Going to America!

[meduza]

I have a few months before the US enter the war (Emperor Hirohito phoned me last night to inform me about his Pearl Harbor plans :D), and I want to be on the right spot when the time comes.
Since in all my previous careers I've never been there, I have a couple of questions for the more experienced Kaleuns:

1. Where are the best hunting grounds there? My priorities would be single ships, not convoys, for now at least. I've heard that there are a lot of tankers near the Florida coast...
2. What can I expect regarding air and naval ASW patrols?
3. Any other advice is welcome.

:arrgh!:

[Paul Riley]

Hi Meduza.

I myself have yet to experience a raid along the US east coast,but I can tell you a few things from real history,and also from a book I have called 'Iron Coffins'.
Depending what year you are in there should be very minimal air cover in the area,in fact none prior to 1943,if you look on your map that came with the game you will see that the only airbase in the area is based at Halifax in N.America.All other areas are free of air cover.

Concerning lane activity,you will also see that there are multiple lanes to and from Halifax,N.York,and a single merchant lane based at Galveston (Texas).In your case your main focus would be on either Halifax or N.York.If you dont make contact by sitting on a sealane after about 1 week make a journey for one of those ports and hammer the port itself,by conducting raids on shipping leaving for Britain.

Concerning military presence,again I am not sure just yet as I am currently leaving the port of spain myself,but if the game is accurate to history the military should be very minimal if not totally non-existent.The reason for this is because early on the yanks refused to adopt the convoy system advised by Britain,and so their ships were very vulnerable as they crossed the Atlantic.However,later on,as they realised the seriousness of their complacency they adopted the convoy system and so the military presence increased by the USA.What they used to do is sail across about half way where they would rendevous with the Brits,and then the Brits would escort the final leg.
This info is all based on real history,and I dont know how the game plays all this out,but I myself hope that it does follow this historical fact. :arrgh!:
If you want to sink oil,and that should be a major priority why not take a trip south towards the port of spain,I have just sunk 40.000 tonnes of oil in that area.All you have to do is plug the area just north of the port and wait for the fat cows as they come and go.

Hope I helped you mate,and sink the buggers! :D

[Kielhauler1961]

Two good hunting grounds of East Coast:

1, Cape Hatteras (just south of Norfolk navy yard). The coastline sticks out there and the ocean shelf is only about 16-20km across. Means you can hide in deep water until something juicy comes along further inshore.

2. Straights of Florida, or "Tanker Alley" as it's better known.

3. Gap between Cuba and Puerto Rico (I think, eastern end of Cuba anyways..).

The US DD's are mostly green at that stage of the war and will come bounding straight at you like excited puppy-dogs. Keep a T1 set for 5m/fast/magnetic in the stern tube.

[STEED]

Most of the time I travel down south to hit them at the pumps your find convoys with no protection or very little protection, most likely one destroyer. I always select the big juicy ones for a better firework display. I find hunting further south better than sitting outside New York scratching your ass, the best targets are at the pumps in my view.

[Sailor Steve]

(Emperor Hirohito phoned me last night to inform me about his Pearl Harbor plans :D)
Ah, those Japanese. Always so polite.:sunny:

[nikimcbee]

If you attack Galveston, you run the risk of hitting the subsim club house! I've ventured into the Gulf once, and there were hordes of pesky torpedo boats. There is lots of action off Cape Hatteras, deep water there too.

[Paul Riley]

Cape Hatteras - looking at my map and indeed some maps found online,that would be the area that looks like a small 'bump' jutting into the sea,south of Norfolk?.

Straits of Florida - now my geography of USA is basic to say the least,but I am guessing this area is somewhere near the cluster of large islands south of Tampa?.Looking at that area,there is a convoy route N.York --> Curacao , I expect you mean somewhere near the small gap between the last 2 SE landmasses?.That looks a great spot,strategically.

Lastly,can someone enlighten me on the real political situation in real life during WWII,between the Carribean/S.America and the USA?.What I mean is,I didnt originally expect such high volumes of oil traffic coming in and out of the port of spain on my last patrol.I only expected things like Tony Montana,bananas and coffee coming out of this area :rotfl: .
Either way,doesnt really matter as it will all get sunk anyway :arrgh!:

Thanks.

[Kielhauler1961]

Yes Paul, Cape Hatteras is the "bump" just south of Norfolk.

"Tanker alley" is the area: Key West - Havana, sometimes stretching out to the Bahamas.

The Cuba "gap" is eastern Cuba - Haiti (Not Puerto Rico as I stated earlier, sorry). Plenty of tankers to be found there early-mid '42.

BTW, I tried sending you a PM but you have disabled that function.

As for the politics regarding the region, start off with Clay Blair's two volume history of the U-Boat war. You should be able to ordered them through the "inter-library" loan scheme at your local public library.

[Paul Riley]

Thanks a lot for that info KH :up:
Sorry about the disabling of PMs,I just wanted to wait until I had my feet under the table a few days first,you know,a stupid paranoia thing.As I now feel confident here,and all you lot are great,I shall enable them now.
Feel free to PM me from now on.

[rifleman13]

If you are a really insane kaleun, you should try to penetrate New York Harbor... :lol: :arrgh!:

[Sailor Steve]

Venezuela was one of the largest oil producing nations in the western hemisphere. A lot of our wartime oil came from there. Also, a lot of American ships were running under Panamanian registry at the time.

[meduza]

Thanks for the info. It looks very interesting. I guess I'll start at the south, near Florida looking for the tankers. Anyway, I plan to arrive there a day or two before US enter the war, to have some time to look around.

[Biggs[CV]]

The New York and Boston areas have good hunting also. :up:

[Paul Riley]

If you are a really insane kaleun, you should try to penetrate New York Harbor... :lol: :arrgh!:

If I can penetrate Scapa Flow,N.York will be a walk in the park :arrgh!:

[predavolk]

Search any of my recent threads. I've done a lot of hunting off the America's recently.

[tigone]

meduza asked:

> Where are the best hunting grounds there? My priorities would be single ships,
> not convoys, for now at least.

Historically, the Strait of Florida, roughly between Ft. Lauderdale/Miami and the Upper Keys, were very lucrative hunting grounds, as any vessels transitiing between the Gulf of Mexico and the U.S. Atlantic coast were confined to a narrow channel, There were many ships sunk within sight of the shore.

Simialrly, the area around Cape Hatteras is another choke point, where north- and southbound coasting vessels made the turn to follow the coastline.

The area around the mouth of the Mississippi is a similarly lucrative area, although patroling there requires considerable care when it comes to fuel expenditure.

There was not actually much U-boat action in the Galveston area (generally shallow water), but vessels coming out of the Galveston/Houston/Texas City posts -- many of them tankers -- could be picked off further east, off the Mississippi.

Not sure how this would play out in game terms (e.g., GWX), but historically there several very good places to go hunting.