what the hell happened to cause all these merchant ships to be sunk off this coast of Guinea?

>>17862033 (OP)
icebergs

>>17862039
forgot to mention this is 1941 battle of the altlantic

Shallow coasts

>>17862033 (OP)
I actually learned the answer to this question years ago and I fucking forgot it. Anyway OP there IS an explanation for this. Maybe it was something about British refueling bases being few in that area. Idr. Sorry

>>17862033 (OP)
beware the bight of benin

>>17862033 (OP)
me

>>17862727
How does the old mariners ditty run? You remember it.
>Oh, the Bight of Benin, the Bight of Benin, One comes out where three go in.

>>17862033 (OP)
Malaria, mosquitos from Africa start targeting you by the time you reach North Africa's latitude, everyone dies by the time you reach the coast of Guinea.
Entire crews reduced to atoms.

>>17862105
Why did you even reply?

>>17863104
I learned a more extreme version from patrick o'brian that might've been an anachronism when the character said it

I would assume that there was some sort of shipping lane bottleneck in that particular region which made it much easier for submarines to locate merchants by looking at a much more narrow spot. Freetown is in that exact location, and it was Britain's only port in the region (A reason why britain attacked French Dakar). Again, most British shipping likely had to pause at Freetown, which made it easier for German submarines to pinpoint merchant locations.

Also I would assume that merchants coming from Asia had a lot less convoy protection than those coming from North America, specifically because Canada stood for an overwhelming portion of British shipbuilding during ww2 (the Canadian navy outgrew any other navy during the war in proportion to its original size). The Canadian navy ended up being the third largest navy in the world by 1945.

Finally, I would assume that Germany had some sort of naval bases in the region, especially since that region is Vichy France dominated colonial region, with also Spanish ports, so there may have been some dealing with supplying and sheltering German submarines under the table around those ports.

Speculations, but it's what to me makes the most sense.

Merchant ships, especially those carrying valuable cargo like oil, minerals, or consumer goods, are prime targets.

>>17862033 (OP)

Can you post the original map without the scribbled arrow and circle?

>>17865054

Disregard, I found it.

>>17862033 (OP)
U-boats would patrol there because it allowed them to intercept ships heading to/from the Indian Ocean with destinations/origins from both Great Britain and the Mediterranean. It was also far enough away fro Gibraltar that there would be less air and naval patrols. It's also near the operational range of a Type VII boat.

>>17862033 (OP)
>why are all these ships being sunk on the only shipping route to India, just as they are in range of German U boats?

>>17863135
When I started the reply I still remembered
/his/ is a slow moving board

>>17865054
here you are senpai