GWX and 1941

[PapaG39]

Most of 1941 has been wasted trying to get myself positioned in Brest so I can get a new VII boat.
I just left Kiel and am in-route to Brest via the northern route around the top of Scotland.
I have been trying to find info on what to expect in 1941 while on patrols.
I haven't had much luck in picking up anything really useful though.
I'm probably not llooking in the right place.

One thing that I did find out after attacking a Large Cargo though, I surfaced to watch him sink... WRONG! They now have big guns.... The end result was that I had to make a pit stop in Stravangber, Norway for much needed repairs.
The bugger damn near sank me..

It's now August 1941 & I'm still in my IID boat heading for Brest. Time sure flys when your having fun...lol..

[GoldenRivet]

41 should still be the happy times but i think most merchants were wising up and getting guns.

so just be mindful of that.

[KeptinCranky]

Ummm, 1941 is a bit long for a type II, time to retire it, if however you get stuck with one in Brest your best bet are the BF grids and st. George's channel, or possibly the approaches to Bristol, nice fat tankers there but also lots of MTBs, quick trip there and back, if you're lucky the planes won't even notice you

[TarJak]

Refuel at Brest and keep going through Gibraltar refuel again at Toulon. You can then reach the Black Sea where your duck can assist once Operation Barbarossa gets underway!

[Foghladh_mhara]

Oh god yeah. You can never be too careful with them merchie guns. Torpedoed an American tanker mid-Atlantic once but the sod wouldn't sink. I carefully examined her for deck guns, found nothing so I surfaced to give her the last rites with the deck gun and all hell broke loose!! Lost half the watch crew. The crafty bastards were suspended in the riggings!

[PapaG39]

Yeah Foghladh_mhara, you gotta watch out for those bloody Yanks...They can be quite resourceful.

[sasquatch]

Late 41 has rendered my 105mm gun near useless. Even the smallest merchants pack a big punch now. And their guns are a pain in the but to hit.

[PapaG39]

Any Accuracy with a big gun on a small rocking boat would have to be perfect timing with the rock of the boat by the shooter. Even small waves at 1000m could throw a shell off by a considerable distance. I haven't had a big gun because I have been doing my campaign in the IID boat so far, and that puny 20mm is not designed to sink ships.

I spent every round once hitting a small freighter in one spot at/just below the waterline. It never did sink.

Another one I did the same thing & also blew up everything on deck. It finely sunk, but I think it was sinking anyway. That piece-of-crap pea shooter is just for show & has no real use.

I just sunk a small British merchant just off the north western coast of Norway and he had a big ol gun right on the stern. This time I kept my boat submerged until lhe sank...

BTW...What is a British merchant doing just off the NW tip of Norway in August 1941? He was cruising about 130km off the coast of Norway heading NE.

[KeptinCranky]

Intended to sell tea to the Russkis or something, who knows

[U49]

'41 is truly a year in which you consider to attack submerged and ___stay submerged __, until you victim is sunk.

OK, attack in fog at a rainy night..... yeeeeeeees I know you can do it....

[PapaG39]

Things are really starting to get difficult on patrol. It reminds me of the skippers attitude in the movie Das Boot. he was starting to come to some different conclusions then the German leaders were talking about....
Such as; The English have plenty of air cover...Where is ours? They also have no shortage of destroyers...They are pounding us more and more...

I went through about 10 patrols without a scratch. Now I am heading to some other port for repairs on almost every patrol...
I'm not very good at this Navy stuff...I think things are getting a little out of hand here...lol..

[TarJak]

Wait till you get to 1944! Then the game is survival.

