No Balao class submarine?

Rated test depths are advisories, not true crush depths. U-boats and American subs both reported surviving depths of 600 feet and more. There really wasn't that much of a difference.

In Das Boot (both book and movie) the rated test depth of 'UA'/U-96 is only 90 meters.

[Safe-Keeper]

Even if the Balao's not added, I suppose it'd be quite easy for a modder to just add a new conning tower to a Gato duplicate and re-name it Balao-class.

Rated test depths are advisories, not true crush depths.

What if the shipyard had a change of routines and decided that "rated test depths" would be equal to crush depths?

"The shipyard guarantees 250 metres, and a bit more if your aft dive planes are jammed and there's still 30 minutes left of the movie, but of course we can go deeper."
[Goes to 300 metres]
[Ambient Crunching sound]
"Er, let's get back up. Our correspondent is sweating quite badly, and Bernard's pissed his pants".
[Crunching sound, leaks appear everywhere]
"Oh shi--"

Mission Ended

Sub destroyed by pressure and n00b arrogance.

Start: 0 minutes into movie.
End: 19 minutes into movie.
Crew:
4 Officers [4 Dead]
10 Petty Officers [10 Dead]
30 Sailors [30 Dead]
1 Annoying Nazi Correspondent [1 Dead]

[WilhelmSchulz.]

Actuly the Balao and Trench had deeper crush depths than the thin-skined Gato.

[ssbn627g]

The balao is a variant of the gato. The gato's had a thin pressure hull (5/8"). Test depth to 350 ft. The balao's pressure hull was 7/8" thick and test depth was 450 feet. Dick O'Kane, in his Tang had an offical (although accidental) deep depth of 647 ft.

[WilhelmSchulz.]

The Tang I do Belive was a Balao. :hmm:

[ricnunes]

Yeap the Balao can be considered an "updated" Gato but nevertheless I hope that they include the Balao on SH4. Note that more Balaos existed and therefore more Balaos saw action on the Pacific than the gato. It would be real bad if the devs decided to leave the Balao out of the game!

[Hitman]

The Tang I do Belive was a Balao.

That's right SS-306 was already a BALAO

The Balaos were essentially improved hull-Gatos, same design, but improved hull resistance AND what was almost as important, prepared to be assembled from pre-built parts (like teh german Type XXI or the Victory/Liberty ships)

As for the conning tower, ALL US subs where it was possible received that refit during 1943, intended to have a smaller visual silhouette for night surface actions. Perchs, tambors and also salmos & sargos received that refit plus the first SJ radar and also a new repaint in grey later (At the start of the war and during the first months, US subs were all painted in very dark grey, nearly black).

[cmdrk]

Originally Posted by Hitman

As for the conning tower, ALL US subs where it was possible received that refit during 1943, intended to have a smaller visual silhouette for night surface actions. Perchs, tambors and also salmos & sargos received that refit plus the first SJ radar and also a new repaint in grey later (At the start of the war and during the first months, US subs were all painted in very dark grey, nearly black).

Wartime experience dictated changes to the sub's superstructure during refits. It seems the most common changes were cutting down the front to provide a gun platform, the "front porch". And later, removing some of the fairwater under the aft cigarette deck to reduce the silhouette.

One book speculated that with all the modifications on the superstructure at Mare Island, Pearl, Midway, etc. that no two submarines looked alike. The book showed a picture of 5 or 6 subs berthed side by side. Two of them were commissioned within months of each other from the same yard. Each one had something different about it.

[AirborneTD]

Originally Posted by ricnunes

Yeap the Balao can be considered an "updated" Gato but nevertheless I hope that they include the Balao on SH4. Note that more Balaos existed and therefore more Balaos saw action on the Pacific than the gato. It would be real bad if the devs decided to leave the Balao out of the game!

This is not quite true. Yes, there were, eventually, more Balao's than Gato's in the Pacific, but the Gatos ran more war patrols than the Balao's and Tench classes combined. The latter 2 classes came out much later when targets were becoming scarce. The Gatos bore that brunt of the fighting as well as the earlier boats.

The Balaos numbered 105 boats compared to the Gato 54 by war's end, but the Gatos ran 587 patrols to the Balao 423.

[Capt. D]

The Balaos numbered 105 boats compared to the Gato 54 by war's end, but the Gatos ran 587 patrols to the Balao 423.

Also, only 11 Tench class boats made any patrols in WWII. The brunt of the patrols were made by Gatos and Balaos. The USS Flasher ran up the highest score in tonnage sunk and she was a Gato class.

The Tautog, a Tambor class boat (class prior to Gatos), ran up the most ships sunk, though, with 26 confirmed sinkings. So number vs class did not matter at times.



Happy Hunting

[ricnunes]

Originally Posted by AirborneTD

This is not quite true. Yes, there were, eventually, more Balao's than Gato's in the Pacific, but the Gatos ran more war patrols than the Balao's and Tench classes combined. The latter 2 classes came out much later when targets were becoming scarce. The Gatos bore that brunt of the fighting as well as the earlier boats.

The Balaos numbered 105 boats compared to the Gato 54 by war's end, but the Gatos ran 587 patrols to the Balao 423.

Ok, that the Gatos did more patrols than the Balaos, afterall the Gatos entered in service first and like the Balaos they were fought till the end of the war but the number of patrols of the Balao was also very big so I think that very few would disagree that the Balao shouldn't be included in SH4.

For example the German TypeXXI according to many sources never saw actual combat in WWII but nevertheless it was included in SH3 so I think not having the Balao in SH4 would be a HUGE mistake from the SH4 devs. I even think that not having the Tench in SH4 is a mistake (despite seeing limited service in WWII - But so the German TypeXXI did).
But I do hope that the Balao (and even the Tench) is included as a "variantion" of the Gato.

[Hitman]

The Gatos bore that brunt of the fighting as well as the earlier boats.

Yeah, and in fact the highest scoring submarine was .... a T class! USS Tautog (SS204??) was it.