[BillCar]

@ Frau Kaleun: you'll be fine in early 1939. I have had success going through into 1941, but you have to pick your moment (same with the English Channel later in the war).

You'll want to run surfaced as much as possible, and dive to 20 and run silent as soon as anything is spotted. Run silent even if it's an Elco, as they might radio something with hydrophones (you'll start seeing destroyers at the north end of the Irish Sea by October or November 1939, playing with GWX).

I pass through the English Channel by running surfaced at standard or full. If I see *anything*, I go to 20m and run silent at 1 knot until the SO tells me they're moving away at long range. Then I'm back on the surface and running at 1/3, decks awash until I can't see them, and then fully surfaced running at standard after that.

I've done this well into 1941 without any problems. Planes are the biggest fear. Don't go too high on TC (with the caveat, of course, that if you go high enough you can cheat and avoid planes all together, but where's the fun in that?).