Amount of days at sea

[Fader_Berg]

I've mostly been using Type IIs to this day. But after spending dodging DCs for six hours and being brought down twice. My sub ain't doing so well. We got suppressed under the surface another 12 hours, (all in all 7 real hours, I've got to get a life ). They had ran out of DCs but continued to circle above me. Got to dangerous oxygen levels...
Anyways... since my flottila has been moved to Brest, they have decided to take my boat out of service, and they gave me an VIIC instead.

I read some patrol logs from Type IIs and noticed that they didn't last longer than 30 days at one patrol under normal conditions. So I've been playing after that. Returning to port, torpedos left or not. Now, the Type VII logs are a whole lot more and I have time to go through them all, so I ask you guys.

What is the typical patrol lenght in days (and the longest "typical") for the TYpe VII?

[RConch]

Depending on what year of the War it is.
Before 1941, I run out of torps by about 3\4 weeks at sea, sometimes less.
When I pass that point, I stay about 60+ days or run out of torps, or have too much damage to continue on patrol.

[frau kaleun]

This career, in a VIIB, I've completed 7 patrols with 239 days at sea.

However the first patrol was 5 days pre-war, and the last one was a 12 day run straight home to Willy with heavy damage after refueling at Vigo.

So if I reduce it down to the "normal" combat patrols, it's 5 for 222 days, average 44.4 days per patrol.

[Schöneboom]

Guten Tag,

A cursory random sampling of Type VII patrols indicates to me a tendency towards 30-40 day patrols, with a peak range of 70-100 days (90+ days definitely in the minority).

No question, Type VII boats could carry provisions for up to 3 months, but most came home sooner than that, even empty-handed. I would factor in the stress on the crew, esp. under harsh conditions (which could also affect the boat's mechanical performance).

Tschuss!

[Tessa]

Your patrol/trolling area also affects the total time spent at sea. If you hit a good convoy after just a day or two in the Atlantic you could be home and expended all your torpedos in just 4 or 5 days. Generally mine average around 12-18 days, longest is 30. Around day 15 or so I'll start running low on fuel and either have to return home or be near a supply ship.

My last patrol went from Kiel -> Gibraltor and ended up with 2 torpedos left and about 5% or less fuel left when I reach the supply ship.

[Panser]

As others have said, a month to 6 weeks was a typical patrol duration until boats started going long haul to try and find more targets. However, don't feel you should force yourself to stay out this long unless you're deliberately trying to go for authenticity. With a bit of recklessness, a lot of luck and a severe case of throat itch you can be done in a fraction of the time.

I've always patrolled until I'm either out of eels or badly damaged; I've had some phenomenal luck finding juicy targets in my current career and will pursue targets relentlessly. My patrols have been completely ahistorical in terms of their duration:

-Shortest patrol is 7 days, returning due to a botched harbour raid getting my sub smashed up pretty bad.
- Longest patrol is a mere 20 days, returning empty after interdicting two different patrols off the west coast of Ireland.

I have spent only 126 days at sea in 9 patrols for 470115 tons sunk between 01/09/39 and 17/10/40.

Obviously this makes a mockery of the real statistics, but it sure makes for a fine game

[K-61]

In patrol one of my current career, I was at sea for seven weeks. I had a long dry spell before I finally scored my first kill. Picked up a few more singles and then bagged only one from a convoy before it got too close to shallow shores to be prudent to carry on. I finally returned home as I was running low on fuel. Six to eight weeks in a VII sailing from Germany was normal, somewhat less than that for subs sailing from France. "Paukenschlag" patrols or extended patrols to sub-equatorial regions also made for patrols of about three months. At some point, you simply have to sail for home, as the crew starts getting itchy for shore leave and even the boat itself would seem to be wanting to get back to port for refit and upgrading. Thank God for time compression. I used time compression in "Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe" as a P-51 pilot; it would be nuts to try to do a patrol fully at 1x. I did read about one guy who tried it.

[Gerald]

sometimes shorter.

[Kapt Z]

I usually start for home when we near 50 days at sea. My last two patrols were around that time and we only sank one ship on each patrol.

