Neutral Shipping

[GJO]

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?

A typical scenario copied from U-Boat.net:

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 grâce 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.

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' . . .

[BigWalleye]

Originally Posted by GJO

I would suggest that the numbers justify the term 'frequently' . . .

Absolutely. I am in no way disputing that. I was hoping for a more quantitative indication. It would be nice to know percentage of total ships or total tonnage sunk. I'd like a way to judge my own performance. If I sink one neutral every ten ships, am I being too cautious? Too aggressive? SH3 doesn't provide any feedback from BdU, such as a real sub commander would receive. I can booger the renown numbers to do whatever suits me, but that doesn't tell me how much (or how little) flak I would have gotten from The Boss for my performance. I imagine the data are all out there, but I haven't found a site that neatly consolidates them. And I'd rather not do the tabulations myself. ( Just laziness, but I'd rather be on patrol.) Anybody have a reference?

[Karnivor]

Hi all! November 39, i was hit a few british ships but after save (in menu before quit) i saw sunk ships in neutral row. Why? Im playing with GWX 3 mod.

[Jimbuna]

There are neutrals scripted into the early convoys.

[Karnivor]

well... but they was single targets

[ReallyDedPoet]

Welcome to SUBSIM Karnivor

[Karnivor]

thank you for your kindness