[Subnuts]

Originally Posted by padi

The american subs were ****ty designed. A sub need to have a quick dive time and what did the americans have? 1 Minute? 55 Seconds?

A submarine doesn't "need" to have a quick diving time to be effective. The American submarines had to be larger in order to make it from Pearl Harbor to the Western Pacific, and therefore, they couldn't dive as fast as a U-boat. They had a 21 knot maximum surface speed, and a faster submarine needs to be longer to reduce the amount of power needed to propel it through the water. A Type VII or Type IX would barely have enough fuel to make to make the journey from Pearl Harbor, to Japan and back. The fact that they had a fairly effective air search radar from the beginning of the war, and by the end of the war were able to crash dive in 35 to 40 seconds due to improved training.

In the Atlantic they were sunk during their first rendevouz with an enemy...

Only two American submarines were lost in the Atlantic during World War II. The R-12 sank during a training exercise on June 12, 1943. The Dorado was lost off Panama in October, 1943, presumably after having ran into a mine.

Unless you're referring to the encounter between the S-33 and U-571...

And second: They were build so high to have the guys protected from the water (german submariners were laughing about that needless luxury) that you can see them from great distances, even in the night in which german subs are invisible...

Where did you read that German submariners were laughing about the high freeboard of American submarines? Again, American submarines were larger because they had much longer ranges and greater surface speeds. The conning towers of American submarines were substantially cut down after the first few months of the war. Far from being visible "from great distances," fleet boats were becoming tremendously effective in night surface attacks by the end of 1944. Finally despite being "invisible" at night, many U-boats were actually spotted and attacked at night. "Invisibility" didn't mean much by the time the Allies were employing effective radar on most of their escorts.

And third: They have so much needless luxury which cunsumes space that could be used much more efficient!

What exactly on the Fleet boats was needlessly luxurious? People keep referring to them as "luxury yachts," but I've actually been aboard the Lionfish and it seemed awfully spartan. The air conditioning wasn't terribly effective, and was basically there to remove enough moisture from the air to keep electronics from shorting out. There were enough bunks for the entire crew, but that doesn't seem like a huge "luxury" to me.

I think you need to sit down and read Norman Friedman's US Submarines Through 1945: An Illustrated Design History or John D Alden's The Fleet Submarine in the United States Navy to get a better idea about why these submarines were designed the way they were.