Post a picture of an area Paul and I'll show you what is there...if you like.

I'll try and do that tomorrow Jim,all I can say for now is that I was lurking approx 90 km ESE of the Orkneys at a depth of 20m.
:yep:

I did hit mine (if it was one) in AN51, little west side of this square.

Risking a dangerous run through the Channel on my new patrol
 

Just wondering,I am heading to my new patrol just SE of Ireland (mid Sept 1939) and have opted to try a run through the English Channel in order to save time and fuel in my IIA.I will be sailing close to the French coastline until my break out into open sea.I expect the channel to be heavily mined especially near the Dover Strait and the mouth to the Bristol Channel,is this true?
I am thinking of running surfaced at night and decks awash during the day,just in case.From the stories I have read here I dont fancy my IIA running into one of those can openers :o

PS - Can anyone tell me the approx depth from the surface the mine heads come to?

I've usually only seen them at or near periscope depth but the shallower the water the more random the placement gets. Staying close to the French side of the channel you should be alright (Early war - You wouldn't catch me dead anywhere NEAR the channel after 42 :dead:). In the channel I've usually only seen mines in/around harbors but be careful of the east coast of England. Was tracking a pair of merchies there once and next thing I know I'm in a belt of mines thats quite thick and running north-south as far as the horizon. Shocked the hell outta me! :o

I've actually never seen mines at either of the ends of the Channel, but don't quote me on that. Could be I've just gotten damn lucky the few times I've chanced a channel run... ;)

Will give it a go,thanks for the intel...but as you said,I won't quote you on that ;)

http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_mine

Check the latter part of this article,involving the French coastline :o

Well so much for the "sympathetic" Frenchies! Sheesh - you'd think they'd go and clear some of those out for us but noooooooo :nope: No more Channel runs for me... better safe than sunk :smug:

I'll let you know what happens,could be an interesting run,but the chances of seeing a mine submerged are going to be difficult,due to GWX creating even darker underwater conditions and coupled with the fact that I have underwater visibility set at 10 in Commander :o
It will be a case of "sir,I THINK we hit something,and it wasnt the seabed!"

Historicaly (Don't know about SH3 Stock or GWX - See Mr. Jimbuna for that.), the passage between The Orkneys & The Shetlands was HEAVILY MINED by England fairly early.

In GWX as well :03:

Watch out around Helgoland,sail far to the east of the place,struck 2 mines en route to my usual hunting grounds,managed to get back to port minus 7 good crew. Sub was a tough one took heaps of damage but survived:arrgh!:

Actually....the channel between the two is relatively mine free.

http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/9596/mines.jpg

There is a low density British minefield to the east and west of Helgoland until January 1940.


http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/9596/mines.jpg