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Caribbean Islands World War II
At the outbreak of World War II, the United States assumed
Britain's defense responsibilities in the Caribbean. In September
1940, the two countries agreed to the Lend-Lease Agreement (also
called the Bases-for-Destroyers Agreement). It involved the loan of
forty out-of-date American destroyers in return for leasing, rent
free for ninety-nine years, British naval and air bases on five
British West Indian islands--the Bahamas, Jamaica, Antigua, St.
Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago--as well as British Guiana, Bermuda,
and Newfoundland. The Lend-Lease Agreement was signed formally in
London on March 27, 1941. Under its terms, the United States
established eleven military bases in the area (and in Bermuda) and
quickly transformed five British colonies in the West Indies into
outposts of Caribbean defense for use against German submarine
warfare. After President Franklin D. Roosevelt designated the
Caribbean as a coastal frontier, the Eastern Caribbean became the
forward edge of American defense strategy during the war. American
strategists at that time referred to the West Indies as "the
bulwark that we watch."
The strategic significance of the Caribbean became evident
during the war. More than 50 percent of the supplies sent to Europe
and Africa from the United States were shipped from ports in the
Gulf of Mexico. One year after the Pearl Harbor attack, the United
States Caribbean Defense Command reached a total of 119,000
personnel, half of them stationed in Panama to protect the canal
from Japanese attack. Although the expected Japanese attack did not
come, the Germans inflicted massive damage on shipping in the
Caribbean in 1942. German submarines even slipped into the region's
small harbors to shell shore targets and to sink cargo ships at
anchor. By the end of the year, U-boats operating in the Caribbean
had sunk 336 ships, at least half of which were oil tankers, with
a total weight of 1.5 million tons.
Data as of November 1987
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