Quick explanation on US subs.
Their design was born from a doctrine of use. They were orginally seen primarly as scouts for the main fleet. (IE, battleship navy) As such, they had to have certain specifications to meet this goal. Suffice to say, US submarines types that saw action, were an evolution in design. Only, the older subs were still in service when we got in the war. In this regard, you saw a wide range of sub types, but all were just different phases of evolution of the end design.
So if we were to take a Darwin styled evolution of sub view of this from the earliest most primative sub to the latest most evolved submarine:
S-class ( 4 tubes forward)
Porpoise class (4 forward /2 aft)
Salmon Class (4 forward/ 4 aft)
Sargo Class (4 forward / 4 aft) - differences from salmon i think varied in fuel and engines.
Tambor Class (6 foward / 4 aft) - recognized as the first fleet submarine that fit the bill of what the navy was looking for
Gar class ( 6 forward / 4 aft) - bit more fuel then the tambor, otherwise identical
Gato class ( 6 forward / 4 aft), deeper diving then tambor and gar class, otherwise not much difference.
Balao class (6 forward / 4 aft) - also known as "thick skinned boats", these were deeper diving then the gato class. (The balao is to the gato what the type 7c/41 is to the type 7c)
The above is what you'll find in Sh4. The biggest difference is that the us didnt do mid range patrol boats. The pacific was a much larger theater, and all patrols were long range. So the boat had to be bigger to have operational capabilities in this theater.
|