KG40 & Convoy HX.84 November 1940

[Bruce Dennis]

Originally Posted by Nokose

The fact that Vingaland (2734 GRT) was in a convoy left her open to attack....

Brian, I should have said, (but Nokose did) that a neutral sailing with a beligerent convoy or escort did not have protected status. In practice, it could get complicated if the well-paid neutrals were mixed with ships from one of the combatants, as copmpensation claims were often expensive and strained relationships. The high earnings of trans-Atlantic trade in war materials was a temptation and neutral shipping lines were often 'charmed or bullied' into this profitable trade, as were Swedish (for example) ships which ended up running iron-ore to Germany.

EDIT correcting gibberish