How Depressing...

[kgsuarez]

Okay, so after ages of not playing I decide to get the game up and running again. I started a career in August 1939 (pre-war). First patrol was uneventful, but by the time I went out for my second patrol we were at war.

I was commanding a small type IIA boat, U-11. First Flotilla, out of Kiel. We left base on the 9th and set a course for our assigned grid. On the way I ran into a British Task Force. So I'm stuck in a stupid IIA in the shallow waters of the channel and now a task force, great. This all went down around Grid AN-95. I think...

I ordered PD, and while looking through the scope I figured it'd probably be best to go by undetected. So I order a depth change. My plan is to just creep along running silent. I few minutes later I hear their ASDIC. My first thought was, "But it's 1939! The enemies don't have ASDIC until later!" So, I'm a little confused. I could have sworn that ASDIC wasn't around until '41 or so.:doh:

I eventually had three destroyers circling overhead. At first it wasn't too bad, just a few wabos to shake us up a bit. But they wouldn't give up. I tried everything.

Eventually I ran aground (stupid shallow waters!:stare:) and I guess that must have made a racket because soon after they started DC'ing me pretty bad. I ended up with some pretty bad damage. I noticed after a while that both my diesel engines and one of my electric engines had been destroyed. We had "critical" flooding according to my Chief (I guess the shallow waters saved us there) and we had even lost a few good men. There was no way I was going to make it back to port in that condition anyway, so I figured I might as well just give up. I had to blow ballast several times, but we managed to surface.

Then the three destroyers shelled us to death.:-?

Is this pathetic or did I just have bad luck in running into such a determined task force? And what about that ASDIC deal? Did the allies have it from the beginning of the war or not?

[Chisum]

Is this pathetic or did I just have bad luck in running into such a determined task force? And what about that ASDIC deal? Did the allies have it from the beginning of the war or not?
It's a bad luck.
To cruise in the chanel savely(early in the war) we need some luck and if we have a very bad weather with big rain it's a good think.
Try also to stay near the French coast.
Cruise in the middle of the night between 00H00 and 06H00, 2 knts maximum speed.
Sleep on the bottom during the day without noises.
Don't surfaced by day and of course no radio-communications.

In this conditions it's absolutly possible. I did it 2 or 3 times and even in 1941(but this time I was probably very lucky). After it is too difficult.

About the ASDIC...I don't know.
I think they were detection equipment but it was less efficient than a few years later


There is some screen of my first chanel trip.

1: very near of the French Coast

http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/7893/pasdecalais001ol9.jpg


2: when I say near is realy very near.

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/7039/pasdecalais002vq7.jpg


3: after Calais, the big escape into the Bay of Biscay(don't engage any ship !)

http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/6005/pasdecalais003ti9.jpg


4: when at this point normaly you are save. But run silently again and don't engage any enemy. Let pass the convoy.

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/7538/pasdecalais004ng2.jpg

http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/7205/pasdecalais005am2.jpg

[Task Force]

In early war ive gon throuht the canal and stright of dover. but after my first two patroals I found out that going through the canal was way to dangerious.Mines everywhere.:shifty:

[Leandros]

Another way is to sneak up to the Channel entrance in the evening and then go full blast on the surface after it has become dark. keep close to the French coast.

[Kielhauler1961]

ASDIC was invented by the British at the end of WW1, and fitted in destroyers from the early 1920's. By 1939 even some Admiralty trawlers had it. A good bet is: if it's got depth-charges assume it also has ASDIC.

[Chisum]

ASDIC was invented by the British at the end of WW1, and fitted in destroyers from the early 1920's. By 1939 even some Admiralty trawlers had it. A good bet is: if it's got depth-charges assume it also has ASDIC.

Yep right.
I saw a thread somewhere here who talking about the efficient of the ASDIC since 1939 to the end of the WW2, but I don't remember the name.

[U-46 Commander]

with the SH3 World mod, I always go through the channel. Lots of tonnage there mates!:up:

[Parkera]

Tonnage is good. Lots of single merchants to sink. And early in the war (prob 1939 only) not all that hard to get thru esp if you on the surface at flank in the middle of the night (thru dover straights). I go thru the middle pretty much np!:p

[Kielhauler1961]

Anyone using the English Channel after October 1939 has a death wish. It's too narrow and shallow to escape if you're detected. You don't pay for the gas, so go the long-way round, northabout Scotland. Plenty of "singles" there as well and 1/8th the risk! Plus you might get lucky with a task force including capital ships. You won't find them in the Channel.

[Contact]

No way, under no circumstances I would choose to go through that damned channel with GWX :lol:.
There are plenty of any kind of patrol vesels, mines, etc. :nope:

[deepboat]

with the SH3 World mod, I always go through the channel. Lots of tonnage there mates!:up: I guess it depends on what kind of tonnage you're talking about. Shefffield steel or Krupp stahl!:o

[U-46 Commander]

This is without the GWX mod. In the SH3 World mod, there are no mines that i know of, and few patrol vessels-just lots of PT boats!

[UnderseaLcpl]

Not so pathetic. worse mistakes have been made. Not by me, of course. But hypothetically a Kaleun could, say, hit a German mine on his way out of Wilhelmshaven, or be rammed by his own destroyer escort. I mean, you could even crash dive into the bottom and forget to assign damage control crews and eventually sink. Of course, I'm just guessing. Never happened to me. Nope. :oops:

[Wreford-Brown]

I'm still happily running through Der Kanal in 1941, but only in my 'arcade' career in a XXI.

[GoldenRivet]

The canal route is possible.

that said... i dont recommend it to anyone, i have not entered the canal in any serious career since the release of GWX - the first version.

you dont tug on superman's cape...

You dont piss in the wind...

you dont pull the mask of the ol' lone ranger...

- and you dont go into the canal!

[rls669]

In GWX 2.1 I took my XXI through the Channel in summer of 1944 for her maiden voyage -- and obliterated a heavily escorted convoy along the way. I guess I was lucky I didn't hit a mine but the destroyers weren't any worse than normal. Of course a XXI with a nice assortment of homing torpedoes didn't hurt.

I also got way, way too near the east coast of England in a IXD2 the patrol before that, following a convoy report I received as I transited the North Sea out of Bergen. 15m/s wind and huge waves must make for poor sonar conditions in 40m of water, as I escaped (to my utter amazement). I think every square meter of the sea in a 10km radius got hedgehogged during that debacle. Just not (quite) at the exact same time I was occupying it :D

So late war Channel forays are survivable . . . if not exactly recommended.

[msalama]

No way, under no circumstances I would choose to go through that damned channel with GWX :lol:.

Tried that once. Won't try again. :nope:

Yup, take the long way around and survive is what I say too - plenty of tonnage there as well if you know where to look :yep:

[Jimbuna]

STAY OUT OF THE ENGLISH CHANNEL!! http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/pirate.gif

[rifleman13]

STAY OUT OF THE ENGLISH CHANNEL!! http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/pirate.gif

Crossing the ENGLISH CHANNEL = INSANITY = DEATH = FRUSTRATION in the GAME, ESPECIALLY if you have LONG, SUCCESSFUL DiD CAREERS