If you're looking for realism, no, you should not be sinking anything prior to the start of hostilities - 9/1 for Poland, 9/3 for England and France.
In terms of how the game awards/deducts renown, every ship is a neutral ship in August 1939, so if you sink any ship in August it will count against you and you will lose renown for it. In addition, by sinking a neutral ship you will have started your own private war with someone whose forces will then attack you on sight for the following 24 hours of game time. It works that way with all neutral shipping for the duration of the war.
And just so you know, if you ever start a GWX3 career from Konigsberg in August 1939, you will get orders to go on a 4-5 day shakedown cruise AND use the ships in the bay for target practice. You can do that if you want, but if you sink them you will still lose renown and be subject to retaliation if you get too close to another armed ship or the weapons of the naval bases in that area. GWX gives you extra renown at the start of a career in that flotilla (the 7th IIRC) to make up for what you lose if you sink anything before the war starts, and the expectation is that you will teleport back to base when the orders come through to return and thus not have to worry about getting attacked if you try to sail all the way back to base instead.
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