Was I sunk by a mine??

[Jard]

Hello Kapleuns
I was heading back to Wilhelmshaven last night, first GWX patrol, 1939. I'd had a quiet time and was cruising south about 50-100km off the east coast of Scotland. Seas very rough so I was ticking along at periscope depth hoping I might pick up a last merchant or two on the way home. Picked up some warship noises, but nothing nearby, so increased TC as I wanted to get back to port before I went to bed.

Suddenly I got a load of damage and flooding reports from nowhere. I organised a damage control team but didn't manage to hold back the flooding and sank with all hands lost.

What I'd like to understand though is what sank me? I can only assume it was a mine as I was so far away from any enemy ships, but is it likely that there would be mines floating round that far from a port? Is there anything that we can do to avoid hitting mines or was it just bad luck?

Danke!

[leet657]

I had something simular but I was a bit deeper and could only assume that I had hit the bottom - bad watchkeeping!!!!

[melnibonian]

Most probably you did hit a mine. If you want to avoid this from happening again make sure you run on the surface.

[AVGWarhawk]

Where exactly was the location? Near a port? If you were far out I doubt a minefield.

[melnibonian]

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

Where exactly was the location? Near a port? If you were far out I doubt a minefield.

He said 50-100Km east of Scotland. The whole of the area around England is full of mines and the minefields are really huge. Open up the editor and have a look. They're scary

[AVGWarhawk]

Originally Posted by melnibonian

He said 50-100Km east of Scotland. The whole of the area around England is full of mines and the minefields are really huge. Open up the editor and have a look. They're scary

I will have too mate!!!

[Jard]

Thanks for the replies. Sounds like I may have run into a minefield, so I'll be more careful about staying on the surface anywhere near the coast in future.

The annoying thing is that in the conditions (stormy) and light (dusk) I could have been on the surface without too much risk, but it felt like I was using a lot of diesel and not getting very far. Also I'd been watching some Das Boot the night before (naturlich...) - the bit when it's all stormy and the Kapleun gives them an hour's peace and quiet submerged (just before 'It's Thomsen!!'). I thought my lads deserved a bit of peace and quiet down below and I ended up getting us all killed...

Never mind. Wolfgang Sauer will be setting sail in the U-52 tonight to get a bit of revenge on Tommy...

[Vacillator]

Somewhere in that area last night I happened to hit bottom (gently thankfully) at 90m which surprised me, so I cheated a bit and looked around with the camera. To my surprise I saw a chain going up to rusty looking mine! I can't give grid reference unfortunately but it certainly surprised me. Haven't hit one yet though :hmm:

[Jimbuna]

50-100km off Scottish East coast....def a mine I reckon

[FIREWALL]

[quote=melnibonian]

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

Where exactly was the location? Near a port? If you were far out I doubt a minefield.

He said 50-100Km east of Scotland. The whole of the area around England is full of mines and the minefields are really huge. Open up the editor and have a look. They're scary[


Hi MEL Could you help this nub in showing me the steps on how to
open up the editor and finding all these mine fields around UK and elsewhere please so i can print it up for reference. Thx.

[melnibonian]

To start with you go to C\Program Files\Ubisoft\SH3 and you double click on the file called Mission-Editor.exe. That will open up the mission editor. After that you open the Campaign_SCR.mis located at C\Program Files\Ubisoft\SH3\Data\Campaigns\Campaign. That will bring up the world map with all the SCR data for the campaign. Then you chose the option Time filter start on the top up title bar and you set the starting time to 1939 and the month to 10. After that you zoom in close to England and you see the minefields.



As you can see in this screenshot they're quite large and extended, so be very careful

EDIT: To navigate around the map you need to click on the little hand icon on the top task-bar

EDIT II: You're correct BBW. I've croped my picture a bit. Hopefully it's better now

[bigboywooly]

Rough guess I reckon you hit the eastern barrage



Big enough pic there Mel
lmao

[XXi]

In general, Eastern coasts of England and ENglish Channel are covered with very dense minefields... after similiar expierience with hitting a mine, I avoid going close to the shores... north of Irealnd or Western Approaches and slightly west off of Western Approaches are good places to hunt as well and the risk is not that high.

Still, there are many destroyers and planes

In general: deep waters close to the continental shelf are perhaps the best place. Too deep for mines, still quite a lot of targets and in case of ASW it`s deep enough to make few tricks. Shallow waters near England, even in 1939, are risky.

[Morts]

BBW and mel are those really...mi..mi..minefields ?

thats where i patrol
wow...aparently ive done 7 patrols in a mine field

[melnibonian]

Originally Posted by Morts

BBW and mel are those really...mi..mi..minefields ?

thats where i patrol
wow...aparently ive done 7 patrols in a mine field

Unfortunatelly these are minefields and as the years pass they grow bigger and bigger. The only way out of it is to stay on the surface as much as possible in these areas. Otherwise head off to the Noth Sea and far away from the coast.

Who said picking up on England will be easy?