Getting through the English Channel

[Blacklight]

Through many efforts going between England and France heading for the Atlantic, I have discovered quite to my and my crew's dismay that the area is FULL of mines and we usually end up strapping on our water wings very fast (The ones with little duckies on them. The duckies help us float better). Is there a mostly safe way to cross through that area where the chance of hitting a mine is less ? I hate having to constantly go all the way around north of Great Britain and then into the Atlantic. It takes forever to get to some mission areas that way and the trip eats up fuel like mad.

[mookiemookie]

We have a little saying around here:

STAY AWAY FROM THE ENGLISH CHANNEL

If you're going to try it, the only way I could see you making it would be to hug the coast of France and pray that no trawlers spot you. You're in shallow waters there and most likely wouldn't have any room to dive. Attempting to go through the middle of the Channel is suicide with the mines and the DDs and the Elcos and the airplanes.

[Swooth]

Geez and I went through there once without a scratch, now I just feel lucky

[Jmack]

so i guess you're not using GW ? right ?

[VIICDriver]

Went through there once with RuB 1.45 and that was all it took for me to learn.

Yeah I'll chime in:

STAY AWAY FROM THE ENGLISH CHANNEL!!!

[Kiwi Commandant]

Went through there once with RuB 1.45 and that was all it took for me to learn.

Yeah I'll chime in:

STAY AWAY FROM THE ENGLISH CHANNEL!!!


I tried it three times before giving up forever. To save time, from now on we could refer to SAFTEC. (It's a bit like 'safety' but has a big C for Caution. Which reminds me of "The name's Morgan - big M, little organ").

[Corsair]

If you start a career in 1939, there is a moment when you receive a radio message telling you that the Channel is considered closed for german U boats and that Kapt'ns assigned to missions in the Atlantic are to sail across the North Sea. As other above clearly stated, it is strongly advised to follow this order from BdU.
The North Sea being a shallow place and the surroundings of Scapa Flow and the Orkneys being heavily patrolled by DDs and airplanes, I usually hug the Norwegian coast from south of Stavanger to above Bergen and follow the deeper straight north of the Shetlands, staying underwater during daytime and surfaced at night when I hit 200km from the Shetlands where there is an airbase.
There is some traffic there so you might well bag some lone merchants from North of Scotland going down the West Coast and have a good chance of finding convoys even in early war in the western approaches to the north Irish sea entrance (around grid AM 52)
Even with a VIIB, running at ahead standard you have enough fuel to get down to the Bay of Biscay and back. On my present patrol, I am patrolling grid BF47 (with only my 2 external torps left, waiting for nice weather to reload and 35.000 tons in the log on the way down)

[AVGWarhawk]

This is what I do, start career at Wilhelmshaven and just go north of England. I do not use the channel at all. I wait until Breast is in Axis hands or any of the others along the French coast. I then switch to one of these. The channel, man, is like a bad moon rising. Although you might get through unscathed once, there is no guarantee you will do it again thus ending what could have been an awesome career. Stay away.:know:

[d@rk51d3]

I wait until Breast is in Axis hands or any of the others along the French coast.


:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

I sense a thread Hi-Jacking soon.

[AVGWarhawk]

I wait until Breast is in Axis hands or any of the others along the French coast.


:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

I sense a thread Hi-Jacking soon.

Darn it! Someone caught my breast joke LOL. Good Show!

[Morts]

hmm ive sailed through the english channel on patrols in 1940
3 or 4 times i think
only 2 plane attacks in all. nothing really happend to the boat only a near miss with a bomb from a plane

guess U-107 is just one lucky boat

[stabiz]

I wait until Breast is in Axis hands or any of the others along the French coast.

Thats not just funny, its priceless. I seldom laugh out loud (although the smileys dictate otherwise), but this time I did.

Very sly, very good. :rotfl:

[d@rk51d3]

Darn it! Someone caught my breast joke LOL. Good Show!


Me and my dirty mind....... :oops: :nope:

[AVGWarhawk]

yeah, men are pretty basic...beer and boobs. We sometimes think of sleep. Thats about it:shifty:

[d@rk51d3]

Then we dream about beer and boobs........:rotfl:

[Edelweiss]

That's right that this bloody Channel is not a piece of cake. This one was close (and a lot of people above !) :

http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/6185/minen3ea3.th.jpg (http://img208.imageshack.us/my.php?image=minen3ea3.jpg)

[Sailor Steve]

Geez and I went through there once without a scratch, now I just feel lucky
hmm ive sailed through the english channel on patrols in 1940
3 or 4 times i think
only 2 plane attacks in all. nothing really happend to the boat only a near miss with a bomb from a plane

guess U-107 is just one lucky boat
If you're playing the stock game the Channel is very easy, which is totally unhistorical. The better mods make it more like it really was, i.e. DEADLY!:dead:

[Morts]

i actually did it in GW

im amazed that i didn die

[Sailor Steve]

Actually it's easy in GW or NYGM: just leave Wilhelmshaven early in the morning of September 1, 1939 at flank speed and make sure you're through the Channel before September 3.:rotfl:

[Morts]

well i did it in 1940

[Sailor Steve]

I know, I was just making a funny.

