The USS Kearny Incident October 1941
USS Kearny was one of several United States destroyers based at Iceland in the fall of 1941, under orders since the Greer incident to shoot on sight any German vessels. By that time US destroyers were escorting convoys from east coast ports to Iceland, where the British or Canadians then took over their protection. US Navy patrol planes were also being used when within range to protect the convoys bound for the United Kingdom. USS Kearny was a fully modern American destroyer; in the fall of 1941 Kearny was just over one year old.
Kearny had completed three convoys between Iceland and Newfoundland and was in Iceland, having arrived there only three days earlier, when a British convoy was attacked by a group of German submarines which the convoy’s Canadian escorts had been unable to contain. Four American destroyers at Reykjavik, including Kearny, were sent to provide assistance and seek out and destroy the German wolfpack. Upon arrival at the scene the American destroyers began depth charge attacks on the U-boats.
Kearny continued to search for and attack submerged targets through the early and late evening hours. Shortly after midnight in the early hours of October 17 a submarine fired a torpedo which approached the destroyer on its starboard side. Kearny was unable to evade and the torpedo struck the destroyer nearly amidships, blasting a large hole in its hull and flooding the compartment housing the forward fire room. The crew demonstrated their proficiency in damage control procedures and controlled the flooding to the single compartment.
Kearny managed to steam back to Reykjavik under its own power, and there the crew and support personnel conducted temporary repairs to the ship. Extensive hull patches and machinery repair in the forward engine room were necessary due to the harsh nature of the North Atlantic during the winter months, and permanent repair facilities were not available in Iceland. Eleven of Kearny’s crew were killed in the attack by the German U-boat, and another 22 were injured. Whether any German U-boats were lost in the engagement is unknown.
Kearny finally departed Iceland for Boston and permanent repairs late in 1941, with the United States by then officially at war with the Germans. It was the second shooting incident between the United States Navy and the German Navy to have occurred prior to the declaration of war by the Germans on the United States. Kearny survived the war, serving throughout in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. The ship’s only sustained battle damage was that which occurred before the war was declared.