The Sad Story of Singer and the Sten

[Vincent]

The sequence was first the United States declared war on the Empire of Japan on December 8, 1941. This was in response to the attack on Pearl Harbor the previous day, December 7, 1941.

JOINT RESOLUTION Declaring that a state of war exists between the Imperial Government of Japan and the Government and the people of the United States and making provisions to prosecute the same.

Whereas the Imperial Government of Japan has committed unprovoked acts of war against the Government and the people of the United States of America:

Therefore be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the state of war between the United States and the Imperial Government of Japan which has thus been thrust upon the United States is hereby formally declared; and the President is hereby authorized and directed to employ the entire naval and military forces of the United States and the resources of the Government to carry on war against the Imperial Government of Japan; and, to bring the conflict to a successful termination, all the resources of the country are hereby pledged by the Congress of the United States.

On 11 December 1941, Nazi Germany declared war against the United States.

MR. CHARGE D'AFFAIRES:

The Government of the United States having violated in the most flagrant manner and in ever increasing measure all rules of neutrality in favor of the adversaries of Germany and having continually been guilty of the most severe provocations toward Germany ever since the outbreak of the European war, provoked by the British declaration of war agains Germany on September 3, 1939, has finally resorted to open military acts of aggression.
On September 11, 1941, the President of the United States 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. Thus, American destroyers, as for instance the Greer, the Kearney and the Reuben James, have opened fire on German submarines according to plan. The Secretary of the American Navy, Mr. Knox, himself confirmed that-American destroyers attacked German submarines.
Furthermore, the naval forces of the United States, under order of their Government and contrary to international law have treated and seized German merchant vessels on the high seas as enemy ships.
The German Government therefore establishes the following facts:
Although Germany on her part has strictly adhered to the rules of international law in her relations with the United States during every period of the present war, the Government of the United States from initial violations of neutrality has finally proceeded to open acts of war against Germany. The Government of the United States has thereby virtually created a state of war.
The German Government, consequently, discontinues diplomatic relations with the United States of America and declares that under these circumstances brought about byPresident Roosevelt Germany too, as from today, considers herself as being in a state of war with the United States of America.

Accept, Mr. Charge d'Affaires, the expression of my high consideration.
December 11, 1941.

Ribbentrop

On the same day, December 11, 1941, the United States responded and declared war on Nazi Germany.

JOINT RESOLUTION Declaring That a State of War Exists Between The Government of Germany and the Government and the People of the United States and Making Provisions To Prosecute The Same
Whereas the Government of Germany has formally declared war against the Government and the people of the United States of America: Therefore be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the state of war between the United States and the Government of Germany which has thus been thrust upon the United States is hereby formally declared; and the President is hereby authorized and directed to employ the entire naval and military forces of the United States and the resources of the Government to carry on war against the Government of Germany; and, to bring the conflict to a successful termination, all of the resources of the country are hereby pledged by the Congress of the United States.
(Signed) Sam Rayburn, Speaker of the House of Representatives
(Signed) H. A. Wallace, Vice President of the United States and President of the Senate
Approved December 11, 1941 3:05 PM E.S.T.
(Signed) Franklin D. Roosevelt

Since World War 2 the United States has not formally declared war on another nation or entity.

The “War on terror” is just one of the many undeclared wars or “conflicts” since WW2.

[tankhunter]

And successive Governments since the war. STILL don't seem to have learned Much!..........

[Sentryduty]

The “War on terror” is just one of the many undeclared wars or “conflicts” since WW2.

Speaking as a participant in the GWOT, (OEF Afghanistan) the entire process of declaring war is slightly archaic, and is often difficult to apply in modern circumstances, as it is geared in a manner to formalize a state of war between two or more recognized nations or states.

Many of the operations were fighting armed groups that hoisted no flag, nor wore a uniform, or even had a leader or common name.

