Real Submarine Technology & History Q&A

[LukeFF]

Originally Posted by DaveyJ576

I think what they were doing was rotating the ladder 90 degrees aft along the conning tower hatch rim. This would have gotten it out of the way of the planesmen. This was probably a later mod that was based on operational experience.

That was my guess as well. Based on all the interior photos I've seen, the above-posted photo with the ladder perpendicular to the planes was probably either taken late in the war with, say, a Tench class boat or a photo taken in the immediate postwar era.