[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Archive1

pancoast and aktungbby:

Yes, yes I understand all that, but my assignment was in 1941...way down there in Africa? C'mon, guys. British shipping up north into and away from the Isles was much more critical to destroy in the early years.

Your comments are obviously correct, much later in the war, but not at the onset. I think we must accept that patrol assignments in the game are randomly assigned with no focus on accuracy and generally can be ignored without any negatives. Maybe you have some historical reference that makes my position invalid (?) I know of no subs assigned deep into the coast of Africa in 1941, but perhaps you have a reference that corrects me.

BTW - I grew up in Chicago and am very well aware of U-505 and visited it often.
-=Archive1=-

Originally Posted by La vache

U 69 5 May - 8 Jul 1941
https://uboat.net/boats/patrols/patrol_492.html

La vache!

Third patrol
The boat's next sortie was to the West African coast. She laid mines off Lagos and Takoradi and made full use of the failure of the allies to enforce convoy systems.

One of her victims was the neutral American ship SS Robin Moor[6] operating 750 miles (1,210 km) off the British port of Freetown, Sierra Leone. The sinking of Robin Moor caused President Roosevelt to brand Germany an "international outlaw" and to require Germany and Italy to close all of their consulates in the United States except for their embassies.[7] Before the sinking, Robin Moor's passengers and crew were allowed thirty minutes to board lifeboats, then the submarine torpedoed, shelled and sank the ship. The survivors then drifted without rescue or detection for up to eighteen days. When news of the sinking reached the US, few shipping companies felt truly safe anywhere. As Time magazine noted in June 1941, "if such sinkings continue, US ships bound for other places remote from fighting fronts, will be in danger. Henceforth the US would either have to recall its ships from the ocean or enforce its right to the free use of the seas."[8] In October 1941, federal prosecutors in the espionage case against a group of 33 defendants known as the "Duquesne Spy Ring" adduced testimony that Leo Waalen had submitted the sailing date of Robin Moor for radio transmission to Germany, five days before the ship began her final voyage. Waalen was found guilty and sentenced to 12 years in prison for espionage and a concurrent 2-year term for violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

U-69 also sank Tewkesbury about 540 nautical miles (1,000 km; 620 mi) south of the Cape Verde Islands on the same date (21 May). Her master was awarded the OBE for his actions, but never knew about it; he was lost when Newbury went to the bottom on 15 September.

She then sank Sangara in Accra harbour on 31 May 1941. The ship went down in 33 ft (10 m) of water, her bow was still visible. (The vessel was salvaged in 1943 and her cargo sold, she was broken up in 1947).

Robert Hughes was lost to a mine laid by U-69 on 4 June.

The submarine sank River Lugar 200 nautical miles (370 km; 230 mi) southeast of the Azores on 27 June 1941 and Empire Ability on that same day.

On the return journey, U-69 was engaged in what was an ultimately successful gun-duel with Robert L. Holt southwest of the Canary Islands on 3 July 1941. She fired 102 high explosive and 34 incendiary rounds from her deck gun, 220 rounds from her 20mm anti-aircraft weapon and 400 rounds from her MG 34 machine gun at the merchantman.

The boat returned to France, to St. Nazaire on 8 July.