Gibraltar 1941- Crazy!!!
 

So I get sent out in late December 1940 to patrol Casablanca. Nothing happening (anyone know the date of Torch? too lazy to check). So I go to the happy hunting grounds of the Gibraltar passage, on the West side. Long story short, besides a dueling gun battle with a British sub (I won of course), the BIG story here is that the place is SWARMING with British airplanes! It's a matter of minutes after engaging a British merchant that airplanes appear. And in my new IX-B, crash diving is a little slow. So far, I've been attacked 6 times! (spotted 12-15x) I drove one attacker off, at the cost of my flak gunner's life (several others wounded). I've taken to running at 6-7m after my initial attack, if I'm not already submerged. That lets me crash dive in time to avoid most of the damage. And I've noticed that the Brits will continue to send our reinforcements to protect a damaged ship, as well as to attack old torpedo launch locations. It's like a hornet's nest has been put there!!

I don't remember the Brits having that much airpower, historically, in place by January 1941. Is that true? Man, I was hoping to get a sweet warship or two for their renown, but at this pace, I'll be lucky if I live. But seeing as most of the damage is from strafing attacks, and I still have lots of torps, I'm staying out to do as much damage as I can before going back to port. I'm just very nervous about making any deep dives after all that strafing! :o Man, combined with the rapid arming of just about all the bigger merchants, and some of the smaller ones, the happy times are quickly fading! :down: (GWX 2.0, 100% realism)

Yup, decks awash is the only way to survive in that area.

Hi!

Operation Torch was in November 1942.

Pablo

gibraltar a madness ..... a madness ? no IT´S SPARTA!!!!

:hmm:

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z..._300_movie.jpg

in response to the sparta comment ^^^^^^^

TONIGHT, WE DINE, IN MALTA!!!!!!!



THIS, IS, GWX!!!!!!!!!

http://www.qarl.com/qLab/pile/300/SPARTA.jpg

ha, watch this,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZBA0SKmQy8!!!!!!!!!

oh... oh god... too much sparta is a bad thing,

But there is no such thing as too much GWX!!! :arrgh!:

don't know if they had a powerful air force but in any case they had pretty efficient carriers especially in the Mediterranean

Funny... must be bad luck on your end. I am in the same area around christmas 1940. Sank about 66,000 BRT of single merchants and out of one convoy (which also had a Fidji class cruiser... but my two last torps on that one didnt go off. :( ). I didnt see a single enemy aircraft all the time while I stayed there for like 3 weeks...

GWX 2.0 that is.

TONIGHT, WE DINE, IN MALTA!!!!!!!


ha ha :sunny:

Aircover in 2.0 is the same as 2.1
Apart from the Biscay

You should rightly see aircover there
Gib was the only British base in the region and as such was heavily defended

The Gib straits are a natural bottleneck to and from the Med
Any Italian\German or any other Axis unit HAS to go through there so yes was heavily patrolled
Either by air or sea

The type of aircraft you see will also narrow down as to whether was a land or carrier based aircraft
Again the Brits HAD to go through the Gib straits to and from the Med so you can expect to see carrier borne aircraft as well as land based due to the fleet movements

If you make it past the Strait!:rotfl:

At least early in the war you don't have to worry so much about night attacks from planes. There's equally juicy targets in the actual Gibraltor dock, can usally snag a BB, LC, and an assortment of tankers.

Well, I just finished that patrol. A grand total of EIGHT air attacks on my boat! This isn't supposed to happen until 1944! :o Fortunately, my tough IXB made it back with 35% hull integrity. Unfortunately, when I attacked a convoy, my computer crashed (which sucked hard because it had a Southhampton-class cruiser that I was itching for).

The good news is that I reloaded from a save, attacked the same convoy (that now was missing the cruiser?), and ended up with 49.9K on my way home. I spotted a coastal merchant heading across the Atlantic (:o ) and with two stern torps left, I pressed the attack. Now here's the strange thing. I'm about 200 km from the Straight of Gibraltar. Earlier in the day, I had been attacked by an airplane (09:30). After running West all day at 4-5 knts submerged, I encountered this ship at 15:30. Immediately upon surfacing, I was attacked by single-engine airplane! I looked around with my observation scope, but saw nothing. Fortunately, I got down just in time to take relatively minor damage to my rear from the second bomb. I then followed the boat underwater until night when I surfaced, got in front of it, and sank it. Has anyone experienced a boat being escorted by a plane? Was this just really bad luck? Do coastal merchants warrant an escort in Jan 1941?!?

Very strange. On the plus side, that put me over 50K, and on the way home, I ran into an unescorted large merchant. On the plus side, I managed to get in front of her, then land a point-blank hit on her bow with my final stern torp. On the downside, it had a hidden gun midships and scored yet another hit on my poor ship while I was waiting for her to sink. On the plus side again, I submerged, tracked her, watched her slow right down (from 9 to 2 kts), and then sink. Any tips for detecting hidden gun emplacements? Should I just assume that all enemy ships are armed now? And does having a skilled gunner make any difference when I do the aiming myself?

Now it's May 1941 and I'm seriously considering "cheating" by looking up the Hood vs. Bismark battle and adding my two torps.:p

The cruiser being missing is because in a RND convoy ships have a percenatage of showing
As you loaded a save the game ran a new set of percentages for that convoy and this time no cruiser
Sometimes you get lucky and all ships previously in are there again
Sometimes not

Coastal mercs like all ships would be sent anywhere in the world if they could handle it
Someone posted some info a while back on the Great Lakes ships crossing the Atlantic
All hands to the pumps as far as shipping concerned

No the ship didnt have an air escort
More than likely a routine patrol