SsgtC
Banned
Agreed. I think we sometimes forget that in the days before cell phone cameras, 24 hr news cycles and the internet, it was almost ridiculously easy to cover things up. With King having told the fleet that, there would be almost no way to prove a Captain a liar if he said the German ship fired on him first and all he did was return fire and defend his ship.I think US and German battleships getting in a gunfight might change that. Depending on where the Germans operate and how close they get to US forces, it could happen. In the summer of 1941 before FDR issued the shoot on sight order in 11 September, King told his captains that if they encountered a German ship or submarine, they were to take whatever action they felt necessary and their chain of command would back them up.