Medditeranean Profitability

[ryanglavin]

I transfered to the Mediterranean on my Bernhard Ensch Profile (D.i.D. is tough!), who has 750k tons during late 1941, because of increased experience for the convoys escorts. I was thinking that the Med would have worst escorts then the atlantic, and that I sunk my first Battleship here on my dead profile. so How profitable is the Med? Convoy routes and patrol areas appreciated too :).

[BulSoldier]

My experience is vey limited about the med but it seems warships are much more common there.
About the routes, i cant tell you how right i am, but to me it seems that the narrow pass between Sicily and the african coast seems very good place for ambusing covnoys between the atlantik and the british egypt.

[Jimbuna]

The approaches to Malta can be quite rewarding also http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/pirate.gif

[meduza]

I recently completed almost 20 patrols in Med, from early 1942 to mid 1944.

Here's the map with approximate positions of ships I sunk during that time:
http://img103.imageshack.us/img103/9872/mediterran2.th.jpg (http://img103.imageshack.us/i/mediterran2.jpg/)

There should be a lot of warships around, but I didn't have much luck finding them. But there are plenty of escorts. :DL Almost every ship is escorted, sailing in small or large convoys. Single merchants are very rare.

There's a lot of planes. Early, they cover the area around Gibraltar, Malta and Alexandria, later they are everywhere. There's also a lot of Luftwaffe early, but their presence rapidly decreases over time.

You'll find a lot of troop ships and liners. I sank six or seven 45,000t Aquitanias during these patrols, and much more smaller ones. :arrgh!:

There's a lot of friendly ships and convoys, so identification is very important.

Your bases will eventually fall, so be prepared to sail through the Gibraltar in order to reach your new base.

[TarJak]

The Med has been quite profitable for me. There are plenty of small convoys of 3-4 ships (usually escorted by one DD or corvette) and plenty of warships too. There is a regular 3 CL TF that cruises between Malta and Alexandria which I've hit many times.

You do need to watch out what you shoot at though. Last weekend I was cruising my patrol area south of Malta. It was about 0200 in game, when I got a fast moving merchant contact coming towards me. listening in on the hydrophones I heard what sounded like a large number of large contacts inlcuding what I thought may be a large passenger liner.

I got the boat sorted for an intercept, Spent and hour real time closing in on the surface until I got the ship spotted message. Up to the bridge and sure enough here was a convoy of about 20 ships heavily escorted but with 3 massive liners and auxillary cruisers!

I thought all my wishes had come true but it was not to be. As we closed with each other I noticed that the camo pattern on one of the DD's looked a little odd, checked the recognition manual and stone me if it wasn't a bloody Italian Soldati DD! The whole Italian Army looked like it was headed home for pasta and vino! I was very disappointed until I came across a couple of Ore Carriers a day or so later.

[ryanglavin]

thanks guys. I joined the party in the medd to early (1941 don't sound right by these posts.) It takes so long for me to type these damn things because i just got surgery on both my hands... ugh... it takes like 10 minutes to type these. It'll seem like i'll just switch to operation paukenslhag until february 1942, then i'll just return to the med. salamis isn't a very good base :/. Ty guys :)!

[ryanglavin]

There is a regular 3 CL TF that cruises between Malta and Alexandria which I've hit many times.

CL taskforce? translation? because i hit destroyed my first battleship on a TF between malta and alexandria, but what do you mean by 3 CL TF?

[TarJak]

CL = Light Cruiser. Usually Southamptons or Fiji class british cruisers.

[ryanglavin]

thanks dude

[TarJak]

NP mate. The best places to hunt are around the choke points, the Mouth of the Med near Gibraltar, the area between Sicily and the African Coast from Tunis to Tripoli, and the area south of Crete between Tobruk and Alexandria.

[Murr44]

CN 61-63 (south of Malta) seem to be pretty good areas. I've destroyed couple of small convoys there recently. A lot of air traffic so it's probably best to stay down all day & come up only after 20:00 hrs if you're in the area.

P.S. Salamis is alright. In late '41 sometimes you can meet a Greek small merchant, passenger/cargo or coastal freighter & pick up some easy tonnage just a few hours sail from the base. Good morale booster for your crew.

[ryanglavin]

CN 61-63 (south of Malta) seem to be pretty good areas.
lol that actually works sunk 7 ships for 109k tons in 1 patrol but had to return from extreme depth charging (1 diesel dead both electrics dead, and i play with ending the patrol manually by sailing back to base).
but i haven't found any convoys, what are the dates you used it?

[TarJak]

Look for the dates of things like Operation Torch and other major land based ops in the Med. Some of the the flotillas/convoys for these ops are modelled into GWX.

[mookiemookie]

The Med is a knife fight in a telephone booth. Great place to send in contact reports and see air attacks, as the Axis airbases are close.

[BulSoldier]

Ive once watched air attack on a enemy task force from a great distance , it was in north sea howeever, but it was spectacular.:cool: