Somebody in the BdU, hates me
 

Well, BdU instructed me to patrol grid AN87 - which effectively is the grid of Dunkirk in the English Channel.

I knew that Bernard was the nephew of someone high up, but it seems that his uncle is THE "Onkel".

I have to sell this now to my crew as a magnificent opportunity to hit a blow to the underbelly of Britain - while in reality its more of a suicide mission.

Thank God its early in the war. If it was late 1940 or later, then I would change the emblem of my boat from a Medusa's head to a Cross with the name of my Kaleun on it.

Hrm... Someone on your crew must have been in the wrong place when they conducted their "fire drill". Lucky for you command has a short memory for these things. :yep:

I'd call bull and sail to better fishing grounds for this patrol. :up:

You don't have to tell many, if any, of your crew. But I wouldn't stick around there for long!

Good luck.

There can be rich pickings in the area but beware of mines.

I've never run into any outside of harbors, but that's not to say that there aren't mines out there. I've been pretty darn lucky so far. http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/pict...pictureid=4486

The patrols aren't too bad out there early in the war. I haven't played beyond 1941 and so cannot attest to late-war experience. The advice I was always given about the Channel is to stay out of the Channel (sounds better coming from jimbuna, cuz he knows how to emphasize things like that :up:), but I run the gauntlet anyway.

EDIT: Rich pickings == lots of single merchants, and maybe a convoy every once in awhile coming out of the port north of Dover, if you're lucky.

I run it early, and even pop in to harbour raid on occasion, but after the first few months of hostilities I go around the top. Never been ordered there so far though. :o

Last time I was in Dunkirk early in the war, there was a 34,000t troop ship moored up. If you make your way about 2km to the east of the harbour, and sneak your way along the coast, you'll come just to the gap in the harbour wall and be able to sink the beast. Not much water below you though :P

Returned from patroling AN87. Pretty thick surface patrols but encountered my fair share of single merchants. Patrol Ended with 4 ships sunk (1 Granville, 1 Large Merchant and 2 coastal frighters) for a total tonnage of 16,911

Not bad for a type II, early 1940's at high realism

I was a maniac with VII boats (still am compared to IXs) but I find the little Type II pretty fantastic. And demanding. So far I love this carreer.

WAIT!
 

Mines?! I heard there were ASW nets!? Where?

Check the Campaign_SCR via the Mission Editor.

http://i874.photobucket.com/albums/a...inefield01.png

Eastern entrance to the Channel.

All those grey circles represent minefields.

On a somewhat related note, I never realized how many minefields were around Norfolk. Apparently I wandered into a very heavy barrage multiple times on my way to raid the harbor...

What is most important is the density (mines/sq. km) of the minefield......some are more dense than others.

You must have also upset the same guy who sent my type II first to BF31 (patrol report - yes, Portsmouth is still there) and then to coast of Wales. There I hit a mine, which almost wrecked my boat, I got her the surface, with wrecked diesels and damaged electrics, tried to submerge whilst repairing the boat and lost control again, just managed to surface with the last of my compressed air and found by destroyer whilst sat trying to repair the electrics. Surprisingly I couldn't convince it to leave by firing at it with the flak gun.

You weren't trying hard enough. :O:

BE MORE AGGRESSIVE! :arrgh!:

I have been through the Channel many times in my career. Not ONCE have i sailed into a minefield.:06: