Good question, but to be honest, over the last few months I have been doing quite a bit of reading on these boats, and haven't noticed the fire thing much.
The old argonaut boats, well, they were built in the 1920s, and were not indicitive of the reliability of the later fleet boats.
I think that most folks consider the German boats as superior to the American boats, but I simply don't agree. At the beginning of the war, certainly the Americans were behind the Germans, but by the 44 period, I would feel a bit more confidence in an American boat, simply because of superior technology.
The ongoing debate about diving depths will continue, but I would give up a bit of that, for the superior electronics of the American boats.
O'Kane might not have been impressed with the V class, but he has nothing but superlatives to discuss his feelings of the Balao class Tang... and O'Kane was not an easy man to impress.
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