Happy new year (1941)

[Missing Name]

I tried to start one of my new campaigns with a VIIB. No dice - after several patrols of no upgrading, I bought the IXB. The only reason I don't upgrade beyond a regular IXC is the dive time. 37 seconds is just at the limit of what I can accept.

But yeah, I love the IX's. The IXBs were the most successful boats of the war.

As for 1941: Be glad RADAR is not a threat. Your deck gun will start seeing less use if you are sane. Convoys will be harder to attack. Airplanes are getting better. Your lucky numbers are 37, 105, 20, 9 and 22.

[CCIP]

Actually historically, 1941 was not a terribly good year for U-boats - in fact it was the year that signs of things to come reared their head. Three greatest U-boat aces (Schepke, Prien, Kretschmer) got sunk in the same battle in early March, and successes against convoys stagnated. A lot of it had to do with the fact that the allied ASW was no longer in its infancy, actually, but was rather becoming competent and developing successful tactics. A key figure in this was Captain Johnny Walker, who first came to fame in December '41 when his escort group along with the very first escort carrier, Audacity, sunk 5 U-boats while defending convoy HG76 (losing Audacity in the process). And that was just the beginning for his group. Meanwhile Hitler further added to the problems faced by U-boats by forcing some of them to be diverted to the Mediterranean and Norway, away from the pivotal Atlantic theater.

Das Boot takes place in late 1941. While the book is fiction and mixes some events more appropriate to '42/'43, the actual patrol of the U-96 in the book/movie is pretty reflective of what German submariners would've faced in late '41. So be very careful - '41 could be and in some sense was the end of Happy Times. They returned briefly in early '42, but soon were gone for good...