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Originally Posted by sublynx
It's January 1941. My U-boat is some 300 kilometers north of the Faroes. A plane is sighted. We dive while keeping a periscope on the plane. The plane doesn't seem to spot us so we stay at periscope depth. There have been no reports of airplanes in this area yet. I notice it's a single engine airplane. Now is it a carrier borne airplane or a land based airplane? If it is a landbased airplane it means that the enemy is flying from the Faroes and the area is unsafe permanently. If it is a carrier based airplane the area is unsafe for now and there is a task force nearby. I need to identify the plane through the periscope view and to do that a manual would be helpful.
This kind of reconnoitering would be crucial in a real U-boat.
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Yes, but would it IRL?
You say January 1941. In the game, that means the only British single engine aircraft that you would encounter would be a Swordfish, a Martlet, or a Hurricane (with differing mod lists, YMMV). The first two are carrier-based aircraft (and the Swordfish is easily recognizable as a biplane). However, the airfield on the Faroes was not operational until August of 1942. Now, yes, the Germans may or may not know this; however, your position of ~300 km north of the Faroes also puts you ~700-800 km north of the coast of the British Isles, well out of the range of a Hurricane, a non-carrier based aircraft. Now, I am not going to go to the full depth of research, but based on history and game mechanics combined, you would only see a Swordfish, again easily recognizable by the two wings as opposed to the single engine. This just leads to a carrier-based aircraft, regardless, which at this point is pretty easily assumable. So the very easy assumption here is aircraft in the area = carrier based aircraft -> aircraft carrier in the area, which would probably already be known at this point in the war.
I guess my point is that, when it comes to RP, I have a tendency to shy away from it, especially when there is documentation about
what was actually done. As a scientist and a (very) amateur historian, I find it very difficult to say that u-boat commanders would do "x, y, and z," when there is documented evidence that their mentality was in a completely different direction. I have a tendency to allow RP to creep in when I am playing a game that lends itself more to an RP mentality, say Crusader Kings II. The documented evidence that we have available for WW2 is exponentially higher than for the medieval period, so it certainly allows for more flexibility in interpretation, but accurate RP for a game like SH3, IMHO, is difficult to achieve, as what was actually done is much more readily available and less open to flexible interpretation. However, at the same time, it requires a time commitment to actually research what was going on such that it can be thoroughly interpreted and introduced accurately into the game. Something that is much more difficult to do than making an assumption and interpreting that as RP.
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There was also a phase in the war when BdU ordered U-boats not to dive in certain situations when planes where sighted (desperate as that was) and during that phase one would need some help in recognizing the enemy.
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I'd like to point out that this actually occurred only during very limited conditions.
First, this tactic was implemented for a short time for u-boats trying to cross the Bay of Biscay in 1943. Generally, this was only done when working with a U-Flak boat. The other case was for a few months during 1943 for u-boats who were specifically engaging convoys.
I am quite sure that Kriegsmarine communicated to what was left of the Luftwaffe (at least the tiny bit that was left on the Western Front at this time in the war) that u-boats would be using this tactic and staying clear. In addition, I can't imagine the Luftwaffe being around convoys during this time of the war. So without a doubt, if you see aircraft during those periods, it's enemy. And identifying the type of aircraft that is trying to kill you would probably be best
after surviving the engagement. 
I guess the point of all this is that this particular type of intelligence gathering might not necessarily be a real reflection of what actually happened, especially considering that all the evidence in my research indicates that the most sensible Kaleun (after a learning curve factoring in Kaleun experiences and BdU stubbornness) did everything they could to avoid contact with aircraft, including not risking their periscope being observed, especially considering the periscope's (ultimately) limited view of the surface.
But to each his own. The bottom line is that we really don't know. So to say that it definitely would be happening, tough to back up. But we each play a different way.
After all, one man's 100% realism is "TOTAL BS!!!" to someone else.
