Excellent episode taff, the Gibraltar straight.. most lethal challenge tor any U-boat, yet even here.. hit your enemy where it hurt, if it wasn't much in regards of physical damage.. it always hits morale wise. Blowing that destroyer apart was to be a nasty slap in the face for the allied navy. Arriving in the Med, that's going to be good in regards of causing chaos and antics.. but.. at the same time.. it's going to carry a lot of risks. Allied Air and sea power will be formidable indeed, so.. likely going to be full of risks out in the Med. I think.. in regards of Italian ships.. some are fair game, if the allies have landed and the fight for Italy is underway.. some will be fair, if Italy has pulled out.. which I think it has at this point.. then most Italian vessels will be fair game, others on the other hand are still axis so.. I think it's at your own discretion. Anyway.. hello to the Med, pleasant climate and near tropical in regards of southern Europe. Going to be interesting out here, great episode taff, happy hunting 👍
One can only assume that the Italian DD sent a boarding party to take the freighter and was holding position while the crew were firing up the freighter's boilers. Well done getting through Gibraltar - 3 lines of patrols1 Damn fine sailing.
The head canon for this: This Italian cargo ship was a trojan horse full of commandos and the destroyer was supporting the raid. It then docked to rescue the raiders and you sank it. German destroyer main battery was damaged and the rudder knocked out. You're hailed a hero.
19:28-20:38 that was straight out of das boot movie. Dud torpedo, shoot a torpedo that comes back at you. A destroyer is hunting you only to be stopped by the German navy
I was on the surface during the day on this mission, accidentally left it on time compression, went afk and came back and all was well. I don't know what my crew went through to make it unscathed but they've never been the same since.
Taff, the Axis forces in North Africa were defeated in May 1943, and by the time you have reached in the game, the Allies had already invaded mainland Italy, Italy had surrendered and joined the Allied powers on September 1943. So from now on, anything with an Italian flag on it is fair game. But I reckon your time in the Med is going to be short-lived at best and soon the French bases are going to be denied to you. You'll be back operating out of Wilhelmshaven before you know it as long as you survive that long.
So has the timeline of ww2 changed in this campaign, cause the battle in North Africa was over in 43? And boats was sent as early as 41. So what’s up with that?
@@EggnogTheNog yes fighting in Italy happen till the very end and was very bloody, however in a navel perspective it was all over. Sending in more u-boats into the med is just a death sentence and there impact would be near non-existent. The med was always the most dangerous place for u-boat operations due for the near constant air cover and warship patrolling, and by this stage of the war with both factors being much more severe not to mention the lack of safe harbour and barely any supply to sustain operations. I think any u-boats still operation in this theatre at this point where forced to, either by orders or just cause they can’t get out of the Med. and sending more in would make no sense because the Atlantic situation was getting ever more worse, which is where most of the supplies where coming from anyway. So the context of the games order to send more u-boats in is ridiculous. Admiral Donitz would never do this and never did IRL to my knowledge. My apologies that was a very big rant over just a game event, but I just find that hole situation incredibly dumb. 😮💨
@@j-barrells7861 A mod that introduces all the historical naval and merchant shipping into the game. Its wonderful but needs a good computer to run. I can't recommend it enough however. Adds so much.
Luckily, when you surfaced the boat, the weather was lousy with thunderstorms, which decreases the chances of air patrols. Very weird shit at your new home port which may have prevented damage from the turncoat Italians. By the way, that German destroyer was about as helpful as tits on a boar hog!
@@antorseax9492 well no military branch in Nazi Germany did know when D-day would happen, but they could have a relative guess given army masses in England at the time, and along with any intelligence they could get. Nothing too concrete but enough to know that something was coming relatively soon, or in a General period of time. Though I can’t real give the hole intel both side would have on this matter so I would suggest looking at “Extra History’s” series on the lead up to D-day for better information on the matter, episode 2 and especially 4 give good info on what Germany had known in that time period.
@antorseax9492 while The Germans didn't know about operation Overlord exactly, they did know the Allies invasion of Western Europe was soon at hand and was likely to be in Northern France though due to Operation Fortitude and other factors it was believed the Allied would attack Calais and any other target would be a diversionary attack.
