[TorpX]

I'm sure it was aimed at me.


I still don't see any advantage to it. Submarines are designed so they are low in the water. It would be very difficult to spot one on a dark night. Observers would have to be able to see a dark object smaller than their own vessel, on the surface of dark water. They would be looking 'down' and this would make the task more difficult. There being little contrast between the dark water and the dark hull. Unless one could submerge the boat enough to totally cover the hull (a very dubious proposition), what would be the point?

O'Kane and Fluckey made very daring night surface attacks, but say nothing about moving about half submerged. They do talk about evading on the surface at high speed however.

When you are fully surfaced, not only is your profile 15' higher, but you have to let thousands of gallons of water into the ballast tanks in order to submerge. You can cut your submergence time by more than 50% by running decks awash and believe me they did it a lot in the war.

I don't want to get into a long drawn out and pointless internet argument, but could you provide one or two examples?