Bridger
01-04-08, 06:48 AM
Have completed my first mediterranean patrol, and as alot of you very experienced Kaleuns have pointed out it is a different and challenging theatre of operations.
1) There are no large convoys and the ratio of escorts to merchants is significantly larger.
2) No single sitting duck merchants, all single merchants have at least one escort( most i came across had 2).
3) Weather is hazy and a lot of fog, visibility is very limited and had to use my sound man a lot more than in the atlantic.
4) Lots of taskgroups and warships.
Having recently read a lot about U-Boat operations in the med, i found the experience very realistic and challenging, in reality u-boats struggled in the med theatre( with a few exceptions, Barham/Ark Royal etc), and during the first month only 2 small barges and a coaster were sank by u-boats, so my first patrol in oct 41:-1 small merchant sank finished on a very realistic note.
1) There are no large convoys and the ratio of escorts to merchants is significantly larger.
2) No single sitting duck merchants, all single merchants have at least one escort( most i came across had 2).
3) Weather is hazy and a lot of fog, visibility is very limited and had to use my sound man a lot more than in the atlantic.
4) Lots of taskgroups and warships.
Having recently read a lot about U-Boat operations in the med, i found the experience very realistic and challenging, in reality u-boats struggled in the med theatre( with a few exceptions, Barham/Ark Royal etc), and during the first month only 2 small barges and a coaster were sank by u-boats, so my first patrol in oct 41:-1 small merchant sank finished on a very realistic note.