[akdavis]

Originally Posted by U-Bones

Yeah but I imagine you did not have silly slow crash speeds like I did for this test.

Sad thing is - even if you do sit on the bottom at say 300ft, repair all your damage, and pump out all the water.... I dont believe you can get up in most cases because hull damage = weight.

I am afraid it is usually not the flooding that takes you to the bottom it is the invisible hull damage weight. I am hoping hard that this is not the case... I am still waiting for the right damage combo.

I am certain this is the case. There have been several reported cases of subs only taking reported damage to external components, but immediately losing all "buoyancy" in one half of the sub. My own example is an S-class that took a hit from a string of 3 aircraft bombs shortly after submerging. The only damage reported or shown was to the decoy launcher and the deck gun. However, the sub entered an immediate rapid tailslide. The tailslide was arrested before the sub crushed, but she went very deep. At no point was more damage reported or shown. There was no flooding and no sign of progressive loss of buoyancy. I soon found that depth could be maintained indefinitely using the engines. This was because of the sub's extreme angle, which become greater with increasing depth (the sub nearly stood on tail at 350 ft.) The sub could cruise at periscope depth with the bow clear of the water.

It was as if, as you have said above, the sub's back half became instantly heavier, but with one exception: as soon as the sub was back on the surface, the tail stopped sinking and would not resume sinking unless the sub dove to anything below surfaced depth.

To repeat: bulkheads or flooding or reported hull damage were never involved. There were no additional damage reports beyond the initial reports of damage to decoys and deckgun. The part of the sub that took the hit from the bombs simply became "heavier."