Did any wartime US boats have snorkels?

[Capt.LoneRanger]

It's really funny how people still think the German submarine fleet was the most advanced in the world, just because it was the most famous. :hmm:


Anyway - the Netherlands had been experimenting with the snorkel from 1938 on and Germany adopted that system for their boats. The basic problem about the modification was the stability of the snorkel. Even late-war-submarines had to drive rather slowly, not much faster than 6kts to not damage the tube and it was very vulnerable in rough sea.

For the US, this was simply not practicable. They experimented with the system, but refit-programs were only initiated after the war, accompanied with larger refit-programs for the submarine-fleet, including projects to modify the hull for this purpose, to eliminate the drawbacks.