Best hunting grounds in the Atlantic: Input encouraged!!!

[Kaptlt.Endrass]

The name says it. Your opinion on the best hunting grounds in the Atlantic.
1940-41: Gulf of Wales. Large amounts of large cargos that are alone. Went in from Lorient with 14 fish and spent everything on merchants at Bristol and Merthyr harbors, both defended by lone ASW trawlers. Also expended all deck gun ammo, came back with 94% integrity only because I ran into a anti sub net. Patrol total, 60925 tons. (Side note:The merchants are almost all carrying ammo and fuel, and air cover is minimal. Was deck gunning two ships and jumped by Hurricanes, stayed on surface and took no damage.)

[UKönig]

If you're talking about the most successful hunting in the Atlantic that I have ever found, then the award goes to New York City.
Tankers, small and large, merchants, all sizes, and best of all, passenger liners.
In vanilla SH3, the ocean liner is worth almost 25,000 tons. The reality, for the ship as depicted in the game, the tonnage is closer to 80,000.
For those interested, the liners Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary (each about 80,000 tons) were converted to troopship duties during the war. At their peaks, they each carried about 15,000 soldiers to battlefields in Europe. In fact, if I remember correctly, Queen Mary still holds the record of most troops transported in a single crossing. It got so bad that hitler offered a bounty of 250,000 reichsmarks to any Uboat who could verify the sinking of either (preferably both).
Pros/cons
Pros: take north side of long island, if you can slip in undetected, destroyers will not think to follow you, they like to take the main gates.
Cons: at least 2 very shallow (10m or less) points, forcing you to surface and 2 choke points, requiring careful maneuvering. If you pick a bad time to do this (you'll know) you may have to deal with aircraft (bombers) with no AA. But if you can get past the choke points, into the harbour, the bombers cannot get you w/o hitting the city at large.
Best to dive at the bridges (brooklyn i think) or else everything in the harbour with a cannon will start shooting at you, even through the buildings (with no clear line of sight). It's a bit tricky trying to line up some shots with the piers in the way, but if you can pull it off, it can be very rewarding. Draft clearance is enough for a type 7 and 9 to operate, but not a 21.
If I save most of my fish from my patrol, I can usually add anywhere from 30-60,000 tons to my haul...

[UKönig]

But if you hunger to challenge the best the British navy has to offer, well my friend, head on down to the straits of gibraltar, you won't have to wait long...

[Kaptlt.Endrass]

Been there, done that my good fellow Kaluen. The U-65 was nearly sent to the briny deep that fateful night. In other news...

[Jimbuna]

250km west of Gibraltar.

[GreyBeard]

September 1939, Irish Sea. Not necessarily large cargo ships, but definitely lots of. A good start for a beginning career. :up:

:salute:

[HW3]

My favorite areas are BE65 & AM52.

[maillemaker]

Most of my best work comes with a Type IX as soon as you can get one.

Find lightly-escored convoys off the east cost of Britain, bait the escorts into a chase and kill them with down-the-throat magnetic torpedoes, then surface and use the deck gun and remaining torpedoes. If you find a pesky merchant with an early deck gun, you'll have to dispose of them first. I have on several occasions wiped out entire convoys.

Steve

[flag4]

BF 13/15

[Mittelwaechter]

AL 2/5 + AK 2/5

[Herr-Berbunch]

In or abouts BF17 :yep:

And I've never hear of the Gulf of Wales before. :o

But definitely BF17 is worth the trip.

[Jimbuna]

In or abouts BF17 :yep:

And I've never hear of the Gulf of Wales before. :o

But definitely BF17 is worth the trip.

Not far from the Irish Channel I believe.

[irish1958]

WNW of the British Isles, the closer the better and the less safe.

[Rammstein0991]

My best hunts (including nailing the Highland Brigade iirc) are north of Ireland, AM51-AM52-AM02

Early to mid war these grounds are packed to the gunnels with ships, many of whom travel alone, the pickings are so easy I have taken down dozens of (unescorted) merchants there with a deck gun alone. :arrgh!:

[Aktungbby]

1940-41: Gulf of Wales.)


And I've never hear of the Gulf of Wales before.

Not far from the Irish Channel I believe.

An extensive but thumbnail hunt for the 'Gulf of Wales' turns up NADA:down: however that body of considerable expanse to the east of the St George Straight and exclusive of the Bristol Straight is Cardigan Bay, proper. There are two more northerly Welsh named 'bays' as well. Interestingly, the Irish Sea and the Celtic Sea are not the same thing; a point I had not picked up on heretofore.:know: There is a Strait of Wales in the Canadian Archipelago which was a traverse of the fabled Northwest Passage but I don't believe the hunting is good there. A further perusal of my National Geographic World Atlas; vol VI. also shows nothing additional beyond my two included maps > http://www.worldatlas.com/aatlas/infopage/irishsea.gif http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Map_indicating_Prince_of_Wales_Strait%2C_Northwest _Territories%2C_Canada.png (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Map_indicating_Prince_of_Wales_Strait%2C_Northwest _Territories%2C_Canada.png)

[Kaptlt.Endrass]

The 'Gulf of Wales' is my name for the large inlet just north of Brest as you come out of the Channel. The ports of Swansea, Merthyr, and Bristol are in that area. Sorry for the misuse of geographical vocab.

