Interesting notes Cybermat47!
I love your attention to historical realism and I like seeing that I am not the only history fanatic here. Since I took part in the development of the Baltic Operations campaign by providing Trevally with the results of my historical research, I think I can answer your remarks on it.
To start off, this campaign was not present in stock game. As you probably remember, in its stead there was a quite meagre and poorly designed tutorial taking place in the middle of the Baltic Sea during the first hours of the invasion of Poland. I think it was my idea replacing it with a proper campaign, starting a few days earlier in Memel. The idea originated from the "discovery" that three Type VII-A U-boats assigned to the 2nd U-Flotille (U-31, U-32 and U-35) started their first patrols in active service from Memel, departing from there on 27 August and docking at Wilhelmshaven (U-31) and Kiel (U-32 and U-35) between the 1st and the 2nd day of September after a short stay in the Danzig Bay. I think I have read somewhere (though I cannot remember the source) that their order was to intercept and follow, unseen, the Polish warships escaping to England on the eve of the Polish invasion; their patrol was obviously uneventful though, as the
Peking Plan had taken place a few days earlier, unbeknownst to the German intelligence. Taking the cue from the episode above, my initial idea (further elaborated by Trevally) was for us to be instructed by B.d.U. to station in the Danzig Bay and intercept/shadow/report any Polish warship outbound from there.
Further inspiration came fro Operation Rurka (a failed attempt to mine the entrances to the Danzig Bay, during which the Polish minelayer ORP Gryf was bombed by German Stuka's) and from the subsequent
Battle of Danzig Bay. Indeed, no U-boat actually took part in any of those actions, but I and Trevally thought it fit to force history a bit and to let the player starting his career with a short and not too demanding prelude with many scripted and "cinematic" events before the more challenging campaigns that take place in the North Sea and in the Atlantic. Since Vecko has removed tonnage requirements from SH5, I think nothing prevents the player from ignoring orders and heading directly for Kiel, in time for starting the "Coastal Waters" campaign from its onset on September 1st. All is needed no to wait too long in bunker, is this little utility by Trevally:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/down...o=file&id=3388
I think that's all for now. More general remarks by me in the next days