[T.Von Hogan]

Big Gun....not guns lol just 1 mounted on the forward deck near the bow. It appeared in feb1941 on large merchants. Pop up on its 6 and it still has no defense for your deck guns. Now the Liberty or Victory class depending on the mod you use if you use 1 is 1 well armed ship with guns mounted fore and aft plus 1 on each side amidship...beware of that ship. The deckgun is a formidable weapon into 1944 especially in the IX classes where a 10.5mm is used. The key is knowing what merchants are armed and where thier armaments are located. I only aim for waterline when attacking with my deckguns, i don't figure my gunner can hit a gun on another ship so why waste the ammo going for it. I use my guns differently as the war progresses.1939 and 1940 you can just steam in untill you reach a range where you can't miss then start nailing them with close range shots. 1941 is when you must start thinking about which targets are armed and which aren't. 1942 on you figure they all are so engagements inside 4km become obsolete unless your willing to take damage to give damage. 1943 on the deck guns are still useful fior slowing targets down and occasionally taking 1 down.
I recently was trolling along heading towards Cuba in june of 43 when my sonarman picked up a merchant closing fast i rose to periscope depth to investigate. It was a whale factory ship traveling at 16kts.... at top speed submerged i was not going to be in torpedo range so to the surface i came and flank speed ordered. Since my batteries were down top speed in charging state was 13kts. Knowing i'm inside allied air cover parameters i decide to keep charging the batteries and use my deck gun to slow the merchant down to a speed where i can run him down and finish him with an eel or 2. At 6000 meters i order my gunner to fire at the waterline. 41 shells later the whale is sinking without an eel being launched..... 16 thousand tons without an eel being launched in mid 1943 tells me that big gun is still useful when used by a shrewed kaleun. Making it to late 1943 starting in Sept.39 using GWX 1.03 qualifies 1 as a shrewed kaleun lol

[PapaG39]

Hey, what a pleasant surprise eh....
Sometimes your the windshield,...sometimes your the bug...Sometimes it all comes together...sometimes you loose it all....

Way to go.. I hope I live that long into this game. however my chanches aren't looking to good. I have been getting hammered to often lately. I have just been lucky and have been able to get to a base for repairs..

[PapaG39]

Well, I finely got out of Stavanger, Norway on 3 august 1941 & resumed my journey to Brest, France. Just NW of Bergen, Norway I heard what turned out to be a Norwigen C3. I picked my position and he was just 1000m away from my shot when I heard an aircraft right above me ( I was at perscope depth). I thought..."Oh Sh*t" I'm about to be bombed & here I am standing still...I'm dead...
then in the next instant "MY" C3 lit up like a Christmas tree..bloody sukas...Herrmann! "you rat". that's my C3....anyway, it was a good show, but no ceegar....
about 150 km further on up the road I had a repeat with a C2..same results. Herrmann is stealing my thunder.... about 200km further along I finely get to sink a puny little Tramp Steamer for my self...thanks Herrmann...your a real prince..

I tried going just below Torshaven and above Scapa Flow, but the English aircraft were really making it rough so I desided to use that compass thing & draw a circle around the British Isles & Iceland showing the 1941 air cover limits that are indicated on the map that came with SH3. I went to those limits & just stayed to the outside & started plodding along to the Irish coast.

I made my way slowly down to the Rockall Banks, but I didn't hear so much as a whale fart...i mean..total silence except for aircraft...they are everywhere if I stayed above the surface during the daytime...They showed up. So much for map limits...

On August 20th I finely confirmed that this dang hydrophone was working when I picked up a British Destroyer. I have been 15 days without a sound or sighting...Except aircraft.

I have been at this since the 21st November real time & I am just at the SW tip of Ireland & have sighted nothing...I mean Nodda!

I am wondering...If you stay out of the SH3 map area where it shows aircraft coverage to be if you don't hit any triggers that would start ships moving.

I am using GWX & the patch.. Man, this is one long dry spell. About the most TC I have used is 128 a couple of times, but I went slow & tried to keep from getting bombed from above. I stayed down in the day & up at night mostly. However, August still doesn't get real dark out this far north.

This has been one long patrol. It took me 30 days from Wilhelmshaven to Brest last time. In a IID that is quite long..It is actually right at the very maximum for food & fuel.

I am fairly fuel conscious so I still have just 1/2 tanks left and approximately 1300km to go to Brest, France.