Actually this is based on perfectly good research. There are documented cases of Gato class boats exceeding the 450 depth in wartime and surviving; the S-class story I brought up last week cited a damaged boat sliding down to 350ft (nearly twice its test depth); then there is the famed incident with the USS Chopper, a Balao-class boat upgraded after the war (the hull, naturally, would have been the same), which sunk in a near-vertical position to 1011ft before blowing ballast and recovering - this is deeper than any recorded dive by a U-boat.
As I said, the only comparison with U-boats I drew is that if U-boats could exceed their tested depth over twice, there is no reason American subs couldn't approach twice their own (and in this mod's case, it is less than twice). I am not aware of any serious flaws in the American hull design.
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