|
Determining when the first engagement of neutral United States in World War II before the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred depends on the scholar and if such actions led to formal entry of the United States into the conflict. ==Attacks on Americans== * On 22 February 1932, 2nd Lt Robert McCawley Short was delivering armed Chinese Air Force biplanes when he engaged twice in armed dogfights with IJN airplanes over Shanghai, China; Short was killed in action and given a posthumous rank of Colonel in the Chinese Air Force.〔(Robert Short at Find A Grave )〕 * The attack on the United States gunboat on 12 December 1937 by Japanese forces in China (usually referred to as the Panay incident) could be considered as the first hostile American action during World War II. Two U.S. Navy crewmen and two civilians were killed; 43 Navy crewmen and five civilians were wounded. Although the war was not officially declared in Europe until Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, Japan had been involved in military actions against China since 1931. * On 26 January 1938, in what was known as the Allison incident, John M. Allison, at the time consul at the American embassy in Nanking, was struck in the face by a Japanese soldier. Even though the Japanese apologized formally on 30 January (after the Americans demanded they do so), this incident, together with the looting of American property in Nanking that took place at the same time, further strained relations between Japan and the United States, which had already been damaged by the Panay incident less than two months earlier. * The first American military death in the European Theatre occurred on 21 April 1940, during the German invasion of Norway.〔J. Michael Cleverley, ("'The First American Official Killed In This War'" ), ''Foreign Service Journal'', December 2003 at 66.〕 Military attaché Captain Robert M. Losey was killed during a German bombardment of Dombås while assisting with the evacuation of U.S. embassy personnel and others to Sweden.〔 * Either the casualties inflicted on by German U-boat ''U-568'' on 17 October 1941 (11 KIA)〔(U-boat.net )〕 or the sinking of the by ''U-552'' on 31 October 1941, (115 KIA)〔(U-boat.net )〕 might be considered the first American naval losses of World War II. The United States was neither officially involved in the war at the time nor did the incidents cause them to declare war. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「First engagement of neutral United States in World War II before the attack on Pearl Harbor」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|