[Stealhead]

The port holes are actually "gun access ports" so that the crew had near immediate access to the deck gun and AA guns and did not have to jockey through the normal routes top side they where added into the designs some time in late 42 or 1943 I think the smaller ones are for passing up ammo others where strictly magazines hard to say for sure data on them is sort of lacking.

It is interesting to see pics of the old war subs especially the ones that received little modification post war yet they are all slightly different which makes sense since each sub wound up being slightly different form the next after receiving an over haul or two.

I have been to the USS Drum a few times and just from these pics I can see some differences.Though the Drum is a Gato and the Ling is a Balao the Drum does have a Balao bridge though.

WernherVonTrapp no pictures of the control room or conning tower?

Also interesting to see that the Ling does not have a 40mm mounted might have at one time though.

I agree with the confined spaces I toured a "boomer" some years back in high school I was glad that I was joining the Air Force.I think if I had been in the Navy in WWII I'd have given subs a shot beats floating around on the surface all day as a huge target if that is the other option.