November 14, 1943: FDR Is Almost Killed By "Friendly Fire"

November 14, 1943: The U.S. Navy destroyer USS William D. Porter, DD-579, inadvertently fires an armed torpedo at the battleship USS Iowa.

"If this wasn't bad enough," author Kermit Bonner would note later, "the Iowa was carrying President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Secretary of State Cordell Hull and all of the country's World War II military brass." They were on their way to the Tehran Conference, where FDR was to meet with Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Great Britain, and, for the first time, with Premier Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union.

The Iowa and its escort -- consisting of the destroyers Porter, USS Cogswell (DD-651) and USS Young (DD-580) -- were 50 miles east of Bermuda, and a demonstration of torpedo accuracy and range was being performed for the Commander-in-Chief. Torpedoman Lawton Dawson had failed to remove the explosive primer from torpedo tube three, a prerequisite for target practice. In other words, the torpedo was supposed to be launched, but it was also supposed to be a dud, incapable of doing serious damage to the hull of a battleship.

As soon as the torpedo was launched, it made the unique sound of an armed weapon, which was speeding directly toward the Iowa. The radioman on board the W.D. Porter was able to signal the Iowa to turn right to evade the approaching bomb in time. Miraculously, this proved unnecessary, as the Iowa’s high-speed wake detonated the torpedo at a distance that reports put at between 100 and 1,000 yards.

The entire crew of the W.D. Porter was placed under arrest, and held at Bermuda. Although Dawson would be sentenced to 14 years of hard labor, Roosevelt intervened and asked that he not be punished for the accident.

Writing in his personal logbook that evening, Roosevelt noted that "Had that torpedo hit the Iowa in the right spot with her passenger list of distinguished statesmen, military, naval, and aerial strategists and planners, it could have had untold effect on the outcome of the war and the destiny of the country."

For one thing, Vice President Henry A. Wallace would have become the 33rd President of the United States, and he was far more conciliatory toward the Soviet Union than the man who eventually did succeed FDR, Harry Truman. So even if the Allies did still manage to win the war, the postwar world would have looked very different.

Under the Presidential Succession Act of 1886 (superseded by a new one in 1947), next in the line of succession was the Secretary of State. With Hull dead, it would have moved to the Secretary of the Treasury. This means that, given that the Vice Presidency would have remained vacant until the next Inauguration Day, had something happened to Wallace before Congress could approve a new Secretary of State, the 34th President of the United States would have been Henry Morgenthau Jr. -- a Jewish President. A Jew would have commanded the greatest military force the world had ever known. Had he found that out, Adolf Hitler might have avoided all the trouble, and killed himself immediately.

Just 2 days before this incident, with Lieutenant Commander Wilfred A. Walter in charge of an especially inexperienced crew, the Porter, nicknamed the Willie Dee, committed its first mistake before the trip had really begun. As it was leaving the harbor in Norfolk, Virginia, the Fletcher-class destroyer’s anchor made contact with another ship, and inflicted significant damage. The Willie Dee emerged unscathed, though.

Shortly thereafter, an explosion shook the small fleet of which the Porter was a part. All of the ships immediately began anti-submarine maneuvering. The chaos continued until someone figured out what had happened: A depth charge had fallen off the stern of the ship. The safety on the charge had mistakenly not been set, and when it crashed into the rough sea, it detonated. Soon after that, a huge wave smashed into the Porter, stripping it of everything that wasn't tied down. A man was knocked overboard, and his body was never found.

After nearly killing its commander-in-chief with "friendly fire," the Porter was reassigned to the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. While there, someone on board accidentally shot a 5-inch artillery shell, which landed in the front yard of the base's commandant.

The ship was assigned to Okinawa, and, in the battle, it shot down several Japanese aircraft -- and 3 American planes. On June 10, 1945, the USS William D. Porter was put out of its misery, when a kamikaze plane exploded and sank it. For once, luck was with the crew: They all survived.

Lt. Commander Walter remained in command of the Porter through May 30, 1944. He later retired as a Rear Admiral, and lived until 1996. Lawton Dawson wasn't so lucky, only living until 1968, age 50. 

William D. Porter was a U.S. Navy Commodore who commanded ships in the American Civil War, before dying of heart disease in 1864. Due to its bad luck, DD-579 remains the only ship named for him.

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November 14, 1943 was a Sunday. This was the same day that Leonard Bernstein first conducted the New York Philharmonic. I have a separate entry for that event.

These games were played in the NFL:

* The New York Giants lost to the Chicago Bears, 56-7 at the Polo Grounds. This was an outlier: Although the Bears did go on to win the NFL Championship, the Giants were not a bad team that season, going 6-3-1.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the combined Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers team that was known as the "Steagles," 13-7 at Ebbets Field.

* The Washington Redskins beat the Detroit Lions, 42-20 at Griffith Stadium in Washington.

* And the Green Bay Packers beat the Chicago Cardinals, 35-14 at the Dairy Bowl in the Milwaukee suburb of West Allis, Wisconsin. The Dairy Bowl was a football stadium built in the infield of a speedway, now known as the Milwaukee Mile, at the Wisconsin State Fair Park.

Baseball was out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. There were 2 games played in the NHL. The New York Rangers lost to the Chicago Black Hawks, 10-5 at the Chicago Stadium. Bill Gooden scored 2 goals for the Rangers. For the Hawks, Cully Dahlstrom scored 3 goals and 2 assists. And the Montreal Canadiens beat the Detroit Red Wings, 2-0 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit. The Boston Bruins and the Toronto Maple Leafs were not scheduled.