Embarrassing....

[Cybermat47]

Well, this is awkward. The day before yesterday, during a career in which I had sunk two destroyers, 40,000 tons of merchant shipping and two battleships, I was sunk during the HAPPY TIMES. The £¥$&@~% HAPPY TIMES!!!!!!

Is there a mod out there that reduces the escort's intelligence until around late 1941? Is such a mod even possible?

Luckily for me, though, I've taken a leaf out of many other's books, and I've started a new career at the beginning of the Happy Times campaign. I've got quite a lot to live up to... my boat is U-100 :o

[Sailor Steve]

I was sunk during the HAPPY TIMES.
So were thirty-three other u-boats.

Is there a mod out there that reduces the escort's intelligence until around late 1941? Is such a mod even possible?
Try the stock game. You can attack a merchant surfaced right next to them and they won't even notice you're there.

[johan_d]

Well, this is awkward. The day before yesterday, during a career in which I had sunk two destroyers, 40,000 tons of merchant shipping and two battleships, I was sunk during the HAPPY TIMES. The £¥$&@~% HAPPY TIMES!!!!!!

Is there a mod out there that reduces the escort's intelligence until around late 1941? Is such a mod even possible?

Luckily for me, though, I've taken a leaf out of many other's books, and I've started a new career at the beginning of the Happy Times campaign. I've got quite a lot to live up to... my boat is U-100 :o

Welcome to the club! :wah:

[Otto Fuhrmann]

I always sink... All the time.. I use my boat as if it where a battleship..

[Cybermat47]

So were thirty-three other u-boats.



:o

So much for the 'Happy Times'. I take it the majority were sunk while travelling between their old German and new French bases?

[Webster]

:o

So much for the 'Happy Times'. I take it the majority were sunk while travelling between their old German and new French bases?

check the fine print, maybe they meant happy times for the other guys :hmmm:

[Sailor Steve]

So much for the 'Happy Times'. I take it the majority were sunk while travelling between their old German and new French bases?
Most were sunk while on patrol. It was called the Happy Times looking back from the viewpoint of later losses, and in comparison to successes.

1939: 166 ships sunk, 9 boats lost.
1940: 564 ships sunk, 24 boats lost.
1941: 500 ships sunk, 35 boats lost.
1942: 1321 ships sunk, 86 boats lost (the Second Happy Times).
1943: 579 ships sunk, 239 boats lost.
1944: 246 ships sunk, 234 boats lost.
1945: 98 ships sunk, 132 boats lost.

[gap]

U-boat losses chart per year/month: :03:

http://uboat.net/fates/losses/chart.htm

Click on any year to see loss coordinates for that year on map :salute:

[Otto Fuhrmann]

It is crazy how many where lost going through the Gibraltar Straits, you think they would have stopped sending boats through there.

[Sailor Steve]

It is crazy how many where lost going through the Gibraltar Straits, you think they would have stopped sending boats through there.
Ninety-three boats attempted to pass the Straight of Gibraltar. Sixty-two made it, thirty-one didn't. Only one survived the trip both ways. Considering what they accomplished there, BdU probably thought it was an acceptable risk.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediterranean_U-boat_Campaign_(World_War_II).

[gap]

It is crazy how many where lost going through the Gibraltar Straits...

:yep:

Ninety-three boats attempted to pass the Straight of Gibraltar. Sixty-two made it, thirty-one didn't. Only one survived the trip both ways. Considering what they accomplished there, BdU probably thought it was an acceptable risk.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediterranean_U-boat_Campaign_(World_War_II).

95 merchant ships sunk
24 major warships sunk

:o

Actually, though being a relatively small water basin, Mediterranean was the core of the British maritime empire as it provided a fast access to many of its oversea colonies and to their inestimable resources. It is not a coincidence that UK controlled both its ends (Gibraltar and Suez), something that Hitler and Mussolini, for different reasons, couldn't accept. :yep:

[Otto Fuhrmann]

I always thought that maybe they should have transported the boats over land down to the Mediterranean and launched them from Italian Ports. But maybe there was some reason I don't know of that would have made it not an option.

[Cybermat47]

I always thought that maybe they should have transported the boats over land down to the Mediterranean and launched them from Italian Ports. But maybe there was some reason I don't know of that would have made it not an option.

:yep: Me and my brother have often wondered about that. Perhaps they didn't have any heavy lifting trucks? Unlikely.

[Otto Fuhrmann]

I always thought they could put them on a train and move them to Italy. If a German transport train can move dozens of tanks ranging in weight to the front over hundreds of miles, then why not a Type VII. I am sure they could even disassemble it and reassemble it at it's destination. Or maybe I am giving the German transport network to much credit, but if anyone could do it, they could.

[gap]

I always thought they could put them on a train and move them to Italy. If a German transport train can move dozens of tanks ranging in weight to the front over hundreds of miles, then why not a Type VII. I am sure they could even disassemble it and reassemble it at it's destination. Or maybe I am giving the German transport network to much credit, but if anyone could do it, they could.

:yep: Me and my brother have often wondered about that. Perhaps they didn't have any heavy lifting trucks? Unlikely.

Good remark. If I remember correctly, this is exactly the way Type II boats were transported to the Baltic (by railroad). I have no idea why they didn't do the same with Mediterranean boats though :hmm2:

[Otto Fuhrmann]

Maybe Hitler didn't like Mussolini's rail network? I don't see why he would though, I mean he made the trains run on time. :yeah:

[Sailor Steve]

A Tiger tank weighed about 75 tons. Even a Maus weighed only 190 tons. A heavy lift flatcar can carry about 100 tons. When the 30th Flotilla was created on the Black Sea, six Type IIb boats were shipped by canal and road, using special transporters. Even stripped down, the hulls weighed 140 tons each. The operation took five months.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/30th_U-boat_Flotilla

A Type VII u-boat weighed roughly 750 tons. The super rail guns Gustav and Dora weighed 1300 tons, but special rail lines had to be constructed just to move them.

I am sure they could even disassemble it and reassemble it at it's destination.
How? Cut them up and re-weld them at the other end? How structurally sound would they be? If it could be done, how many months would it take? It would probably be faster to construct a u-boat assembly yard in Italy. The only reasonable way to get the boats there was to sail them and hope for the best.

[gap]

A Tiger tank weighed about 75 tons. Even a Maus weighed only 190 tons. A heavy lift flatcar can carry about 100 tons. When the 30th Flotilla was created on the Black Sea, six Type IIb boats were shipped by canal and road, using special transporters.

You are right. My bad for mentioning a wrong information :oops:


Even stripped down, the hulls weighed 140 tons each. The operation took five months.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/30th_U-boat_Flotilla

A Type VII u-boat weighed roughly 750 tons. The super rail guns Gustav and Dora weighed 1300 tons, but special rail lines had to be constructed just to move them.


How? Cut them up and re-weld them at the other end? How structurally sound would they be? If it could be done, how many months would it take? It would probably be faster to construct a u-boat assembly yard in Italy. The only reasonable way to get the boats there was to sail them and hope for the best.

Makes sense now :up:

[Otto Fuhrmann]

Well I meant strip it down to lose some weight, not saw the hull into pieces. But I suppose you are right, if there was a different way they probably would have thought of it, and even if they did the German command was not very keen on listening it seems.

Though now that you mention it, constructing them in Italy doesn't sound like a bad idea. The Germans where/are extremely efficient and fast when it comes to constructing things and it is not like they lacked manpower to build it. They had more than two years to do it too. I am sure Mussolini would not of minded, he needed the help, God knows.

Maybe it is just a pipe dream.