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Originally Posted by Neal Stevens
US fleet boats were better for the crew: they had A/C and more space. Despite the dictate that the U-boats did not compromise for the crew, I would say keeping the crew comfortable (relatively) and morale high did a lot for efficiency and safety.
The biggest difference between US fleet boats and U-boats, imo, were the torpedoes. The Germans solved their torpedo problems in a matter of months. The US took over two years  |
German torpedos in the beginning were afflicted with the same problems as the US. And you're correct that it took the US roughly 2 years to produce a reliable torpedo but on the other hand it took Germany the approximate same length of time. But Germany was already at war for 2 years prior to US's entry so you could say they had a head start. Torpedo stowage was another significant difference. Some early US designs experimented with external stowage but this was quickly abandoned in favor of full internal load out. This was not realized in German designs till the revolutionary type XXI appeared.
As Neal pointed out airconditioning was another improvement. It is worth mentioning that crew comfort from the A/C was an unintended consequence. Since fleet boats were being packed with more performance enhancing electronic devices A/C was needed to keep the humidity levels down in an effort to prevent short circuits in the electrical bus.
Again operating in thier own specific theaters both the VIIs and Gatos possessed thier own particular nuances which combined to make each design successful...up to a point. Improvements to the VIIs and IXs were not intiated soon enough to offset technological advances made on behalf of the allies. And reference must be made again about the lack of total quality leadership on the part of the Kreigsmarine.