Sinking ships before reaching patrol zone
 

Hi there.


Just a little historical question about permissions and orders from BDU.
Sometimes, it was prohibited for kaleuns to sunk lonely merchants (I'm not talkin' about convoys) before reaching their proper patrol zone or missions area. The main goal being to remain discreet and undetected until the designated patrol grids and save the torpedoes, like Paukenschlag for instance.

Was it a mandatory rule from BDU or an order used sometimes for specific operations and patrols ?

Saw a lot of players who don't hesitate to engage lonely merchants ships while "en route" to their patrol zone and I wanted to know how this practice was tolerated by BDU historically.

Thanks in advance.

In reading Blair's books several times, I don't recall any mention of any skipper getting into trouble for the scenario you mention.

Plenty of examples of them attacking before they got to where they were going though.

Orders were quite simple: sink as much as possible Allies merchants ships.
I don’t see why they would skip targets on the way to patrol area!...

One possible exception might have been the seven boats sent to North American waters for Drumbeat. They were given a date and ordered not to conduct any attacks before so as to maximize the element of surprise. One boat did attack early, Hardigan I think but could be mistaken. So far as I recall, no action was taken against the early shooter.

-C

For that matter, I don't recall ever reading that it was "prohibited to sink lonely merchants" etc. in any source.

Yes! The rational was: "You never let a 10,000 tonner go." ;-)

Thanks a lot for your answers !