Quote:
Originally Posted by Alpha Von Burg
I agree that 26 knots might be a lot and that underwater speed would have been sacrificed. Then again, this boat would seem more fit for surface attacks than submerged attacks.
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The idea made sense in light of the prewar opposition to unrestricted submarine warfare. With the typycal armament of one or two pivot guns even duking out with just a determined merchant was a dicey proposition for a submarine and Q ships were a real threat. With a couple of twin turrets and some armor such submarine could deal with anything up to low end ASW escorts and effective bombardment missions could be carried out. The thing is that in practice balancing the various characteristics was very difficult and one could not reduce underwater capabilities too much: if such surface optimized sub met even just a Tribal it would have to escape underwater, where it would lack the diving depth and endurance to survive attacks. Neither X1 nor Surcouf could reach 20 knots on the surface, in order to preserve some underwater capabilities.