Dunkirk patrol grid early June '40

[4saken]

So i was ordered to patrol AN87 just outside Dunkirk when the actual evacuation happens.Does it mean i will meet a lot of traffic in this grid as i would in real life?

[Gerald]

Yes, you will probably meet merchant ships,and destroyer's and little depends on the weather, of course, if you see, and as you probably know, is the area shallow water

[4saken]

Wind speed 11 m/s...Trying to avoid destroyers in shallow waters is a :nope::nope:
I guess i have to be very careful...

[Gerald]

Do not go too close to shore, and the depth varies from 23-32 meters around,so try to plot a course in the grid more north-east than the south-west

[TarJak]

I assume you are playing GWX, then if so yes you will see traffic. If you are playing stock SH3 then no you won't. Some of the other mega mods like WAC also have the additional traffic.

[4saken]

The area is full of destroyers, i was dc at shallow waters.once i managed to escape, i headed NE and i am not going back!:-?

[Tessa]

During the actual evacuation there will be troop transports and destroyers all over the place. As far as harbors go, its a relatively deep on - but still very shallow water. There are some juicy targets there but is difficult at best to get in close. Depending on their orientation, if there are transports outside the harbor itself (only been there for the action once) that are stationary there is still an opportunity.

Position yourself such that the target is 4500-5000 meters away and fire 4 shots with magnetic settings, or at least 5 feet such that it would still travel under a DD and keep going. You're making a shot at or close to the max range of your electric torpedoes, if you want to risk using steam you could go further back (though it becomes harder to aim). After you fire the last torpedo (wouldn't recommend using the aft tubes as it takes too long to turn around at silent speed) change your course 180 and keep going silent until you're safely out of range. Hopefully by the time the torpedoes hit you'll be 5000-6000m away and can avoid detection all together.

There's also a lot of planes flying around, don't even think about going decks awash.

[Obersteuermann]

Dunkirk's one of my favourite early-war ports to raid. You'll normally find an auxiliary cruiser and a tank landing craft moored outside the harbour, possibly with a British destroyer outside the wall as well. There's at least two French destroyers moored on the western side but these have a habit of grounding themselves in my experience.

Inside the harbour is an ocean liner (possibly two, there's normally something fairly big to the south that isn't in a berth) and a few assorted merchants. Harbour patrols are one or two destroyers and MTBs, plus one armed trawler north and south. During the Dunkirk battle itself you will get the odd hunter-killer group coming past. Getting caught by one of these is an instant death sentence. If your hydrophone operator picks up more than three contacts out to sea, don't risk it, just run away, the harbour ain't going anywhere!


Attacking from outside the harbour is fairly easy and you can merrily blast away with steamers from 5-6000m even in clear daylight. As Tessa says, the moment you fire the torpedoes, move at least 1500m away before trying to line up another shot.
Going inside the harbour is not something you do unless it's dark and there's fog or heavy rain. Never approach from the west: there's mines around there and touching one off will get you sunk, either from flooding or from waking up the destroyers.
(unless you're super lucky like me, in which case the two Frenchmen will ground themselves, the Brit will sail past your stern tube at 500m range and the remaining Brit destroyers from inside the harbour will run around aimlessly depth charging the French sailors ... :-?)

I do believe it's impossible to sink the ocean liner because of her draft. I've fired three eels into her bows only for her to settle about 3m lower and do nothing else. There's also a submarine net about 2km from the western (main) harbour entrance, if I remember rightly, making it almost impossible to get a clear shot with magnetics from a decent range.

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