Wave Skipper

First - I just ran several tests in detail. I was doing 21 knots in a type IX D and hit the command to go to 25 meters depth.

GUESS WHAT: the sub slowed down to just 15 knots just as the water reacher the base of the snorkel. So the entire argument about how water would tear the snorkel down was WRONG. In the game the maximum snorkel speed IS 15 knots. So how does the snorkel make the sub reach 30 meters faster? Simply because it raises the 19 meter speed from 7 knots to about 12 to 14.

2nd - too high? Silly. The US subs had towers higher than that snorkel and the snorkel is only a little higher than the conning tower itself. Radar might pick it up, but radar would likely pick up the giant sub and conning tower before it caught the thin snorkel anyway. Old radars were great at picking up flat sided metal ships. Picking up a rounded pole that was in some ways a bit stealthy in 'shape reflectivity' was possible but not at great ranges. At the ranges where the pipe would be easily seen the whole sub would be brightly reflecting radar anyway.

The conning tower of the type XXI was about as high as the snorkel on an older sub. And as I said the American subs had a lot more up top than a German snorkel would present. All these arguments are just silly and proven wrong.

Perhaps the type VII and IX would have been in danger a bit of going under too steep at such speeds. But a crew could likely learn how to guard against that.

Here's a thought - we actually know every little about what most subs did. Perhaps ONE captain did use this method and just never got it recorded. Perhaps he tried it out - it worked - but he later died before he could tell his fellow captains. I know this - if crazy Panzer Meyer had been commanding a U-boat he would have at least tried it once. He'd try anything once. So you guys keep on slow diving and I will keep on rapid diving. Since my game is just me anyway its really no one's business.

It is possible that in heavy storms the waves might damage a snorkel if you tried to keep it raised while cruising on the surface. I will live with that possible flaw since I hate having to constantly order my crew to stop switching over to electrics and THEN TYRING TO RECHARGE THE BATTERIES after the big wave hits and subsides. When I am trying to make speed I find that in some wind configurations my sub will always switch to recharge mode while I am in time warp. SO I will find my U-boat going 12 knots when I ordered 18. Thus I will pretend that I was a savvy captain who got my snorkel strengthened back in port, paid for out of my own pocket from my vast Estate in Prussia, and the added price of a few bottles of schnapps - thus I will live with this.

Here to make it more real for you - let's say my captain lived in the USA for 8 years prior to returning to Germany - and so he, like so many American skippers who rigged up special things on their subs, knew how to think outside the box of his cadet training.