Subchasers

[wegman58]

I'm at the point where they begin to roll off the lines (US).

I see some of them start on the East Coast.

Do they have any issues running out of fuel from East Coast to the Panama Canal?

Is it considered 'gamey' to put them in a supply taskforce to Australia?

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: wegman58

I'm at the point where they begin to roll off the lines (US).

I see some of them start on the East Coast.

Do they have any issues running out of fuel from East Coast to the Panama Canal?

Is it considered 'gamey' to put them in a supply taskforce to Australia?

No ship that starts off-map and travels to another off-map base can run out of fuel.

Why would anyone consider such a thing gamey? If gamey even existed?

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: wegman58
Is it considered 'gamey' to put them in a supply taskforce to Australia?

No, but they may need to stop or slow the TF in order to refuel, since they generally have 'short legs'.

[jwolf]

I think you do have to be careful once you order the ship to an on-map base, however. Depending on the destination, a short-legged ship without assistance could end up stranded. Not a problem as long as it's part of a convoy.

[wegman58]

For the Gamey - refueling at sea is a non-trivial exercise, when there are nothing but warships and the smallest are 4,000 tons or more. And that was with 1970s and 1980s technology. Itty bitty boats taking on fuel from a merchant - seems like a recipe for 'collision at sea'.

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: jwolf

I think you do have to be careful once you order the ship to an on-map base, however. Depending on the destination, a short-legged ship without assistance could end up stranded. Not a problem as long as it's part of a convoy.

You do have to be careful if any portion of the trip is on-map. I was careful to specify -off- to -off. EC to Panama qualifies.

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: wegman58

For the Gamey - refueling at sea is a non-trivial exercise, when there are nothing but warships and the smallest are 4,000 tons or more. And that was with 1970s and 1980s technology. Itty bitty boats taking on fuel from a merchant - seems like a recipe for 'collision at sea'.

Collisions are modeled, but rare.

I can refuel/redistribute fuel around a 100-ship TF in one 12-hour phase. There are plenty of abstractions more extreme than refueling. Such as planes flying on rice. Or socks.

[Disco Duck]

For some reason I can't embed the picture in the post. Anyway refueling small vessels at sea is non trivial but doable.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=refueling+pt+ ... 510703.jpg

[wegman58]

ORIGINAL: Disco Duck

For some reason I can't embed the picture in the post. Anyway refueling small vessels at sea is non trivial but doable.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=refueling+pt+ ... 510703.jpg

Two years on an ammunition ship (USS BUTTE - AE-27), I had a LOT of practice watching and observing.

[Dili]

ORIGINAL: wegman58

I'm at the point where they begin to roll off the lines (US).

I see some of them start on the East Coast.

Do they have any issues running out of fuel from East Coast to the Panama Canal?

Is it considered 'gamey' to put them in a supply taskforce to Australia?

I wouls say not maybe with some stops along the line. The subchasers made the trip from US to North Africa at time of Torch(Nov 42) but the sea was okay. Not yet winter swells.

[Disco Duck]

ORIGINAL: Dili

ORIGINAL: wegman58

I'm at the point where they begin to roll off the lines (US).

I see some of them start on the East Coast.

Do they have any issues running out of fuel from East Coast to the Panama Canal?

Is it considered 'gamey' to put them in a supply taskforce to Australia?

I wouls say not maybe with some stops along the line. The subchasers made the trip from US to North Africa at time of Torch(Nov 42) but the sea was okay. Not yet winter swells.

Good point. Admiral Gallery ( commander of the task force that captured u-boat 505) told this story about when we was base commander in Iceland. One day a harbor tug shows up from New York. He was obviously impressed. He asked the Captain if the crew was worried about the trip. The captain replied that his crew was very green and he just told them that constant bailing was typical on a naval vessel.

[Taxcutter]

I ship SCs and YMSs all over the oceans, but I include a slow AO for fuel.

[Macclan5]

Two types of Subchasers start rolling off the line.

1) Most (plenty) with endurance 1500

2) Some (plenty) with endurance 3500 as I recall (away from game)

--

I use 3 of the 1500's for every port up and down the West Coast of North America; and then extra's in all sea lanes ( direct lines to Pearl and returning convoy routes) leading into and out of San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego.

I instantly send the 3500's to Pearl and start using them in Pearl. Then 3 head to Baker, Midway, Palmyra, Canton, then eventually Tarawa, Makin, Ailinglaplap (spelling).. as I am able to expand.

(Since sufficient numbers of 3500's don't come online instantly... those Crazy Canuck KV's in Vancouver usually hang around long enough to be supplemented / replaced by the 3500 Subchasers around Pearl anyway).

[witpqs]

From various readings on WWII in the Atlantic they did refuel small escorts from merchants but they preferred having a small oiler along to handle the job. I recall at least one anecdote about a merchant being issued hoses for refueling escorts on a trip and the crew's reaction being more or less 'what the heck do we do with these?!' I guess it was very dependent on experience, etc.

Weather was the greatest factor, often stopping escorts (most especially smaller escorts) refueling even from oilers.

[jamesjohns]

Another item, you will have a bunch of AG ships, can position some at islands along the way to do repairs (the small ships seem to take damage along the way)