GWX 3 gold No Battleships

[Letum]

Surely any BB moving with a convoy would have had it's own destroyer shield
and be continuously zig-zaging at 15knts or more, not plodding along like a
big, fat tanker...?

the lack of BBs sunk in convey pays testament to this.

[onelifecrisis]

Originally Posted by Letum

Surely any BB moving with a convoy would have had it's own destroyer shield
and be continuously zig-zaging at 15knts or more, not plodding along like a
big, fat tanker...?

?

[KeptinCranky]

Oh, they're there allright. apart from in the convoys there's several fairly regular taskforce-routes, these vary per time-period but they're consistent for at least 3 months or so

in 1939 and early 1940 AM36 and everything north of Scotland and West of Scapa Flow is a good place to find BBs

In 1940-1941 you'll find them transiting from Scapa, round the back of ireland to Gibraltar fairly regularly

from late 1940 to 1943 the med is also a good place to find BBs especially around Malta

After that I wouldn't go looking for task-forces of any kind because the DDs will kill you for your insolence

I'm being not too specific here because I wouldn't want to spoil all the fun of discovery

happy hunting

[Hartmann]

Yes, the med is a good place to hunt major preys but be careful, it´s not a good place for a u-boat.You have to be very careful there.

I enter to the med with my IXB boat and i had very interesting experiences against troop ships, one battleship and several cargo ships

[Water boy]

4th patrol of latest career, 27th May 1941, 08.30hrs Grid BE37 halfway between the grid marker and the SW corner of the box........
More BB's than you can shake a stick at....... plus 2 CV's out there somewhere not too far away.
All chasing the Bismark which I've yet to see I might add.
Just now I'm submerged waiting for I think Rodney and another BB to cross my bow, they are about 8k yards out and closing fast,
I cheated as I had 2 sound contacts - these guys and one on another bearing so went external and zoomed over.
The second contact is a CV - I think Victorious, a BB KGV or Repulse plus at least 3 destroyers but as everything tramping along at warp speed I wasn't going to even get close.
So here I am waiting for the 2 BB's in line ahead which will be at 90ish degrees to my bow at about 800yds when they get here.
I've engineered being in this area before hoping to see the Bismark but never did,
As one groups North of me travelling ENE going flat out and the others SE of me and travelling in a similar direction I'm presuming that as its a while before she was reported sunk she's way ahead of me so I'm going to miss out again......
Thing is when I tried to be in the right place at the right time before the weather was real crud and I stood more chance of ramming the opposition rather than torpedoing them. This time its a millpond!.
Whats the betting my scope gets spotted?...... will the BB's engage a scope with main guns?..........
I hopefully wont find out but if they do I'll be trying for screenies.

[Pablo]

Originally Posted by Letum

Surely any BB moving with a convoy would have had it's own destroyer shield
and be continuously zig-zaging at 15knts or more, not plodding along like a
big, fat tanker...?

the lack of BBs sunk in convey pays testament to this.

Hi!

Actually, the normal practice was to give the battleship (or whatever heavy escort the convoy had) a row of its own so that it could leave the convoy by accelerating ahead of it rather than charge through the convoy and completely disorganize it. The commander of U-106, Kapitänleutnant Jürgen Oesten, thought he had torpedoed a freighter when in fact he had hit the battleship HMS Malaya in convoy SL 68.

Pablo