Declaring war is a legal process, on a smaller scale it would be like trying to serve arrest warrants for "the person or persons unknown that spray painted graffiti in various public spaces". On the same vein this was more a mandate to crack down on anyone found to be "spraying graffiti".

Taking from Ribbentrop above: "President of the United States publicly declared that he had ordered the American Navy and Air Force to shoot on sight at any German war vessel."

In our cases we were only permitted to engage after certain criteria were met, there was no ability to pre-identify by flag or uniform combatants from non-combatants. For us, everyone was a "good guy" until they did something hostile. We soldiers frequently opined that if the "bad guys" had simply done nothing, kept their weapons buried, and just literally sat around, a shot would never have been fired, and very rapidly the Coalition forces would have considered the area secure and pulled out much sooner. After that they could likely have resumed business with impunity.

The world has evolved from two gentlemen rolling up their sleeves and agreeing to a bit of "olde-timey English Boxing" to settle a disagreement, and warfare has changed just the same.

In another aspect, the conflicts since WW2 have been fought very much "with the gloves on" no one has resorted to the "Total War" (Total war - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) concept, which is a very, very good thing.

[Flying10uk]

It's difficult to understand why Germany declared war on the USA first? Surely Hitler didn't actually think he was going to win a war against the USA?

[fjruple]

Flying10uk-- At that point of time (Dec 1941) in Germany's military operations in the East were starting to not going so well. Hitler was think that by declaring war on the United States, the Japanese would declare war on the Soviet Union and open a second front in the Far East against Russia. Hitler was of course wishful dreaming on his part as the Japanese were primarily interested in the national resources in Southeast Asia and the Dutch East Indies and not another front with the Soviet Union. Earlier in 1939 the Soviet Union and Japan conducted a small conflict inwhich the Japanese forces were crushed. The Soviet Forces were lead by General Later Marshall Georgy Zhukov. These same Soviet forces which crushed the Japanese Army were the same to reenforce the Moscow front and were battle hardened from their fight with the Japanese. Stalin also knew the Japanese were more interested in East Indies then picking another fight with the Soviet Union.

Cheers

--fjruple

[Frederick303]

The US was in an undeclared state of war with Germany already. US ships were escorting vessels to Iceland, which we had occupied and were chasing U-boats by the late summer of 1941. The US was supposed to be sharing radio intercepts and such with the UK, to try and avoid German Wolf packs. In October of 1941 the Germans sunk a US escort.

USS Reuben James (DD-245) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


116 sailors were killed and for a time it seemed it might be the spark that got the US into WWII, but congress was having none of it. The did approve the arming of US merchant vessels with the right to shoot on U boats and allowed US naval vessels to defend themselves, which meant that US escorts could now be part of hunting down U-boats, not just passive defense. Also I think some naval personnel were stationed on US ships to man the guns.

Fact was it was just a matter of time until the US and Germany had another incident, which would have then been the spark for war, much like the January 1917
Unrestricted U-boat warfare declaration and it results was the spark for he US to Enter WWI in April of 1917. That the US was already planning to fight Germany is obvious by the first joint US-British war council, where it was determined the priority of the war would be the ETRO, with around 80~90 % of the effort to be expended there, not the pacific theater (hence the 6 month of pacific defeats, December 1941 to June 1942).

The Germans declared war in December of 1941` because war was inevitable and there was no downside to doing it, and possibly a sling advantage to declaring war for propaganda and getting the Japanese to maintain pressure on Russia (which failed).

[fjruple]

Villiers
Actually the German intelligence services stole the Norden bombsight in the mid to late 1930s. The Germans could not get their copy to work so they sent the German-American worker who stole the plans to Germany to get the German copy to work. I believe the German produce the Norden as the Model 1937 bombsight. The US Army Intelligence services were surprise to say the least when they found an exact copy of the Norden bombsight after the war. It was just one of several pieces of US government classified hardware found.

fjruple

[villiers]

Neither the Norden, nor the Ford factories were bombed. Aerial photography shows heavy damage in the vicinity with these factories carefully excluded.