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!.