I read Blair, but I'm a little fuzzy on this. Did BDU know that war was that imminent and they hurried them into position, or were they planned deployments to synchronize with the start of war, or was BDu just aware that war was imminent and they were getting boats into place jus in case?

From what I've read, they (meaning the KM higher-ups) knew that an incursion into Poland was imminent, and IIRC by mid-August they had been informed of the date it was expected to begin. Nobody knew for sure how England and France would react, but of course they knew that both countries were bound by treaty to come to Poland's aid in the event of aggression by Germany.

Given what Hitler had already gotten away with over the previous few years, it was no doubt hoped (and maybe to some degree expected) that the rest of Europe would look the other way or perhaps send a strongly worded letter to Berlin and that would be it.

Nevertheless, the possibility of war with England (and France) was always a potential result of aggression against Poland, so as many boats as could be made ready were sent out in order to have them on station should that possibility become reality. I think I even read somewhere about various people being called back early from leave when their superiors got word of what was coming, they were really scrambling to be as prepared as possible for the potential fallout.

For the KM, war with England was a "worst case scenario" they knew they might have to deal with and at a great disadvantage given the current state of the KM vs. the Royal Navy. So, yeah, they were very much trying to get as much of a jump on things as they could.

well it is all moot in this case, i deployed, got to my assigned patrol area, did some practice attack runs, and made it home.

which leads me to another question, on the next patrol will my nav map show the location of minefields. GWX's manual has quite a few pages showing you where they are but i was wondering if this was true in the game also.

The map doesn't, but there is a pull-down harbor chart in GWX that will show you the location of anti-sub defenses in Axis harbors.

When it comes to mines laid by the Allies, you're on your own. I can tell you that the area around Helgoland is mined very shortly after the start of the war. With British harbors and coastal areas it should go without saying that you need to proceed with caution.

I've also heard that the area between the Faroes and Britain were mined, but I've passed through there many times (mostly on the surface) without incident. I stay in the deepest part of the passage, the mines are (I assume) more likely to be found nearer the coastlines on either side.

Good idea, still meaning to give this a try...

Cheers for spelling 'er out Steve! :salute: