in June 1941 the Admiralty turned to the scientific community to help them with Coastal Command's "miserable U-Boat kill rate". They were sent a "brilliant physicist, Patrick M.S. Blackett, who was to win a Nobel Prize in Postwar years".
Up till then the minimum depth charge setting was 50 feet, to protect the aircraft from being blown up by the blast. The scientist recommened a smaller (100 pound) explosive charge with a 25 foot fuse. He also recommended that the spacing of the drop be increased threefold and that Torpex, instead of TNT, be used.
Apparently it caused considerable controversy, as air crews wanted a few big bombs (of 250 pounds) rather than lots of little ones. Understandable I suppose. The Admiralty continued using the 250 pound ones until R&D developed the 25 foot fuse ( and found out along that way that their fuses on the 250 pound were unreliable ).
Later in the war they had rocket firing airplanes that could fire them in such a way that they entered the water and damaged the pressure hull rather than the superstructure. That would leave the boat unable to dive and virtually helpless.
Or indeed FIDO's that homed in on the prop noise of a submerged sub. All the pilot had to do was drop one on the diving swirl. Mind you FIDO's had a maximum speed of 12 knots so you could outrun them surfaced. Plus I don't think they are actually in the game.
As far as I'm aware, none of bombs released by aircraft went deeper than 50 feet (or 15 metres). Good luck getting to that depth in time though, especially against the B-17s and B-24's!
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