The clash between Congressional isolationists and the Roosevelt Administration was in full view yesterday when Navy officials answered senators’ questions about the new US military presence in Iceland and denied reports that US naval forces had engaged in combat with German vessels.

But leaked, secret Congressional testimony suggests that a US Navy destroyer dropped a depth charge recently against a German submarine which menaced its rescue of survivors from a sunken British ship.

Ed: It will later be learned that the incident in question occurred off the coast of Iceland in April 1941, when the USS Niblack dropped three depth charges against a suspected U-boat as it picked up British sailors in three lifeboats.

The German navy will later say there were no U-boats present in the area at the time, a conclusion which the US Navy will officially accepted.

Yet, the incident will be viewed as the first naval engagement between Germany and the US.

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