Diving Depths - U-Boats and FleetBoats

jetthelooter · 05-01-07, 11:45 AM

i faintly remember reading an article on the differences between US submarine construction theory and practice and the german same. if i am remembering correctly the germans used a much smaller determination of crush depth than the amercians did meaning that their doctrine called for much deeper diving before reaching crush depth. this allowed them a smaller margin for error when approaching the rated crush depth.

the american estimations were much more conservative making for a much shallower listed crush drepth as the concern was for safety more than anything. in reality both the german and american subs realistically had very similar depths they could dive without damage or implosion. it seemed to me from that article it was more a matter of naval doctrine than actual depth at which the sub would implode. if i remember right the american method for estimating max dive depth was about half of crush depth which is what is usually listed as that sub types max depth.

from what i have read about american sub skippers they would exceed the listed max safe depth by up to half and tend not to record said depth in the log.

so if you consider that the german and american subs had similar dive capabilities and depths. one navy was just doctrinely more conservative than the other.

05-01-07, 11:45 AM	#1
jetthelooter Watch Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 24 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	i faintly remember reading an article on the differences between US submarine construction theory and practice and the german same. if i am remembering correctly the germans used a much smaller determination of crush depth than the amercians did meaning that their doctrine called for much deeper diving before reaching crush depth. this allowed them a smaller margin for error when approaching the rated crush depth. the american estimations were much more conservative making for a much shallower listed crush drepth as the concern was for safety more than anything. in reality both the german and american subs realistically had very similar depths they could dive without damage or implosion. it seemed to me from that article it was more a matter of naval doctrine than actual depth at which the sub would implode. if i remember right the american method for estimating max dive depth was about half of crush depth which is what is usually listed as that sub types max depth. from what i have read about american sub skippers they would exceed the listed max safe depth by up to half and tend not to record said depth in the log. so if you consider that the german and american subs had similar dive capabilities and depths. one navy was just doctrinely more conservative than the other.