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Post by MarshalLaw on May 8, 2005 2:21:34 GMT
October 1940
Got transfered to St. Nazierne from Kiel. The dreaded Null patrol. Decided to go through the channel instead of going around. I read a thread that said to be real careful. So I timed my passage at night , first contact on the surface I dove to 20 m and went to silent running. HOLY CRAP , at one point I counted 9 warship contacts!!!! If I had been detected it would have been all over, with 7-9 warships pinging you and only being able to dive a max of 45 meters or so it would have been certain death.
If at all possible avoid this area. If you must go through, time it like I did and hope you don't get detected. I assume as the years progress this area grows in danger. No Battleships , just DD"s and armed trawlers is all I saw.
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Post by con20or on May 8, 2005 13:15:31 GMT
nothing would persuade me to go through the channel. Unless i was about to run out of fuel and had to make home base. i always go around.
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Lane
Full Member
Posts: 168
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Post by Lane on May 9, 2005 3:20:23 GMT
Yes that would be like trying to go thru Gibraltar.  I have been near there and you could hear the water churring with warship screws. I bet they would be all over you if you try to go thru area. Like in Das Boot Never try the channel yet I pass thru there with SH2 no problems but SH3 don't think so. ;D Lane |
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Post by Komradsky on May 9, 2005 12:56:50 GMT
on my ninth patrol, i was assigned to patrol grid bf12, just southwest of england. at this time i was still based off kiel, but was ordered to transfer to st. nazaire when i left port. the closest route would be to pass the english channel, but which is also known to be swarming with u-boat killers. but i still took the route though.
on my entry into the narrow and very shallow channel, i had to sink the destroyers when they were getting dangerously close to my boat. it's me or them! as soon as one goes up in flames, others would converge on the area. i sunk them too and went on. when there were no contacts, i surfaced my boat to recharge and so i can travel a lot faster. it was night time, by the way, so i think there was no real threat from the raf.
but taking that dangerous route paid off with one big bonus! as i was cruising along the channel, hours later i found myself tailing a large merchant convoy heading for the atlantic! so i chased them and annihialated them! only one small merchant survived but burning, because i was out of torpedoes and shells. i even used my twin 20mm to try to sink it!
but that bonus had a price too. it was a bright sunny day, and with no waves. before i could even get to the convoys, i had to fight my way against the escorts and the responding patrols in the area. that left me only 4 torpedoes to use against the merchant convoy!
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Post by con20or on May 9, 2005 14:02:17 GMT
how many escorts did you kill in that patrol in total?
If you are using full realism and manual targeting,i take my hat off to you!!
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Post by Komradsky on May 10, 2005 10:43:05 GMT
i sunk three patrolling dd's south of dover. the first was a lone patrol. the third responded after i sunk the second.
i sunk another lone dd the night before i spotted the convoy.
the convoy attack: that convoy only had one escort dd. i don't think the two armed trawlers were part of the escort though. there were also two patrolling dd's nearby south of portsmouth where the convoy passed. the last dd i sunk was damaged by repeated bomber attacks. i just finished her off. i missed three torpedo attacks during this entire convoy encounter coz the warships were able to evade my torpedoes after they detected the wake!
correction: that was two torpedoes left, not four.
i sunk an elco torpedo boat just south of portland. i used my twin 20mm manually to blow it up in flames. the cannon sounds were just great coz i was using an incognito sh3 sound pack.
no, i'm not using full realism. where's the fun in firing torpedoes when they won't explode? i'm not using manual targetting either. my u-boat is not a one-man crew boat!
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Post by Dominico Baggio on May 10, 2005 13:27:32 GMT
The channel is not as narrow as gibralter luckily, but its still a bit crazy to go through there.
Early war also, if you see a destroyer at night, you should not dive, you should just keep him at that range and go around him. Diving suddenly makes you much easier to spot. Pre small mm radar going through the channel its best to stay surfaced as much as poss.
Early war i have done it a few times on the surface, once through the narrow part you actually have a lot of room to manouver. Also if you look carefully on the map there is a slight trench in the english channel where it is a bit deeper, sometimes sailing over this is usefull incase you have to dive, but you are right lol, i usually go round.
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