Depth record

[Fregattenkapitän]

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[Maki4444]

Well in the book "Iron Coffins" it states that the sub, pushed by depth charges reached a depth of 300 meters, without being crushed. But as for the ingame settings I am not sure, I never really tried putting the sub to it's limits.

[quink99]

Martin Middlebrook, the author of Convoy, New York:William Morrow and Company, 1976, based on "unspecified interview" cites 270 meters (885 ft.) as the max. depth obtained by a Type VIIC and 310 meters (1,020 ft.) by a Type IXC.

As to the max. depth obtainable in the game I have no idea.

[Hinrich Schwab]

The stock crush depth without mods is too shallow. It is around 200 meters and you will take damage at 175+ This seemed to force the player to rely on one of the broken passive skills. Modded extends this to roughly 240 meters with some variations, depending on your mod, which is around what the calculations indicate. Historically, no one really knew and it varied wildly per individual boat. The U-boats that survived extreme dives reported ~275-300 meters.

[quink99]

The stock crush depth without mods is too shallow. It is around 200 meters and you will take damage at 175+ This seemed to force the player to rely on one of the broken passive skills. Modded extends this to roughly 240 meters with some variations, depending on your mod, which is around what the calculations indicate.

What specific MODs, Schwartzritter, would extend the max. depth to more than the stock SH5?

[Jmack]

there was a mod in SHIII where you could set the max depth or randomize it after the max depth was reached ...

[Bilge_Rat]

This has always been an interesting topic. The problem of course, is that most U-boats which went too deep never came back up...

I read through Blair's 2 volumes on the U-boat war, took me about 5 years off and on and only finished last year. He noted when U-Boats went to unusual depth, since this would have been noted on the captain's log, namely:

1. the deepest recorded dive occurred on march 11, 1943, U-432, a veteran VIIc on its 8th war patrol but w. a green skipper sank a merchantman. Incredibly, instead of taking evasive action, the boat stayed at periscope depth and the officers broke out champagne to celebrate... . When the corvette Aconit carried out a standard sweep, it was surprised to find U-432 still at PD. Aconit dropped 10 DCs which caused extensive damage to U-432 and drove it down to 1,000 feet (307 meters). This depth "...so terrified all hands.." that the skipper decided to surface at which point it was quickly sunk by the escort, so we have no idea what damage was done to hull, if any, from the dive.

2.the deepest recorded dive by a type VII which survived was 252 meters (820 feet) by U-331, a VIIc, right after it sank HMS Barham.

It appears such deep dives were rare events. Blair mentions two dives by other boats in 41, one to 750 feet (230 meters) and one to 675 feet (208 meters) as "scary" for the crew. Certainly serious enough to be recorded in the boat's log.

The VIIC/41 was supposed to be deeper diving, but Blair never mentions a deep dive in one. Of course, the VIIC/41 only started war patrols in mid-late 1944, when U-boats had a very short life expectancy, so it is entirely possible the record holder never made it back to base.

[gambla]

L.G. Buchheim's "Das Boot" is called a novel, but he said, that everything written, is his own true experience gathered on different boats. When they lost the boat at Gibraltar, the boat is said to hit ground on 280 m. I believe it's true, as nothing was so important for him as to make the movie as realistic as possible. And by the way, i recently have read an article by him about making the movie. He wasn't very happy with many things.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by gambla

L.G. Buchheim's "Das Boot" is called a novel, but he said, that everything written, is his own true experience gathered on different boats. When they lost the boat at Gibraltar, the boat is said to hit ground on 280 m. I believe it's true, as nothing was so important for him as to make the movie as realistic as possible.

I too believe it's true, because other, non-novel, sources have said as much.

And by the way, i recently have read an article by him about making the movie. He wasn't very happy with many things.

And several u-boatmen criticized the book as being over the top in several areas.

[Catfish]

Buchheim wrote 3 books about his, well, friendship, with Lehmann-Willenbrock.
1. Das Boot (patrol with U-96, but mixed with other experiences, so in a way, fiction.)
2. Die Festung (Last months in the fortress Brest, and how Buchheim escaped in a car, through France, while Lehmann-Willenbrock broke out of the siege with a snorkel-fitted U-boat to reach Norway - latter only reported, no details, but also very interesting)
3. Der Abschied (how they met again on the german nuclear merchant "Otto Hahn", long after the war; Willenbrock being Captain of said ship)

and three books with photos of Buchheim's time as a war reporter aboard U-96, others and harbours, with excellent pictures and explanations !

The non /41 /42 types were already able to go as deep as 300 meters, however the official "wharf guarantee" was at 120, later 160 meters.

The VIIC boat that torpedoed the Barham, sank to 338 meters (bow) after the attack while evading destroyers, when the crew realized the central depth gauge had blocked at 80 (they really tried to get the boat deeper by flooding more, but the boat did not react or so it seemed), and they received a nervous report from the bow, with its own depth gauge.
The hull had been twisted and torn by the pressure though, and both propshafts had become noisy in their misaligned rotary shaft seals.

I would say that almost every type VII-boat would have been able to go to 220 meters without problem, the very early VIIAs maybe a bit less.

Greetings,
Catfish

[Hinrich Schwab]

Originally Posted by quink99

What specific MODs, Schwartzritter, would extend the max. depth to more than the stock SH5?

TheDarkWraith's UI mod http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=166093 has several fixes, especially the depth keeping bug fix. ddrgn's U-boat Historical Specifications mod http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/down...o=file&id=1775 directly addresses this issue and throws in some more realism for good measure (read: learn to hate bad weather)

[Hinrich Schwab]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

And several u-boatmen criticized the book as being over the top in several areas.

This is ironic and hilarious because Buchheim walked away from Petersen and Das Boot because Buchheim thought the script was over the top.

[Hinrich Schwab]

Originally Posted by Jmack

there was a mod in SHIII where you could set the max depth or randomize it after the max depth was reached ...

The megamods and several other mods change this. SH3 Commander I know for certain adds the random feature to crush depths.

[Bilge_Rat]

Originally Posted by Catfish

The VIIC boat that torpedoed the Barham, sank to 338 meters (bow) after the attack while evading destroyers, when the crew realized the central depth gauge had blocked at 80 (they really tried to get the boat deeper by flooding more, but the boat did not react or so it seemed), and they received a nervous report from the bow, with its own depth gauge.
The hull had been twisted and torn by the pressure though, and both propshafts had become noisy in their misaligned rotary shaft seals.

Do you have a link for that? 338 meters is 1098 feet. I checked Blair again and he has U-331 diving down to only 252 meters (820 feet).

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Schwartzritter

This is ironic and hilarious because Buchheim walked away from Petersen and Das Boot because Buchheim thought the script was over the top.

Even more so because Lehmann-Willenbrock was technical adviser on the movie, and he didn't walk away.