Just like the Straights of Gibraltar it was EXTREMELY dangerous for a u-boat to try and traverse because it was very narrow and quite shallow and once the u-boat was detected everyone and their mother in laws destroyer would show up. There are stories of successful run thru..but they were few and far between and usually done during night and extremely bad weather.
I tried sneaking thru once in 39, about 1/2 way thru I got spotted and spent the rest of the time at about 30 meters because the bottom was at 35 meters.
I was always wondering if they could have devised some way for the u-boat to be towed thru either a captured freighter or perhaps a neutral or non-enemy ship (like a 500-1000 cable attached to the bottom of the ship away from the screws and rudder, this way the sub could stay submerged with the screws possibly free wheeling or even charging the batteries and slip by un-detected)
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