[scott_c2911]

Theres also so no such port called Merthyr. Theres a town Called Merthyr Tydfil south of the Brecon Beacons. In stock sh3 Merthyr can only mean Swansea or more probably the industrial port of Port Talbot. In GWX this annoying example of poor geographical research is corrected. For someone who knows Wales so well GWX is a must. In reply to the original post my contribution is BF14. It is partially filled with shallow water so its a bit iffy post 1942.

[Jimbuna]

Game spoiler:

Download the SpySat mod or interrogate the SH3 world through the SH3 Mission Editor.

[Kaptlt.Endrass]

Well that's no fun.:03:

I'll say it since no one has. The Channel crossing 5-6 June 1944. Plenty of merchants, battleships, cruisers, and destroyers with the best equipment available. I was in U-1205 (XXI) and had well over 300000 tons by the end of the night, but that was sadly her last patrol. Too many Hedgehogs (all escorts have them) and Leigh Light attacks. If you get out alive from that wolf's den, you are a holy man to Germany.

[Skink5150]

I happen to like lurking at the Northern channel between Trinidad and Venezuela , also between Hispaniola and Cuba . A lot of tanker traffic .
Cape Hatteras is great as well .

[flag4]

Game spoiler:

Download the SpySat mod or interrogate the SH3 world through the SH3 Mission Editor.

KILLER - NO FUN. turn up and shoot...:nope:
...naughty naughty - not to be encouraged...:down:

:salute:

[Jimbuna]

KILLER - NO FUN. turn up and shoot...:nope:
...naughty naughty - not to be encouraged...:down:

:salute:

:oops: http://imgcash6.imageshack.us/img88/595/peureux02bh4vx2.gif

[Doolar]

I like AM52 in 1940, but I haven't been there in awhile, Its late 1941 for me, and have been ordered to the BE's grids, on my last 3 patrols. BE39 is smoke'n, lots of lone ships. If you have a torpedo or 2 left and want to use them before return'n to port, to pick up some extra tonnage, then BE39 is your spot.

[Hinrich Schwab]

BF 17. It is still in the shipping lanes and, most importantly, the shipping lanes cross over deep water if you need to run and hide from escorts. Best of both worlds.:up:

[ExFishermanBob]

I happen to like lurking at the Northern channel between Trinidad and Venezuela , also between Hispaniola and Cuba . A lot of tanker traffic .
Cape Hatteras is great as well .


Hmm...lots of rum too.

For me, lurking outside Gibraltar early in the war (before the pesky air cover gets so bad), and off Florida a bit later (someone else gave me a pointer to that).

[Ifernat]

Would definitely recommend 100-200 km west of the Gibraltar channel (in GWX).

Currently there in July 1940 and its been lucrative. Though I have noticed the lone vessel traffic does seem to have a high proportion of coastal freighters which don't help the tonnage/per torpedo ratio. There's a good mix of medium and large merchants/freighters though and every few days you'll tend to get a convoy either in or outbound. To boot most of the area is deep water as well.

In GWX atleast, its not that big a deal if you're eating through torpedoes on small targets (usually due to bad weather which disallows the deck gun) due to the fact that the Thalia resupply ship is practically right next door in Cadiz.

Haven't even encountered any aircraft yet, though that may have more to do with my playstyle which is to let the hydrophone get the initial contacts. So I'm usually submerged during the day. Still during several surface jaunts at high speed to setup intercepts haven't seen or heard a single plane.

This is practically a vacation compared to the last major patrol I took which was interdicting Operation Dynamo off Dunkirk. That was interesting.

[KleineUboot]

For me the best hunting ground is the Irish Sea. There are so many lone transports, and in the North Channel you can find 1-2 large convoys. Also, area near Liverpool is good hunting ground too-but there is too much aircraft. But, in other hand, you must be very careful-when you're passing through North Channel, there's a chance of being attacked by a swarm of Hurricanes.

[lionn77]

According to a fellow Abwehra guy, if you happen to be somewhere near Scapa Flow during the first two weeks of the war, patrol the western approaches to the base. Lots of big guys moving over there including the mighty H...:)

[GJO]

Forget the Atlantic and join the Monsun 10th Flotilla - there are plenty of unescorted tankers, Large Merchants and Whale Factory Ships just south of the southern tip of Ceylon.