Last 24hrs - complete absence of aircraft in bay of biscay,Nov 1st 1942

[Paul Riley]

Nov 1st 1942
Enroute for AL35

During the last 24 hrs of this current patrol we are about 630km west of the French coast,crawling along at no greater than x32tc,expecting imminent air attacks every hour or so,just like during our last patrol,yet there have been no sightings whatsoever,save a couple of fighters that flew overhead earlier on in the bay (about 50km or so from where we started out to sea),followed by bomber formations who attacked the area for about 30mins.That was the last we have seen from them.

Weather conditions are good,with clear skies and no fog.We even managed a surface run during the entire previous night,something which I have refused to do since air attacks became a problem,completely unmolested.Which brings me to the possible conclusion that the allies still dont seem to have fitted radar sets to their planes yet,only their warships,giving me the chance to use the night again for surface runs,except during cloudy days.

Is this a bug in the game,or could it actually represent heavy allied plane losses,and they are trying to gather their strength again?.
Strange,but i'm not complaining,any respite from air attacks is a welcomed one

[Paul Riley]

Continued

Dusk is approaching and still there have been no aircraft sightings.The allies are upto something,I can sense it
We are going to risk another run on the surface during darkness,maintaining absolute radio silence.Normally i'd dive during darkness and travel surfaced during the day,as we are far safer spotting the flies on a clear day,than at night.Yet,as I say,last night was uneventful,which leaves us all with a strange sense of foreboding

Any ideas on this latest development?

[Torplexed]

I just did a Biscay Bay transit in May 1944 where I wasn't jumped by any aircraft. I guess sometimes you just get real lucky.

[Paul Riley]

What I find strange though is,when breaking out of the bay in my last patrol I was relentlessly harrassed by loads of aircraft,sometimes as frequent as every 15mins when closer to the French coast,yet on this patrol I had the earlier attack about 50-100km west,and now we have absolutely no sightings as far out as 650-700km west,plus one perfect night surface run,which has'nt been done in a while
I could only come to the conclusion that the RAF have sustained heavy losses and were unable to mount much of an effective attack at this time,or there is some major problem with their radar,or that the Germans may have even sabotaged their land based radar sites!
Or as you said,just plain old luck.

Very odd

[papa_smurf]

Just be glad you got out of the Bay of Biscay in one piece. You won't be glad when you next get jumped by a Sunderland

[Torplexed]

Originally Posted by Paul Riley

I could only come to the conclusion that the RAF have sustained heavy losses and were unable to mount much of an effective attack at this time,or there is some major problem with their radar,or that the Germans may have even sabotaged their land based radar sites!
Or as you said,just plain old luck.

Very odd

In my case it could be that the price of my unscathed passage is that the British were too busy working over some of my fellow captains.

Later in that same patrol I did start getting smacked by land-based air near the Azores. I think they're trying to make up for my easy exit.

[Paul Riley]

papa_smurf
I'm not out of the bay just yet,a few more hours I would think
Even then,I am not exactly out of the Air Zone per se,as drawing a ring of 2000km indicating current air coverage at this time around Britain,and around Iceland,clearly shows I am not free yet.My current patrol is in an area that converges both AZs

[Hitman]

What mod are you using, or do you play stock SH3?

In GWX3 I have noticed also that surprising lack of aircraft attacks even in 1944, and yet in previous versions it worked very well. But when running a campaign from Penang, I get constantly harrased by aicraft when near the red sea, India, and any allied base, as it should be. Certainly very strange....

So far NYGM is the mod where I have gotten more consistent results (Meaning I'm ALWAYS harrased by aircraft LOL ) but probably that can be traced down to the fact that NYGM has "scripted" air attacks, not just random ones.

[Paul Riley]

Hitman,
I use stock game 1.4 with commander
I am planning to install some of the major mods like GWX etc in my next campaign,whenever that is.
I just dont want to terminate my current campaign of many months now,just for a supermod etc,i'm sure you understand

[Rhodes]

All the people here may think I am lying, but even with gwx in 44 or even 45, I allways manage to do 2 day all surface with out a plane attacking me. The odd thing is that I would like to had those situattions so the game be better!

[Hitman]

I use stock game 1.4 with commander
I am planning to install some of the major mods like GWX etc in my next campaign,whenever that is.
I just dont want to terminate my current campaign of many months now,just for a supermod etc,i'm sure you understand

Sure, sure! Playing the stock game for at least a whole career should be mandatory for every new player, because it helps you appreciate both the hard work of the original UBI Dev Team (Who started from SCRATCH!!) and the incredible improvements that the modders have later done to that game

but even with gwx in 44 or even 45, I allways manage to do 2 day all surface with out a plane attacking me

So I'm not alone on that

[Rhodes]

Originally Posted by Hitman

So I'm not alone on that

No, your're not! Also, with the radar detectors I manage to dive before any plane jump "my crew"! I count one or two times that I had a plane coming down attacking! Once it was in the biscay bay, but I can not remember if I already had the cross!

[Paul Riley]

Originally Posted by Hitman

Sure, sure! Playing the stock game for at least a whole career should be mandatory for every new player

I'm not what you might call a 'new player' , I have played it since 2005,with ever more increasing alterations to the difficulty.

I'll be ready for the super mods in time,i'm sure