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Originally Posted by Dau-U-42
Speaking of mistakes and 'mistakes,' how frequent were these? If you look at statistics, like Uboat.net's today section, you'll encounter sunk neutral ships from as early as early 1939. The submarine warfare wasn't unrestricted, so these must have been mistakes or 'mistakes,' but which ones were they?
Also in SHIII don't I get a renown punish for sinking neutrals? |
In the first few months of the war, U-boat skippers were quite careful which ships were sunk. Lemp's sinking of the Athenia on the first day resulted in quite a stink in world opinion and skippers were again cautioned by BdU on theor specific orders.
Neutrals were stopped, papers checked and sunk if found to be carrying contraband to a British port. Once a war zone was declared around the UK, all ships were subject to sinking without warning (unrestricted u-boat warfare).
However, up until late 1941, u-boat skippers were cautioned about attacking US warships and merchant ships, in or outside of convoys. Hitler did not want to give the US an excuse to enter the war. There were several cases of US merchants being sunk prior to December 11, 1941 but they were thought to be in disguise or carrying contraband. Several US warships were attacked because u-boat scippers thought they were under attack from the warship. The first US warship to be sunk prior to December 11, 1941 was the Rueben James. However, even this did not bring the US into war until the attack on Pearl Harbor when the US declared war on Japan, then on Dec. 11th Hitler declared war on the US. This pretty much made all shipping targets except some neutrals like Spain, etc.
Yes, SH3 does punish you for sinking neutrals by a reduction in renown.