[Sailor Steve]

Once the torpedoes were fired and the outer doors closed the inner doors could be safely opened at any depth. The outer doors open outward, so just like the crew hatches the water pressure would hold them closed and the inner doors could be opened for reloading in perfect safety.

One thing that gets left out of the games is that they never reloaded while in combat. If under attack the boat may dive deeper or rise suddenly, and a torpedo weighing more than a ton would have a very good chance of coming loose from its hoist and killing someone, or even punching a hole in the hull. The procedure was to attack and then withdraw, if possible, to reload, then begin the attack anew.