If you need a very quick casus belli, just have a U boat sink the SS America liner after it misidentified a US freighter bound for the UK. 7,500 person capacity, and normal routes from NYC to London.
Add some black Tom like sabotage to some war industries even ones that are basically exporting to the UKOvert interference in the US occupation of Iceland Summer of 1941. Ie: submarine attack/s on US war ship/s executing the occupation.
Multiple incidents of German warships operating inside the Exclusion Zone/Nuetrality Zone.
Sabatoge in Latin America resulting in many deaths, including US citizens.
Instigating one or more bloody coups in Latin America.
The USA actually managed to acquire a map that supposedly laid out German plans to redraw the borders of South America in the post-war world order; it even got publicity from President Roosevelt revealing it to Congress. The Germans furiously denied it and denounced it as a fake.
Thing is, though: that map was fake. It was a forgery fabricated by the British, in an attempt to convince America to join the war on the Allies' side.
How far back can the PoD for this be?What would have been the Zimmerman telegram of WW2?
It seems a rather fast ship for a random U-boat sinking; didn't they mostly target slow-and-simple freighters because they were much easier to sink?If you need a very quick casus belli, just have a U boat sink the SS America liner after it misidentified a US freighter bound for the UK. 7,500 person capacity, and normal routes from NYC to London.
It seems a rather fast ship for a random U-boat sinking; didn't they mostly target slow-and-simple freighters because they were much easier to sink?
SS America could only do 22 knots. 23 on a good day with a clean bottom. A U-Boat in the right position could easily sink her.Looks like the SS America could do 35 knots. The HMS Courageous was at 30 knots, for example, so I'll have to defer to someone with more knowledge of U-Boat capability to say whether that's a wide enough margin to make a difference.
In early 1941, the old US battleships New York and Texas were stationed in the Denmark Strait (between Greenland and Iceland). They alternated patrol stints, switching off every few weeks. The ship going on patrol would depart when the other returned to the US, so there were periods when neither was there.
If one of them had been there in May 1941, when Bismarck entered the North Atlantic via the Denmark Strait... It's at least possible that Bismarck and say Texas could have met at night, and that the encounter could have resulted in an exchange of fire escalating into a full battle at close range. In such a battle, Bismarck would have the advantage, but the American ship could still inflict heavy damage. Bismarck also had a companion, the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, which had torpedoes.
So the US ship could be sunk. I think that would be enough.
Because nations place a lot of emphasis on capital ships. Attacking one, even by accident, has always been considered an act of war.What is to stop that from being resolved as an”oops, mistaken identity” especially since it is surface ship to surface ship and less dastardly than a sub attack?
Because nations place a lot of emphasis on capital ships. Attacking one, even by accident, has always been considered an act of war.