter Sagadahoc is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-124 in South Atlantic.
Quote:It is very possible American piolits found the Bismark (and in a British plane makes more sense). But were the Americans volunteers or something else?
The information was included in the above data.