I've also tried playing around with the fuel consumption/speed. Trying to find the magic speed to burn enough fuel that I am forced to go home at around 40-50 days.

[Tessa]

At least as a VIIb is concerned, at standard speed (14 knots) your max range is around 6900 km, whereas if you just lower it a bit to 1/3 speed (10 knots) you're range increases to 13k. Using the manual setting for speed 8 knots is the sweet spot in terms of fuel effeciency and range, you get almost 20k max range.

Depending on the year, there's some spots that you can pretty much just camp out in and actually use the patrol patterns and get frequent hits - like the Irish Sea, North African Coastline, Straight between Tunis and Sicily, the Gibraltor straight and whole area west of it. If you're lucky you might run into a whole convoy, but at the least you'll usually catch several pairs or 3-4 ships going together unescorted.

[Kapt Z]

Originally Posted by Tessa

At least as a VIIb is concerned, at standard speed (14 knots) your max range is around 6900 km, whereas if you just lower it a bit to 1/3 speed (10 knots) you're range increases to 13k. Using the manual setting for speed 8 knots is the sweet spot in terms of fuel effeciency and range, you get almost 20k max range.

Yes, 8 knots seems the most efficient. This patrol I am using 9 knots and it drops the range about 6000 km so we'll see.

Depending on the year, there's some spots that you can pretty much just camp out in and actually use the patrol patterns and get frequent hits - like the Irish Sea, North African Coastline, Straight between Tunis and Sicily, the Gibraltor straight and whole area west of it. If you're lucky you might run into a whole convoy, but at the least you'll usually catch several pairs or 3-4 ships going together unescorted.

I know just what you mean, I've been to grids where it seems you run into a ship or two almost every day.

As frustrating as low tonnage patrols can be gameplay wise I actually don't mind them too much when they happen. Good reminders that many boats never sunk anything.

[CherryHarbey]

I let the fuel act as my way of modelling provisions on board as I'm always on the move. my logic being that if you can sail for x days at the most economical speed then you must have had that many days food too otherwise why take so much fuel?
that said I usually run out torps before fuel.

[papa_smurf]

On average my patrols last around 30-40 days.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Tessa

At least as a VIIb is concerned, at standard speed (14 knots) your max range is around 6900 km, whereas if you just lower it a bit to 1/3 speed (10 knots) you're range increases to 13k. Using the manual setting for speed 8 knots is the sweet spot in terms of fuel effeciency and range, you get almost 20k max range.

As it should be. Maximum ranges for real-life boats seem to all be given for 10 knots.

[Tessa]

Originally Posted by Kapt Z

Yes, 8 knots seems the most efficient. This patrol I am using 9 knots and it drops the range about 6000 km so we'll see.


I know just what you mean, I've been to grids where it seems you run into a ship or two almost every day.

As frustrating as low tonnage patrols can be gameplay wise I actually don't mind them too much when they happen. Good reminders that many boats never sunk anything.

Recently started re-reading Clay Blair's U-Boat War set of books, looking through the appendices as you point out there were a lot of patrols even early in the war that came back without having expending a single torpedo or round of ammunition. Then just gets more depressing as the war goes on that instead of the boats returning with an empty patrol they just don't return at all.

One huge game enhancement for us is that we get to enjoy and immerse ourselves in all the history yet not have to take the risks with our lives like the sailor originally did. As glorious as it was the times where Prien, Topp, Kretchsmer and the other top captains came sailing back home they were treated like conquering hero's (albeit many times deserved) they all ended up dead or if lucky captured and sat out the war as POW's. We have hindsight as our "Monday morning quarterback" to help us guide our patrols and know when something baad is just over the horizon and enough time to get the hell outta there.

Driving around in a VII at 8 or 9 knots while realistic, can feel so slow that you're not even moving at times. Long as I know a milk cow is going to remain in place, personally would plan a run to someplace like Halifax and Nex York at a faster pace (prolly round 12ish), will definitely be out of munitions going to either or both those locations. Being able to go to the North Atlantic Milk Cow cuts the travel tiem down signicantly and doesn't require the use of a type IX creates a lot of new opportunities to travel to far and exotic places and sink their ships