30th Flotilla?

[GlobalExplorer]

As most of the cracks in this board will now, between 1943 and 1944 the 30th Flotilla operated the smaller Type II boats in the Black Sea from its base in Constantsa (Romania).

I have long waited for a 30th Flotilla mod, and I am a bit surprised that none has done it so far. Especially when I see there is now even a Type IIB included in IUB and the Operations mod adds many new ports, flotillas, even in '44 and '45.

I think there are many reasons why such a mod would be interesting, namely:

- the only Flotilla operating the coastal sub later in the war
- a new area of operation: Black Sea
- fighting against Russian units
- fighting mainly single destroyers and smaller units, great for the tonnage weary*

*the war diaries included such examples as attacks on railways with 20mm shells, etc., not possible in SH3 however

So may I ask if you heard of any rumours or anything in the works?

IIRC the attempts that have been made have fallen on some peculiaritys/bugs with the shipping lanes and such in the Black Sea.

[GlobalExplorer]

Verdammte Scheisse aber auch!

[Ark]

I hear ya', Global.

I too have been waiting for a good Black Sea campaign. I love the little Type IIs.

[GlobalExplorer]

Originally Posted by Ark

I too have been waiting for a good Black Sea campaign. I love the little Type IIs.

For sure.

It's like the IX is the claymore. Very deadly but somewhat clumsy.

The VII is like a good sabre. The best all round weapon.

But the II is the Rapier, the most elegant weapon. Sailing it you need to be a real master.

[sergbuto]

As I understand corresctly, Eweber has made a few scenarios for Black Sea including new ports but they are not available for download. You can also find more activity and some historic operation in the Black Sea included in the U-boat Ace War campaign.

[eweber]

I have 3 Black Sea missions I created for the 30th Flot. I had to also create the ports od Odessa, Sevastopol, Feodosiya, Novorossisk, Rostov, and Batum. Batum is the only port that stayed in Russia's control throughout the war. The rest went back and forth between Germany & Russia.

Batum is a rich oil & mineral port so tankers were a good convoy target of opportunity.

Here's the timeline of control:

Odessa:

16/10/1941 Odessa falls to the Romanians after a Soviet evacuation by sea. During the 2 month siege, the Romanians have suffered 98,000 casualties.

10/04/1944 The Russians enter Odessa on Black Sea as German forces withdraw from the city to the west bank of the Dniester river.


Novorossiysk:

06/09/1942 The 4th Gebirgsjäger division of the 17th Army captures the Black Sea naval base of Novorossiysk.

10/09/1943 Soviet marines supported by naval units of the Red Fleet recapture the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk.


Rostov-on-Don:

22/11/1941 The 3rd Panzer Korps captures Rostov-on-Don.

28/11/1941 Overextended and short of supplies, the 3rd Panzer Korps evacuates Rostov and withdraws to the Mius river, 30 miles to the West.

29/11/1941 Depleted by continuous savage fighting, blizzards and sub-zero temperatures, Army Group Centre's offensive begins to grind to a halt as German units find it increasingly difficult to make ground. The Russians launch a counter-attack at Rostov-on-Don, forcing the German to evacuate the city and withdraw west towards the river Mius.

24/07/1942 Rostov-on-Don is captured by the 1st Panzer Army, thus clearing the way for the advance of Army Group A toward the Caucasus and Kuban region. Large numbers of Russian troops are liquidated in and around Rostov after German troops have secured the city.

28/12/1942 In the face of the continuing Soviet offensive toward Rostov-on-Don, Army Group A is ordered to withdraw its forces from the Caucasus.

12/02/1943 Rostov is captured by Russians. German troops evacuate Krasnodar and reach the defensive positions in the Kuban bridgehead.



Sevastopol:

03/07/1942 Sevastopol, the Crimean capital, finally falls to Germans, along with 97,000 Soviet prisoners. The German and Romanian forces lost 24,000 men.

12/04/1944 Hitler authorises a withdrawal of 230,000 German and Romanian troops to the fortress of Sevastopol. However, this is four days too late and the delay results in many unnecessary losses.

_____
Feodosiya was the last 30th base in '44 and I made a mission (suicidal?) from there to attack Rostov on Don in the swallow Sea of Azov....

I was kinda waiting for a human controled Type IIB to show up... so far that I know of only an AI one is available. I used the Type IID in my missions because they have mission allowable flak guns...

I guess I should upload these to U-Boot.RealSimulation.com or anywhere else that anybody thinks would be good....


ew

[Panama Red]

Looking forward to you uploading your Black Sea missions when you get the time.

[Totenkopf]

We need more like you Eweber, historic info is most welcome!

In regards to the IIA/B, Ubisoft made a boo boo when they named the IIA as the early coastal workhorse. The IIA's (only 6 made) were committed to training vessels once the IIB came along a month later, which gave them maybe 1 or 2 good tours before hand. In fact the IIA's in the game are IIB's and should be renamed. I have tried to do this but it takes a LOT of Hex editing and the new RUB/HT will overwrite this anyway. So I just play with the notion that my IIA is in fact a IIB and stay happy with an augmented IIA.cfg file

Cheers!