Typical BdU orders for U-boats

[Shelton]

Hey

What would have been an order for a uboat - i mean BdU would say go patrol this area, then what would happen ? Would the captain request further orders once he reached his patrol area or would he simply have the liberty to move freely as in the sim?

Regards
Shelton.

[melnibonian]

BdU used to generate patrol lines. Each boat was allocated an area and until a convoy was sighted was to stay there and look for targets. In remote areas like the Indian Ocean, South Atlantic or the Coasts of Central America U-Boats had more freedom of movement

[danurve]

You will get to see a taste of this once radiolog eXpansion is released. An almost daily current operations msg is sent. ( for game emersion ) Along with other jazz, reports, bdu to u-boat, u-boat to bdu, distress msg's etc.

[GoldenRivet]

if my memory serves me correctly from various self inflicted history lessons BDU would send out several boats into an area.

For Example:

U-46 would be issued orders to proceed to grid AM54.

U-90 and U-121 would be issued orders to proceed to grid AM52, one boat would cover the north side of the grid and one the south

U-88 and U-76 would be issued orders to proceed to grid AM02, and again one boat would cover the north side of the grid and one the south.

or some similar setup

when one boat made contact with a convoy, he would promptly report it for example:

"U-76, sighted convoy in grid square AM02 Westbound, approximate speed 4 knots, sighted approximately 4 escorts, maybe more, at least 30 merchants in the lanes. advise."

BDU would respond with something like

"U-76 follow convoy but do not attack until other boats are on station, broadcast beacon signals to aide in the navigation of other U-boats. provide regular updates as well."

then, over the course of the next few days, the other U-boats would close in on the sighted convoy and surround it if possible, when all boats reported ready the attack would begin. The idea was that a convoy surrounded by 4 to 6 U-boats would be more or less obliterated, and many times in the north atlantic from 1939 to early 1943 thats exactly how it worked.

Other boats like an IXB would sometimes receive orders differently... a larger ocean going long range boat would receive orders like "Proceed to the United States Eastern Seaboard and patrol an area extending from 150 nautical miles off the coast of New York, to an area off the coast of Cape Fear and attack targets of opportunity with particular attention paid to tankers"

[Shelton]

ok but what if they did not sight any convoys - would they still sail up and down that grid until low on fuel ?

And im looking forward to the radio message upgrade mod :)

[GoldenRivet]

the captain would choose to return to base if fuel or provisions ran low, occasionally - probably frequently - there were never any shots fired on a patrol.

[Heibges]

Once wolfpacks developed they deployed in bredth and in depth. After a certain amount of time, if they calculated they convoy should have passed, they would move backwards along the path of the convoy in the same formation.

I weeks went by and no contacts were found in an area, BDU might move the pickets into a different area.