Are passenger/cargo ships viable targets?

f4wildweasel · 07-18-11, 01:00 PM

The first British ship lost in WWII was the SS Athenia, a passenger liner torpedoed by U-30 on 3 September 1939. 117 people, including 28 Americans, died in the sinking. Immediately afterwards, FdU ordered all U-boats to not attack passenger ships in any way, as to avoid another Lusitania incident. The captain of U-30 was ordered to Berlin to report on what happened, and it was decided to cover up the attack, denying it was a U-boat and altering U-30's patrol logs to hide this (it was later clarified in the Nuremburg War trials).

Long story short, if you want to be historically accurate, you would avoid attacking anything that looked like a passenger ship in the early war. Later on, once you start seeing cannons being put on these guys and the likelihood that they're carrying military personnel increases, maybe you want to attack them (or maybe not, it's always the commander's decision). Of course, hospital ships are right out. GWX will have you lined up and shot if you torpedo one of those!

07-18-11, 01:00 PM	#6
f4wildweasel Seaman Join Date: May 2010 Posts: 40 Downloads: 48 Uploads: 0	The first British ship lost in WWII was the SS Athenia, a passenger liner torpedoed by U-30 on 3 September 1939. 117 people, including 28 Americans, died in the sinking. Immediately afterwards, FdU ordered all U-boats to not attack passenger ships in any way, as to avoid another Lusitania incident. The captain of U-30 was ordered to Berlin to report on what happened, and it was decided to cover up the attack, denying it was a U-boat and altering U-30's patrol logs to hide this (it was later clarified in the Nuremburg War trials). Long story short, if you want to be historically accurate, you would avoid attacking anything that looked like a passenger ship in the early war. Later on, once you start seeing cannons being put on these guys and the likelihood that they're carrying military personnel increases, maybe you want to attack them (or maybe not, it's always the commander's decision). Of course, hospital ships are right out. GWX will have you lined up and shot if you torpedo one of those!