During the early years of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

before the United States became a formal belligerent, President Franklin D. Roosevelt 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 use ...

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 Neutral or neutrality may refer to: Mathematics and natural science Biology * Neutral organisms, in ecology, those that obey the unified neutral theory of biodiversity Chemistry and physics * Neutralization (chemistry), a chemical reaction ...

. 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 between offshore, the signatories would not tolerate belligerent acts. Despite formal complaints in December 1939 to Britain over the action against the Admiral Graf Spee off the River Plate, US implementation of the Zone was clearly to Britain's advantage. From early 1941,

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

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 were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare ro ...

sightings, thus alerting British listeners. The ''

Kriegsmarine The (, ) was the navy of 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 It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic.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 branches, along with th ...

'' (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 let ...

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

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its ...

, a major convoy staging area. Original text of the Panama Declaration and associated documents (including map) can be found at the following link: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/FRUS.FRUS1939v05. Original source: United States Department of State, ''Foreign Relations of the United States diplomatic papers, 1939'', volume V, The American Republics, (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1939), pp. 34-39

References

{{reflist 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