Conning tower: door as exit?

[pratolano]

Hello!

This may be a bit of a silly question, but I'm playing a Sargo class sub (TMO mod). From within the conning tower, I see a door located by the TDC. From the other side, though, I don't see a door there, just the two door-shaped openings that lead from an empty space to the port and starboard bow (no actual door).

In the real sub, was there a door there from the conning tower out to the bridge like it shows from the internal view in SH4, or did crewmen always have to climb up the ladder and through the hatch to get to the bridge? It looks like that ladder + hatch leads to a little, semi-covered area on the bridge that then has two tiny staircases up to the main part of the bridge.

I'm just trying to visualize what paths the crewmen in WW2 would have to take to get up to the bridge, or down into the boat when going back in. I've tried to find actual photos of how all this works, but not much luck.