My first kill ever at 100% realisim

[Henry Wood]

Originally Posted by irish1958

You can never be certain; the general rule is that an enlighten ship in a combat zone is fair game. If lighted and spot-lighting the flag, the ship is considered neutral; if it is a neutral and traveling darkened in a convoy, it is still fair game.

Thanks for that. I do tend to ignore lighted ships/spotlight flags but maybe have spent too much time trying to get in close to confirm a darkened ship is an actual enemy vessel. I think I'll try the "dark ship - let 'em have it!" more in future.

Originally Posted by irish1958

Question: why wouldn't the captain of a belligerent vessel hoist a neutral flag if not in a convoy, if this were effective in preventing an (for the captain) unpleasant outcome for his voyage?

I've read dozens of books about the U-boat war, mainly the Atlantic battles, and don't really recall any of the histories mentioning such a flag subterfuge by an ordinary merchant vessel. In real life I suppose they would also have to have changed the ship's name too if they had any hope of getting away with it. (Many U-boats carried Lloyd's Register which would soon show up a wrong flag on a ship whose name could be read.)