chuck731, please explain "to copenhagen the US fleet"; were you referring to ??
No, Copenhagen also refers to an earlier Battle of Copenhagen in 1801, when a British fleet under Admirals Parker and Nelson attacked and severely damaged the unprepared Danish fleet at anchor in Copenhagen without declaring war in order to prevent the Danish fleet from joining a league of Baltic naval powers attempting to pool their resources to protect their trades with France from British naval interference. After that event the practice of attacking the enemy fleet in port, not necessarily unprovokedly, but before formal onset of hostility, became commonly known as "to copenhagen".
The second battle of Copenhagen in 1807 was an altogether more odious event when the British launched a lengthy and massive bombardment of the city of Copenhagen using artillery as well as incendiary rockets, also without declaration of war, causing huge civilian casualties, to induce the Danes to give up what remains of their fleet. The practice of seizing the defeated power's fleet also became known as to Copenhagen. The British at the time claimed to hold the fleet only in safe keeping to prevent it from falling into the hands of French, and promised to return it to the Danes when the danger has passed, which of course they never did.
Pearl Harbor was certainly the most spectacular instance of the first kind of copenhagening since the Napoleonic wars. The US fleet copenhagened what there is of the Iranian Navy in 1988, The Japanese also tried to copenhagen the Russian fleet before the onset of Russo-Japanese war. A main strategic concern for the German Navy before WWI, now seem paranoid, was the possibility that the Royal Navy would suddenly copenhagen the High Sea fleet in time of peace.
The treaty of Versaille, which sought to enable the victorious allied power to seize and divide up the German High Sea fleet, is probably the most spectacular instance of the second kind of Copenhagening.
Last edited: