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Originally Posted by Magua
On the single ship contacts debate, I'm reading lots of things like: "well, it could happen, might happen, " etc....
But if you read any Biography of a U-Boat Commander or Account of a U-Boat's Experience you will find the same conclusion: The Single Ships they found and sunk, were ones they just happened across by surprise. No advance warning. BDU sent out Contact Reports about Convoys, not single ships. When a single ship was found it was attacked and sunk. That's it.
I'm not talking about how things work today, might have worked then, or worked in other theatres of the war. Pick up a U-Boat Commander's Auto-Biography and READ!!!!!
I love having single ships in the game, and love it even more when I get a surprising "Ship Sighted" Call out of the blue!
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Puster Bill understands that Magua is a dog to his single ship contacts. When they appear on his map, he puts down his scope to feed their laziness...
Seriously, though, while it would have been no where near as common as it is in SHIII, I believe B-Dienst did forward intel about single ship movements to BdU. Whether or not BdU decided to transmit them to the U-boats is another story. The only real answer to that would be to search the signal intercepts in the archives of GCHQ, a daunting task for those of us who don't live in the UK. I only know of a few u-boat enigma decrypts that have made it to the web, and most of those dealt with administrivia.
Having said that, the UBootwaffe was a very 'chatty' organization. I find it hard to believe that BdU would send out birthday messages to petty officers on patrol, yet wouldn't forward contact reports they received from B-Dienst.
I have read "U-Boat Commander" by Peter Cremer, "Iron Coffins" by Herbert Werner, "U-977" by Heinz Schaeffer, and a couple of others that escape me at the moment. I've also read extensively on the history of German SIGINT operations in both WWI and most especially WWII, so I know whereof I speak on that subject (having been in that business as a younger man also helps).
By the way, I love your nick. I have used Magua extensively on Fark. My signature here used to be "When the corvette captain is dead, Magua will eat his heart... etc."