Baltic Sea Campaign

[Fluffysheap]

I've never been assigned a patrol grid there, but in GWX it doesn't matter if you go to your patrol grid, so you can ignore the useless British grid you will be assigned and go to Poland if you like.I have done some fighting against the Poles in '39. Neither GWX nor stock implement the attack by the Schleswig-Holstein (I know, I went there, it didn't )

Poland is by far the stiffest opposition you will face in 1939, so only do it if you want a challenge. It is like a little preview of 1944. Much of the issue is that almost all their traffic is in or near harbor, so you will have shallow bottoms and little maneuvering room - and the Poles have plenty of destroyers and well-trained crews. Even if you manage to sink a ship, you may not get credit, as it may settle on the bottom without actually going under. But, at least you will not hit any mines, or have to worry about airplanes.

If you are patient, you may be able to find some merchants in the "open" Baltic, but you may not. There are not all that many Polish merchant ships, and you may instead find yourself facing the ever-present Norwegians. It may actually be easier to find Polish merchants in the Skagerrak than off the coast of Poland!

[jaxa]

Originally Posted by Fluffysheap

I've never been assigned a patrol grid there, but in GWX it doesn't matter if you go to your patrol grid, so you can ignore the useless British grid you will be assigned and go to Poland if you like.I have done some fighting against the Poles in '39. Neither GWX nor stock implement the attack by the Schleswig-Holstein (I know, I went there, it didn't )

Poland is by far the stiffest opposition you will face in 1939, so only do it if you want a challenge. It is like a little preview of 1944. Much of the issue is that almost all their traffic is in or near harbor, so you will have shallow bottoms and little maneuvering room - and the Poles have plenty of destroyers and well-trained crews. Even if you manage to sink a ship, you may not get credit, as it may settle on the bottom without actually going under. But, at least you will not hit any mines, or have to worry about airplanes.

If you are patient, you may be able to find some merchants in the "open" Baltic, but you may not. There are not all that many Polish merchant ships, and you may instead find yourself facing the ever-present Norwegians. It may actually be easier to find Polish merchants in the Skagerrak than off the coast of Poland!

In fact Polish Navy could prepare in '39 against Kriegsmarine only 1 destroyer, 1 large and 6 small minelayers, 5 submarines and 2 small gunboats.

[Hitman]

May be there is some interest in patrolling there after june 1941

I think that some Uboats were eventually sent to the Baltic to engage russian traffic in the sieged Leningrad and such.

[jaxa]

Yes, you have right Hitman, some Uboots were transferred to Baltic Sea before Operation Barbarossa, but they haven't many occasions for fighting. In 1944 some Uboots fighted with Russian Baltic Fleet. Baltic Sea was one of two places, where Uboot commanders used main gun beyond 1942 (another place was Arctic Sea, against Russians too). The biggest problem for Uboots on Baltic Sea were mines, deployed by both sides of the conflict.

[Dread Knot]

Wouldn't make for a very exciting campaign unless you find blockades exciting. Most of the heavy elements of the Soviet Baltic fleet remained bottled up in Leningrad behind the aforementioned minefields and net barriers until 1944. Having nothing else to do, sailors from the Russian battleships fought on land as infantry during the siege.

[HanSolo78]

In WAC I made a special baltic sea campaign where you start in Memel.
But as said before there are many mines... so don´t be surprised if you die suddenly

[Wreford-Brown]

Originally Posted by Fluffysheap

Neither GWX nor stock implement the attack by the Schleswig-Holstein (I know, I went there, it didn't )

Check this out for the Schleswig-Holstein campaign file:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/down...o=file&id=1202

Please read the Readme - the instructions are quite explicit.

Beware of shallow water.
Ships going aground are quite common.