Neutrals are supposed to be NEUTRAL
 

It was November 1941. I was patrolling the North Atlantic when I came across a nice, slow whale factory ship. Full blackout, and a rather nasty looking deck gun mounted aft. So I sank her. Went to external cam.

American flag.

Did a little research and found out that American ships did indeed start arming themselves in early November.

And also, a few months earlier, I came across an American microconvoy. There was a lit large tanker followed by a tramp steamer. The tanker didn't care, but the tramp steamer appeared to be taking evasive maneuvers. I came quite close, so there's no way the big guy didn't see me.

Has anyone else come across stuff like this?

Neutral = Neutral
 

As you aware, American join the war in 1942, so yes when you torp a yank in 1941 considered neutral...

you second statement, it happens me close to Canarian Island..
A tanker and a small merchant together, the small merchant protect the tanker.. i took them both out with deckgun at range 2500, merchant first because he had the deckgun... and always keep the best at last, the tanker, nice fire-works :P

You meant, of course, that they entered the war in 1941, December 11/12

Standing orders from BDU were that any unlit or armed ship in the blockade zone may be sunk without confirmation of flag.

I edited my renown so I wouldnt get penalized (nor rewarded) for hitting a neutral.

Just happened to me. I found two ships, a small cargo ship and a small tanker, traveling at night without lights. I put one on the bottom, only to discover it was neutral. I got dinged on Renown pointss.

Yes at night or in poor visibility conditions, could easily something like that happen, :yep:

Any truly Neutral ship steaming through a war zone with it's flag darkened deserves what it gets. Masquerading as a belligerent is not a wise decision.

Sorry for her crew. If I was commanding the sub that sank her, I think I'd have a look through the life boats for her captain - just to make sure he went down with his ship.

While standing orders were to sink neutrals acting as belligerents (sailing blacked out in war zones) you still would have been called on the carpet and reprimanded for sinking an American ship. At this point, Hitler was trying to avoid confrontation with the U.S. at all costs. Of course the U.S. took advantage of that fact, but still.

Best solution to the problem I've seen is to edit the basic.cfg so that sinking neutrals does nothing, ie. neutral=0 During Drumbeat several Brazilian ships were sunk in American waters by u-boats - they were all blackened out. It was an enforced policy that ships travelling in certain areas were required to be blacked out, regardless of their position (Axis, Allied or Neutral) in the war.

There can be neutral ships intermixed with large convoys, to take the time to inspect the ships for their flags was unreasonable if there were travelling in one of the Allied convoy lanes. Sinking a neutral ship was never a good idea and not something any ever did deliberately, and most captain only did it once; but they didn't get court marshalled over it.

I will definetanetaly sink a neutral sailing in a convoy. She is escorted by enemy warships so she is considered enemy. Also a darkened ship can not be identified as neutral or not so if the tonnage is good I will attack. Of course I have changed the basic.cfg to avoid renown penalty.

I have an other question now: Suppose you trail a ship and you find out that she is a hospital ship with all lights on , and as soon you break off you are attacked by enemy fighters. Besides hitting the aircrafts or crash diving will fire upon the hospital ship? I know that in the game they are considered strictry neutral (Red cross) but in RL they were Navy aux sometimes they were even armed.

Agreed.

IIRC the Germans were almost as suprised as us(USA) when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.

Good old Wikipedia to the rescue...

That has happened to me on many an occasion. Just because a ship is unlit at night, does not mean its neutral:damn:

Whoops, I did mean 1941. Now it's 1942, so all dark ships are fair game.

That big 5-inch gun looked threatening. So of course I sank her! And now I'm editing my ini to say neutrals are neutral points. There.

And attacking or sinking a hospital ship is one of the biggest jerk moves you can pull off, in my books. But they sound so much like ocean liners on the froo froo...

[QUOTE]And attacking or sinking a hospital ship is one of the biggest jerk moves you can pull off, in my books.[/QUOTE

If you sink one (even mistakenly), its career over:yep:.