Quote:
Originally Posted by Bubblehead1980
Second, far as traffic goes, I believe it's just a matter of not detecting contacts. Early war, no radar, likely running at TC and contacts are just out of sight.
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The patrol I described above is the fifth since the war began. The prior ones were all target rich, including the two before surface search radar was added. The patrol area isn't the open Pacific; I can understand not finding targets in either the Pescadores Strait terminus, crossing the Sulu Sea twice, the eastern Ryukyu lanes, the Singapore to Manila/Japan lanes, or the Luzon Straits (twice) on occasion but all of them sequentially?
And it's not just merchants: With all these planes being vectored in, why no DDs or subchasers too?
Plus it's happened before, both now to Marco and to me in previous careers.
Below is an excerpt from a previous version where something similar happened:
Fremantle-Dampier/Vitiaz-Admiralties-Papua coast-Halmahera Sea-Ceram Sea-Molucca Sea-Basilan Passage-Sibutu Passage-Makassar Strait-Fremantle. Sept-Nov 1943.
Issues:
- Other than sailing vessels, the only MV underway that we encountered was a DD we'd triggered by coming too close to one of the coastal bunkers in the Basilan Passage. Decided to raid a certain anchorage to finally score some tonnage, which led to the only MV merchant and two other warships on the entire patrol, all three anchored.
NB: it was actually Sibutu, not Basilan.