Some Points / Questions About Depth

[Stevepine]

Originally Posted by Shadriss

I did a lot of reading (a long time ago) on WWII US boats, and while I understand that we're talking the German side, I think the designs are similar enough that the depths should be similar.

First - a meter is ROUGHLY equal to 3 feet. I know thats not exact, but its close enough for this discussion. (3.3 is closer, but I hate decimals.) US Boats at the time didn't like going below about 350 feet, so call that about 117 meters. Theoretical crush depth was 600 ft (or about 180 meters). Now, in extremis, a boat skipper would try anything, so going deeper than that would still be an option if he felt he had no choice. Being DC'd would definately qualify.

200 meters (660 ft) would be seriously pushing it, and he likely went that far down simply because no Skimmer Skipper would think a U-boat would even try anything that deep. Hence, he's relatively safe. 210 (just short of 700 ft) is nearly insane. Note he only did that ONCE.

Now, all that said, the second part of that question is a much easier question. DC's are ALWAYS a realistic danger to a sub. No matter the depth. It isn't the depth that they are set to, but how CLOSE to the boat they explode. DCs rely purely on the shockwave to shake the sub apart. So, if the sub is at 210 meters, and the DCs are dropped to 210 meters, and they are close enough, they will be as nasty as they would be in shallower depths... in fact, they may be MORE effective given the non-compressability of water and the water pressure at that depth.

Hope that gives you some insight...

Thanks for the reply! really interesting to see those crush depth figures you gave.

With regard to the D. charges I was just thinking that deeper would be safer because... surely the deeper the sub is the harder it must be for a destroyer to drop charges accurately and with precision?

Therefore I was wondering how dangerous DCs could really be to a U boat at a 180 - 200 meters. Would be quite hard for the destroyer to drop them down to that depth accurately I think. (although im sure a really skilled destroyer crew could manage it)

Plus in SH5 , Im sure the AI would need tweaking to make DC s accurate at that kind of depth??