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On September 4, 1941, The USS Greer was the first United States ship fired upon by a German submarine in the war, even though the United States is a neutral power. On October 31, 1941 The destroyer USS Reuben James was torpedoed by a German U-boat near Iceland, killing more than 100 United States Navy sailors.

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16y ago
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13y ago

Hi, Andre. This may help. To the best of my knowledge, the first naval vessel lost to enemy action during WWII was the oiler USS Naches (AO-5). She was sunk by a Japanese sub off the Hawaiian Islands on 1/23/42. The first warship lost to enemy action after war was declared, at least in the Atlantic, was the Coast Guard Cutter Alexander Hamilton (WPG-34). She was sunk by a German sub off the coast of Iceland on 1/29/42. Two websites you might find interesting are: www.jacksjoint.com/the_last-mission_of_the_alexander_hamilton. htm and www.ibiblio.org/pha/chr/chrface. HTML. Best Regards, Paul Pontoski

AnswerDepending on who is "the enemy" in your question ,the 1st naval vessel sunk in WW11 was the German submarine U-39,sunk Sept.14th 1939 by the British Royal Navy, but then came the the sinking of the aircraft carrier H.M.S.Courageous with a loss of 518 lives, Sept.17th only 2 weeks into the war, declared on Sept. 3rd by Neville Chamberlain. AnswerThe first was Polish ORP "Mazur" sunk by German bombers in the port of Gdynia on 1 September 1939 at 2 PM. AnswerI Agree to the last answer.There is no doubt, the first ship that sunk during the WW 2 was the Polish "Mazur" sunk in the port of Gdynia on 1 September 1939 during the German operation against Poland.The ship went down with 40 souls..
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11y ago

The first naval battle of WW2 was the Battle of the River Plate in December 1939 in the South Atlantic. This was between the German "pocket battleship" Admiral Graf Spee and 3 British cruisers Exeter, Ajax and Achilles.

The Graf Spee had been sinking merchant ships in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans since September 1939, (without any loss of life). Due to a radio signal from the last vessel sunk off South Africa, the Commodore in command of the British cruisers postulated that the Graf Spee could be heading for the busy waters off the River Plate between Argentina and Uruguay.

The two opposing sides sighted each other on 13th December and the Exeter was soon badly damaged but not before she damaged the German vessel, making it impossible to return home on her available fuel without complex repairs.

Graf Spee headed for Montevideo, (a neutral port), while being harried by the 2 smaller cruisers and entered around midnight.

Due to political reasons the Graf Spee was not allowed to leave until 17th December and as she still had some damage and reduced ammunition supply, with a possibly reinforced enemy waiting, it was decided to scuttle her just outside the port. The crew was allowed to transfer to Argentina where their captain committed suicide 2 days later.

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Q: What was the first naval battle of World War 2?
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