the united states declared war on germany during wwi on december 11, 1941.
the united states declared war on germany during wwi on december 11, 1941.
when did the united states declare war on germany during wwi?
december 11, 1941
on april 6, 1917, germany's policy of unrestricted submarine warfare finally compelled the united states to declare war on germany. the u.s. did not, however, declare war against bulgaria or germany's other allies, since bulgaria did not have submarines and did not directly threaten american interests. the bulgarian prime minister, radoslavov, summoned u.s. consul dominick murphy and assured him that bulgaria was anxious to maintain good relations with the united states. bulgaria and the u.s. were put into the position of being members of different alliances at war with each other, while keeping diplomatic relations.
bulgaria–united states relations
on 20 june 1941, raeder used an incident where an u-boat had almost fired on an american battleship the day before to argue that the "kriegsmarine" should be given the right to fire on sight whenever american warships were encountered. raeder told hitler that "where the united states is concerned firm measures are always more effective than apparent yielding". hitler gave raeder strict orders for no "incidents" with the united states until the war with the soviet union was over. in july 1941, when the u.s marines took over the occupation of iceland, raeder advised hitler that germany should declare war on the united states as a reply. on 9 july 1941, during a meeting with hitler, raeder said he had enough of the americans, and after this latest act of american "aggression" as he called the occupation of iceland, demanded that germany declare war on the united states. though hitler rejected raeder's advice, raeder spent the entire second half of 1941 persistently pressing for germany to go to war with the united states. hitler was sympathetic to raeder's anti-american fulminations, but said that the war with the soviet union would have to be finished before taking on the united states. in september 1941, raeder and the u-boat commander karl dönitz presented hitler with plans for an all-out u-boat offensive intended to destroy both the united states navy and merchant marine. raeder took the view that because of the increasing number of naval "incidents" in the second half of 1941 between u-boats and us ships guarding convoys to britain, the best thing to do was to declare war on america in order to end all of the restrictions on fighting the u.s. navy. murray and millet wrote that raeder's views on the desirability of starting a war with the united states were "astonishing" because neither he nor anybody else in the "seekriegsleitung" saw fit during july–december 1941 to commission studies on what would be the strategic consequences of war with the united states. on 17 september 1941, raeder told hitler that he believed that it was only american support that allowed britain to continue the war and that the "kriegsmarine" could defeat the united states navy if only hitler would just give the necessary shoot-on-sight orders. once the "kriegsmarine" had control over the atlantic then britain would collapse. hitler replied that he wanted no "incidents" with the americans, but he expected the war with the soviet union would be over by the end of september, and at the middle of october he would decide whatever to give permission to the "kriegsmarine" to sink american warships-a step equivalent to declaring war on the united states.
erich raeder during world war ii