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Originally Posted by BigWalleye
I agree, but "frequently" is kind of an open-ended term. Does anybody know of data on how often this actually occurred?
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A typical scenario copied from U-Boat.net:
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At 20.10 hours on 20 Jun, 1941, the unescorted and neutral Ganda was hit near the engine room by one of two torpedoes from U-123 off Casablanca. After the crew abandoned ship, she was hit by a coup de grāce at 20.19 hours. When the ship settled but did not sink, the U-boat surfaced and sank her by gunfire. As the Germans approached the lifeboats for questioning they noticed their mistake of sinking a neutral ship and left. After the patrol the war diary was altered upon order of the BdU.
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Here are some statistics that I have compiled of neutral shipping sunk by German submarines during WWII:
Ireland: 6 ships sunk (14,403 tons).
Portugal: 6 ships sunk (12,495 tons) and 1 ship damaged (1,595 tons).
Spain: 8 ships sunk (14,570 tons) and 1 ship damaged (2,008 tons).
Sweden: 88 ships sunk (273,984 tons) and 1 ship damaged (1,999 tons).
What I haven't included above is ships sunk from neutral countries that were subsequently occupied (like Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Norway etc.) or subsequently joined the allies (Brazil, Mexico, USA etc.) but these countries also suffered losses whist neutral and, for example, Denmark lost 28 ships (63,892 tons) sunk by German submarines in 1939 and early 1940 prior to the occupation.
I would suggest that the numbers justify the term 'frequently' . . .