So just how much trouble would a actual sub be in ?

[Bubblehead1980]

In USS Nautilus Narwhal Class in TMO Update.

Feb 28 1944, being depth charged by two escorts after sinking a 3790 ton freighter in convoy, area Corn Field N of Palau.


Have been hunting me about three hours... mostly ineffective but a lucky charge came close. Depth is 385 feet, about as deep as want to go with this type of boat.


Charge went off (external cam is off) I believe just below control room/engine room. I heard a crack, the usual noise of air lines busted, water leaks, multiple damage reports but a report of "compressed air reserve down to zero sir!" This went from 100 to 0, well 21/100, which soon bled down to 0

Seems my compressor is damaged but intact, so can produce more upon surfacing, if have any banks to store it. So obviously this air is important for sub operations. How much trouble would a actual WW II submerged submarine be in? Survivable ? first time ever had this happen in all the depth charge attacks taken in this sim lol , except for when boat is destroyed.



Update:

After several hours of depth charging, managed to get away. Ordered surface after dark, boat struggled to rise from 390 feet to surface, had to use flank speed and hard rise on planes to get there. Once broached boat had difficult time blowing dry, lingered at 25 ft depth, near decks awash for a good 3.5- 5 minutes before completely surfacing. Compressor was repaired and able to put compressed air reserve back to 12 percent, but never rose above that level for rest of patrol. Noticed that on regular dives to avoid aircraft en route home, 2-4 percent of air was used up on each dive, the boats air lines and banks were obviously severely damaged.

[Mad Mardigan]

If, am not mistaken... compressed air was what all subs of the day, used to drain the ballast tanks to change from deep depths to more shallow ones or, to surface.... (emergency blow would of course be called for in serious circumstances... as in taking in a lot of water from numerous damaged areas of the boat & if that continued unabated... would result in the subs loss :hmmm:)

As I can recall, off the top of My head... & think am pretty spot on, I believe... in recalling that right.

So... if that was the case... then the chances of being able to surface... under those conditions... would be... nil, I'd think. No compressed air... no chance to blow ballast to surface.

Hmm... given all that... would think it likely that the skipper (or next in charge in the event the skipper was seriously injured or killed... & so on, so forth.. down the chain... :hmmm:) would in all probability, order abandon, at that point... as the sub would for all intents, be untenable. Meaning, a loss.

As I recall... don't think they had rescue craft, capable of going into a combat area & doing a rescue... not like they do, nowadays.

:Kaleun_Salute:

M. M.

[Bubblehead1980]

If, am not mistaken... compressed air was what all subs of the day, used to drain the ballast tanks to change from deep depths to more shallow ones or, to surface.... (emergency blow would of course be called for in serious circumstances... as in taking in a lot of water from numerous damaged areas of the boat & if that continued unabated... would result in the subs loss :hmmm:)

As I can recall, off the top of My head... & think am pretty spot on, I believe... in recalling that right.

So... if that was the case... then the chances of being able to surface... under those conditions... would be... nil, I'd think. No compressed air... no chance to blow ballast to surface.

Hmm... given all that... would think it likely that the skipper (or next in charge in the event the skipper was seriously injured or killed... & so on, so forth.. down the chain... :hmmm:) would in all probability, order abandon, at that point... as the sub would for all intents, be untenable. Meaning, a loss.

As I recall... don't think they had rescue craft, capable of going into a combat area & doing a rescue... not like they do, nowadays.

:Kaleun_Salute:

M. M.


When finally lost escorts, my boat did have a difficult time surfacing from 390 feet to the surface, had to really put on speed with hard rise on the planes, then when broke surfaced it took longer than usual to clear, boat lingered at 25 feet a good three minutes before finally rising out of the water.

Compressor was repaired and went to work but compressed air reserve never went above 12 percent rest of patrol, so the banks were definitely damaged beyond repair. One time wish I had external cam on, wouldve been nice to see how close the charge was. Although, Type 2 has more punch does not have to be as close to cause that type of damage as Type 95. . I had three torpedoes left, made a night surface attack later on after end around and headed home. Glad did not have to dive to evade. Fired from 3200 yards instead of 2500 make sure was not too close and had time to get away, still got chased lol but lost them in the dark.

[John Pancoast]

A real boat would have been in big trouble. Besides depth changes, that air was used to drain the bilges too.
Unable to drain the bilges = a weight to take you to the bottom.

[Mad Mardigan]

A real boat would have been in big trouble. Besides depth changes, that air was used to drain the bilges too.
Unable to drain the bilges = a weight to take you to the bottom.

And, if the compressed reserves were cracked open & taking in water.. that'd also add weight to the sub, & thereby dragging it further down as well... wouldn't it...??? :hmmm:

:Kaleun_Salute:

M. M.

[John Pancoast]

And, if the compressed reserves were cracked open & taking in water.. that'd also add weight to the sub, & thereby dragging it further down as well... wouldn't it...??? :hmmm:

:Kaleun_Salute:

M. M.


As far as I know, the air was stored in flasks vs. a large "tank" so I'm not sure that would matter.
If nothing else if they were heavily damaged I would think the boat had bigger problems to worry about. :)

[Mad Mardigan]

As far as I know, the air was stored in flasks vs. a large "tank" so I'm not sure that would matter.
If nothing else if they were heavily damaged I would think the boat had bigger problems to worry about. :)

Ok, have to admit it's been some time since I took a crack at looking at the plans for them... so, wasn't sure if that would hold true or not.

The 1 thing I do know is.. if there is no air stored in them... & they're damaged, so that even if the pump/compressor isn't so cluster fudged as to not function or function as it should... then is no hope of being able to dive, if a sub was fortunate enough to surface... which, as I outlined, would think the chances of that happening, would be nil, to none. As no air stores... no pumping out the tanks involved with having the sub be submerged.

With them flooded down, to have the sub submerged & then tasked with it being damaged to where the interiors flooding... well, the only outcome I see is it sinking until it:

A. Hits bottom, if the area's shallow enough so that it lands intact & is no chances of it imploding.

B. Continues sinking, until it reaches a point, to where the sub implodes due to the crushing weight of the depths.





With A, if the depths shallow enough, then there is a chance of the crew, being able to abandon...If not, then well... will just pin that there... on what the outcome would be then.

As for B outcome... don't think it needs being said on the end results there...

:Kaleun_Salute:

M. M.