Quote:
Originally Posted by Letum
Ramming a sub and floundering on a reef are very, very different
experiences for a DD's hull.
I have never heard of a DD taking serious damage from ramming a ubat.
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Donald MacIntyre (the man who captured Otto Kretschmer), in his book
U-Boat Killer, does tell the story of one destroyer who rammed a u-boat at full speed, ran completely over it and ripped both propellors off. But no, it didn't sink, and I don't recall reading of any destroyer that sank after ramming a submarine either, except for USS
Borie. In that case the two ships were locked together after the ramming, in a raging storm. They also fought a duel with small arms at close range. U-405 finally sank, and then
Borie sank the next day.
http://www.destroyerhistory.org/flus...rie/index.html
But that was a rare case, not the norm. Destroyers almost never sink after a ramming. Part of the reason is the extreme compartmentation of a surface warship. They are designed to float even after losing the bow in a storm, and there was one British destroyer that survived having both bow and stern blown off by torpedoes.