Effective patrolling methods

[Paul Riley]

Greetings fellow captains.

Its been a while since I used this forum,but here I am again,and seeking a little advice too.I am in need of some advice regarding patrols and how to effectively patrol a given area,in an effort to increase your chance of finding your intended target.In my patrol at the moment the date is Sept 28th 1942 and I was given the sector AK66.It was clear to me that my primary target on this patrol would be the Halifax to Liverpool convoys,with a secondary target being the single merchant lane to the south.I patrolled the area for a few days before deciding that nothing was going to pass this way,so after about 48hrs I moved along the suspected convoy lane into my new patrol sector of AK48.I chose this area largely because of the lack of air cover in this area,known as the 'air gap' if I recall correctly.Now I have calculated that it would take a convoy travelling at no more than 8kts to reach this position in approx 10 days or so,or a maximum of 2 weeks rounded up,this then would be my new patrol objective,to find this convoy and harass it as it heads east for as long as possible.I have just reached AK48 and set my uboat up facing roughly SW and at a depth of 50m.What I normally do is leave the uboat in its current position and surface only for air,then dive again so I can use the hydrophones.This tactic however has its obvious drawback,what if the convoy moves on a lane say 20 or 40km away from this area?,there would be no way of knowing.I now want to start ACTIVELY patrolling areas increasing my chances of bumping into an incoming convoy,but what are the best methods for doing this?.I am thinking of acting like a 'recce' line going across the suspected convoy route,for example,I draw one 20km circle on each side of the convoy line and move through to the centre of the 1st one,then dive and make a quick sound check,then move to the edge of the circle and make another SC,then return and repeat while heading into the 2nd circle and repeat the previous.This effectively allows me to cover a 20x40km (800 sq/km) section of ocean.The main problem though is fuel,and to patrol like this for 2 weeks demands a vast amount of fuel which I have calculated already by the way,and means I had to travel into this area at only 8kts,to conserve fuel.
Is this a viable option?.I would love to hear some of your patrol methods.
If this fails,I am thinking of a long and tedious voyage right to Halifax,and then follow the convoy into AK48,now that HAS to work!.It would probably be November by then and the crew may all be dead from exhaustion,me included.

Cheers!.

[irish1958]

Only methods to increase contacts
1) Better intelligence (in game via "spy satellite" or via tracking room mod).
2) Play with low realism and unlimited fuel.
3) Employ various cheats.
4) Develop a mod to employ Wolf Packs as this was the method BDU used with spectacular results in early 1943.
In any event, the war in the Atlantic is over in April 1943, and all U-boats are recalled.

[Paul Riley]

Thanks Irish.

Regarding-

1: A spy satellite,is this appropriate for the time period?,and how does it work exactly?.

2: I cant play on low settings,i'm a sucker for realism and play in an Ironman mode,death means death,etc.

3: Cheats,again,not appropriate for me,but maybe for those that want a more 'arcade machine' type of game.

4: This one interests me,and I have read about the wolf packs in a couple of books I have,and were very effective yes,being able to co-ordinate an attack and converge for the kill.They too formed a recce across the convoy path to increase their chances of making contact with it.Can you tell me the exact steps I need to take to implement this in my game,and the mods I need?.I currently play using the 1.4 patch with Commander installed also.I would consider this for a future career maybe,but not this one as I am in an active career and want to see the war through at least once first.

One last thing,do you know of anyone that has formed their own ocean cartography,you know,like convoy co ordinates,dates/times of departure etc?.I have a current list of past co ordinates of contacts and sinkings,but no fixed ones for convoys.Since 1939 I have yet to engage in a successful attack on a full blown convoy,most attacks being on single merchants,tankers etc,and the odd warship if I feel particularly daring that day.

Thanks again.

[irish1958]

1) Spy satellite is a cheat; nothing like this was available in WWII. SH3Gen is a mod which mines the campaign files and will give you a varying degree of intelligence, which is very much like it was in WWII. I use this and find it realistic.
2) Then you will run out of fuel and supplies just like it happened in WWII. By 1943 all the supply ships were gone and the Milk Cows were sunk.
3) Many play this way. It is especially important in multiplayer games.
4) Everybody hopes this will be available in SH5, which is currently in development. The development of such a mod has evaded many very talented modelers.

[Pisces]

As an alternative to 1) you could increase the reporting range of mapcontacts:

"Display Range To Opportunity Radio Contacts" or "Display Range To Important Radio Contacts" in Sh3/data/cfg/contacts.cfg

I'm not sure what the diference is between them though. Probably "Opportunity" are lone vessels, and "Important" are convoys.

Getting a contact reported still depends on chance. But the game doesn't limit them based on the range to your uboat.

[Edit]Some time ago I worked out what the best hydrophone interval was to not let a target escape your attention. Or atleast with minimal chance.

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...7&postcount=27

[Paul Riley]

Thanks for the replies.

What I was really after though is ideas on good solid patrolling methods,as in specific patrol lines/patterns,and their distance etc,and how long they should realistically be carried out for before you realise that nothing is going to come that way.But what I would REALLY like is a link to any such material on the web,authentic material written by the captains themselves,how they patrolled and what patterns if any they employed.Its possible that the following book 'the uboat commander's handbook' may contain such info,but it appears quite a rare book and is hard to get hold of in the UK.I believe most of it was compiled by Doenitz himself from his early actions in WWI through to the modern tactics in WWII.I would really like to get into this book.I DO have Iron Coffins which I really enjoyed,but the other book is very specific about tactics and technical data.

Cheers.