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N0KFQ > TODAY 08.05.12 00:38l 69 Lines 3319 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 22060_KB0WSA
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Subj: Today in History - May 7
Path: IZ3LSV<IW0QNL<JH4XSY<JE7YGF<N9PMO<N0KFQ<KB0WSA
Sent: 120507/2320Z 22060@KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.49
May 7, 1915:
Lusitania sinks
On the afternoon of May 7, 1915, the British ocean liner
Lusitania is torpedoed without warning by a German submarine off
the south coast of Ireland. Within 20 minutes, the vessel sank
into the Celtic Sea. Of 1,959 passengers and crew, 1,198 people
were drowned, including 128 Americans. The attack aroused
considerable indignation in the United States, but Germany
defended the action, noting that it had issued warnings of its
intent to attack all ships, neutral or otherwise, that entered
the war zone around Britain.
When World War I erupted in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson
pledged neutrality for the United States, a position that the
vast majority of Americans favored. Britain, however, was one of
America's closest trading partners, and tension soon arose
between the United States and Germany over the latter's attempted
quarantine of the British isles. Several U.S. ships traveling to
Britain were damaged or sunk by German mines, and in February
1915 Germany announced unrestricted submarine warfare in the
waters around Britain.
In early May 1915, several New York newspapers published a
warning by the German embassy in Washington that Americans
traveling on British or Allied ships in war zones did so at their
own risk. The announcement was placed on the same page as an
advertisement of the imminent sailing of the Lusitania liner from
New York back to Liverpool. The sinkings of merchant ships off
the south coast of Ireland prompted the British Admiralty to warn
the Lusitania to avoid the area or take simple evasive action,
such as zigzagging to confuse U-boats plotting the vessel's
course. The captain of the Lusitania ignored these
recommendations, and at 2:12 p.m. on May 7 the 32,000-ton ship
was hit by an exploding torpedo on its starboard side. The
torpedo blast was followed by a larger explosion, probably of the
ship's boilers, and the ship sunk in 20 minutes.
It was revealed that the Lusitania was carrying about 173 tons of
war munitions for Britain, which the Germans cited as further
justification for the attack. The United States eventually sent
three notes to Berlin protesting the action, and Germany
apologized and pledged to end unrestricted submarine warfare. In
November, however, a U-boat sunk an Italian liner without
warning, killing 272 people, including 27 Americans. Public
opinion in the United States began to turn irrevocably against
Germany.
On January 31, 1917, Germany, determined to win its war of
attrition against the Allies, announced that it would resume
unrestricted warfare in war-zone waters. Three days later, the
United States broke diplomatic relations with Germany, and just
hours after that the American liner Housatonic was sunk by a
German U-boat. On February 22, Congress passed a $250 million
arms appropriations bill intended to make the United States ready
for war. In late March, Germany sunk four more U.S. merchant
ships, and on April 2 President Wilson appeared before Congress
and called for a declaration of war against Germany. On April 4,
the Senate voted to declare war against Germany, and two days
later the House of Representatives endorsed the declaration. With
that, America entered World War I.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: n0kfq@winlink.org
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