During the early years of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

before the United States became a formal belligerent, President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

declared a region of the Atlantic, adjacent to the Americas, as the Pan-American Security Zone. Within this zone, United States naval ships escorted

convoy A convoy is a group of vehicles, typically motor vehicles or ships, traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support and can help maintain cohesion within a unit. It may also be used ...

s bound for Europe. In practice, this greatly aided the United Kingdom, which was largely dependent upon the Atlantic convoys. The Zone was one of a number of actions taken by the United States that ran counter to its formal state of neutrality. It was set up in October 1939 at US behest by the Declaration of Panama signed by the nations of North and South America. Within the Zone which extended up to offshore, the signatories would not tolerate belligerent acts. Despite formal US complaints in December 1939 to Britain over the Battle of the River Plate between British warships and the German warship ''Admiral Graf Spee'', US implementation of the Zone was clearly to Britain's advantage. From early 1941,

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

convoy escorts eased British and Canadian difficulties by providing escorts; USN ships and aircraft were ordered to broadcast in clear any

U-boat U-boats are Submarine#Military, naval submarines operated by Germany, including during the World War I, First and Second World Wars. The term is an Anglicization#Loanwords, anglicized form of the German word , a shortening of (), though the G ...

sightings, thus alerting British listeners. The ''

Kriegsmarine The (, ) was the navy of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official military branch, branche ...

'' (German navy) resented this "cheating" but they were instructed to avoid hostile acts against US ships so as not to give cause for a declaration of war. On 18 April 1941, Roosevelt extended the Pan-American Security Zone to

longitude Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east- west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek lett ...

26 degrees west, east of New York and just short of

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

, a major convoy staging area.

References

{{reflist

External links

Original text of the Panama Declaration and associated documents (including map)
Battle of the Atlantic American Theater of World War II Caribbean Sea operations of World War II 1939 establishments in North America 1939 establishments in the United States

See also

References

External links