Those of you who are interested might check out the URL www.uboat.net/boats/u552.htm for info on U-552 and her CO, Erich Topp, who sank the Reuben James. The Uboat.net website is a very well done site on WWII U-boats in general, and I am now in the process of writing an article for submission to it, on the Reuben James and the other US vessels that were involved in the U-boat war prior to Pearl Harbor. There were two other ships that were attacked -- USS Greer in September 1941 and USS Kearny on October 17, which lost 11 men killed. The whole system had to do with the US occupation of Iceland, which 'just happened' to be smack in the middle of the convoy routes. The US Navy volunteered to do some unofficial escorting and this was the unfortunate result. Sadly, no one in the States noticed the incidents. They also didn't notice the 'other' first US vessel to be sunk in the war, USS Panay in the Yangtze River in 1937 by Japanese air attack.

Jennifer