Original U.S. Navy cable dispatch issued to the U.S.S. Biscayne from Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, one page, 8 x 6.5, dated December 11, 1941, with message text: “GERMANY HAS DECLARED WAR ON THE UNITED STATES.” On December 11, 1941, four days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States' declaration of war against Japan, Nazi Germany declared war against the United States, forcing America, which had been neutral, into the European theatre of WWII. In fine condition.
At the time of this telegram, the U.S. Navy was officially neutral, but was already attacking German U-boats in the Atlantic. On Thursday, December 11, 1941, American Chargé d'Affaires Leland B. Morris, the highest-ranking American diplomat in Germany, was summoned to Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop's office, where Ribbentrop read Morris the formal declaration of war. The meeting lasted three minutes, from 2:18 to 2:21 p.m. (Berlin time). At 3:30 p.m. (Berlin time) on December 11, 1941, the German charge d’affaires in Washington handed American Secretary of State Cordell Hull a copy of the declaration of war. Roosevelt wrote to Congress on that same day, asking them to declare war on Germany and Italy. The motion passed through both houses without dissent, and the declaration was signed by Roosevelt at 3:00 p.m. This original US NAVY cable dispatch is from the day of the declaration itself and has a Time stamp of 1451 GCT (2:51 p.m. - Greenwich Civil Time).
Hitler's declaration of war against the United States is generally seen as an enormous strategic blunder on his part, as it allowed the United States to enter the European war in support of the United Kingdom and the Allies without much public opposition, while still facing the Japanese threat in the Pacific. Hitler had committed Germany to fight the U.S. while in a war against Russia, and without having first defeated the UK. Hitler's lack of knowledge about the U.S. and its industrial capacity for mounting a war on two fronts probably led him to this fatal decision.
