Umm...they were both caught and killed by the "inferior" Japanese destroyers. Maybe more real discussion and less boasting...:dead:

Here is clearly visible who got beter chance.
Note that this data is taken from Wikipedia and so this reflects standard worlds opinion about US & Jerry´s WW2 submarine capability.

LOOK ON TEST DEPTHS AND DISPLACMENT, so what you think who is the sub of the day in strugle against UK destroyers?


Balao class
Displacement: 1,525 tons (1,549 t) surfaced
2,424 tons (2463 t) submerged
Speed: 20.25 knots (38 km/h) surfaced
8.75 knots (16 km/h) submerged
Range: 11,000 nautical miles (20,000 km) surfaced at 10 knots (19 km/h)
Endurance: 48 hours at 2 knots (3.7 km/h) submerged
75 days on patrol
Test depth: 400 ft (120 m)
Complement: 10 officers, 70–71 enlisted[3]
Armament: 10 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes
(six forward, four aft)
24 torpedoes

1 × 5-inch (127 mm) / 25 caliber deck gun
four machine guns

Type 7c
Displacement: Surfaced 769 tons,
submerged 871 tons
Speed: Surfaced 17.7 knot (33 km/h),
submerged 7.6 knot

Test depth: 230 m (754 ft). Calculated crush depth: 250-295 m (820-967 ft)
Range: Surfaced 15170 km (8200 miles) at 10 knots (19 km/h),
submerged 150 km (80 miles) at 4 knots (7 km/h)
Complement: 44-52 officers & ratings
Armament: 5 53.3cm Torpedo tubes: 4 bow, 1 stern (14 torpedoes or 26 TMA or 39 TMB mines))
1 C35 88mm gun/L45 deck gun with 220 rounds
Various FLAK weaponry

All doubts stops here.

Who has the best submarine of WWII? Well I do of course. It's only a IIA and I've only died thrice :smug:

Survivability also depends on OFFENSE!!! You gotta punch em' in the nose!:arrgh!: And that's where the mighty Gato/Balao cleary beats the uboats in, with 6 bow and 4 stern tubes, you got a lotta firepower to send at those destroyers before having to result to going deep.

And besides, no body knows how deep the Balao class are capable of going. They could go way beyond 1,000 feet and survive for all we know. =D

You (they) give no calculated crush depth. According to at least one source I've seen the Balao is good to at least 800 feet, and the Tench 900.

According to http://uboat.net/types/viic.htm the calulated crush depth is only 220 m (722 ft)

Not really. There is a lot of good discussion going on here about all the different parameters of the various boats, and one or two people showing some basic numbers and then proclaiming the discussion over doesn't help anyone.

Problem is you gotta get in range to punch them. Unlike the Japanese who relied mainly upon visual lookouts they have radar too. And they can detect your radar emissions. Their sonar suites were excellent too. Working in groups they'd make your life short especially the with ahead throwing weapons. :p

Hey...I'm a proud American, but I wouldn't wanna go up against Johnny Walker and his deadly HKs.;)

:roll:

Well, yes its true...i always admire to WWII US subs in their brutality of firepower, but i still belive that Jeery´s u-boats ar more suitable subs for dealing with british killers. 5 TT is also quite enough for taking some destroyer(expecially if they loaded with acoustic torps) but at the end its showed that destroyers more or less get beter end in this types of duels.

If Balao (test depth 120) can go beyond 300 m the who knows how deep was cracking point of 7 0r 7c41 boats with theirs 230 m test depths.

I think I'll take Balao(out of the choices Ducimus offers us), it just looks so delicious. The 7c pic is a bit blurry, so it's hard to tell its real quality :)

:nope:

The Balao is the apple of my eye but the Type 7C has a certain a-peel. ;)

Very true, but how deep is only one factor. As was stated earlier, US subs would have had a harder time against British (and US) ASW techniques, but there is no way a 7C could have conducted a war across the distances required in the Pacific war.

I sometimes joke about US boats being better because they had showers, laundry, refrigerators and ice cream, but morale is also a factor in the isolation of life inside a submarine. Which is the better boat depends much on the situation and type of warfare being conducted.

Type IID

In my mind, sneakiest = best.

1. Yes, statistic are diferent from site to site or book from book.

2. Type 7c/41 have 250 m(820 feet) crush depth. http://uboat.net/types/viic-41.htm

3. True, we can drag this statistics and thinking all day and generaly we could not extract some good(exact) conclusion about which subs are beter. Generaly is mater of how opinion and perspective have someone over submarine warfare in those days.

Totaly agreed with you, both subs(US & German) was designed for different tasks and they performed best in ther field of use. Hardly is to imagine survival of US sub in high aircraft & destroyers traffic on atlantic or Med. and also vice versa german u boat who needs to cross over entire Pacific to pound some Japs.

My first post are based on hipotetical engagment of uboat vs british destroyer and then US sub vs brit. DD. OK this is my point of view... but i think that the VIIc/41 is more suitable for this, but this dont´t need to be also opinion of all others here in discussion.