[Morts]

i know

[Grell]

I went through in 1940 as well after being ordered to re-base at Brest.

Regards,

Grell

[Jimbuna]

We have a little saying around here:

STAY AWAY FROM THE ENGLISH CHANNEL

If you're going to try it, the only way I could see you making it would be to hug the coast of France and pray that no trawlers spot you. You're in shallow waters there and most likely wouldn't have any room to dive. Attempting to go through the middle of the Channel is suicide with the mines and the DDs and the Elcos and the airplanes.


Hey mookie...coin yer own phrase lol :rotfl: :up: :arrgh!:

[mookiemookie]

Hey mookie...coin yer own phrase lol :rotfl: :up: :arrgh!:

:rotfl:Didn't know who to attribute it to, and I thought it had become so famous that it was in the public domain! :up:

[Jimbuna]

Hey mookie...coin yer own phrase lol :rotfl: :up: :arrgh!:

:rotfl:Didn't know who to attribute it to, and I thought it had become so famous that it was in the public domain! :up:

:rotfl: :rotfl:
salute :up:

[mookiemookie]

Though I kind of like Sailor Steve's acronym for it...SAFTEC :yep:

[spork542]

I went through there three times without a scratch in a IXB. Sank 100k tons there and only there. Needless to say, I was pretty new to the game. This was in GW 1.0.

[Blacklight]

Okay.. I'm going to stay the hell out of the Channel !!!
(I somehow miraculously survived a ride through there last night... and there were not many naval ships about nor did any planes come after me. I guess they thought any sub jocky trying to go through there would be a suicidal idiot. You should have seen my crew's faces when I ordered "Full steam ahead into the channel")
It was fun watching the mines pass perilously close to my boat from external view. :D
I hope that Great Britain cleaned up after themselves well and that there still aren't any of those mines still hanging out there in RL.

[bigboywooly]

Yep the odd mine has turned up over the years
Dont forget the Germans mined too
In the channel and close to ports

Something you may come across if you use GWX and are stupid enough to use the channel after 40

[Hybris]

Question What if by day you bottomed your boat silent running until its dark and the patrols aren't looking right at you then you blow ballast and flank it (At least thats what I would do) until sunrise then bottom and repeat.

Could this work even somewhat late into the war? (Radar will be problem I forsee)

[bigboywooly]

You could do
No guarantee you wouldnt be picked up on active sonar by patrols

[mookiemookie]

Question What if by day you bottomed your boat silent running until its dark and the patrols aren't looking right at you then you blow ballast and flank it (At least thats what I would do) until sunrise then bottom and repeat.

Could this work even somewhat late into the war? (Radar will be problem I forsee)

The mines will still get you, and chances are someone will see you even in the dark. A quote from Das Boot is appropriate here...

"Anything that floats will be on the water." :dead:

[peterloo]

hmm ive sailed through the english channel on patrols in 1940
3 or 4 times i think
only 2 plane attacks in all. nothing really happend to the boat only a near miss with a bomb from a plane

guess U-107 is just one lucky boat

Do you use mods? With a unmodded version, there are less traffics( still Many traffics)

DON"T ATTEMPT TO GET THROUGH ENGLISH CHANNEL
THE DESTROYERS ARE DEADLY (5~6 DESTROYERS IN A PATROL GROUP) AND THERE ARE NUMBEROUS OF THEM

MINEFIELDS ARE LETHAL TOO. EVEN YOU CAN ENTER IT, YOU CANNOT GET OUT OF THIS SUCKING &*%HOLE

[Jimbuna]

Question What if by day you bottomed your boat silent running until its dark and the patrols aren't looking right at you then you blow ballast and flank it (At least thats what I would do) until sunrise then bottom and repeat.

Could this work even somewhat late into the war? (Radar will be problem I forsee)

Your only chance and a very slim one at that would be to run at flank speed on the surface during the night....but after 40 the odds just become 'unthinkable'...go round the north of Scotland...enjoy the scenery...sink a couple on the way :D :up:

[Morts]

peterloo i use modded SH3

i use GW

[Sailor Steve]

Also sitting on the bottom for 12 hours then running at flank speed wastes time and fuel. You might as well just go the long way around; that's what they really did.

[ryano7777]

I've made it through 3 times with no problems in TWOS, and was in the middle of my 4th attempt, when I decided to do a little research as to where the channel mines are in the game. As I'm reading the comments I'm thinking "there can't be any mines in the channel, if there were, I would have hit one during the few times I have run channel" suddenly I'm brought back to the game as I hear an explosion and a lot of yelling. I guess I finally found one of the mines! Hahaha

[Pisces]

With that this thread deserves the sub-title "Blast from the past" for attaining Necro-status.

[d@rk51d3]

Was about to crack a boob joke........... then saw that I already had......14 years ago. :haha: