Size Does Matter

[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by Keelbuster

The tower on the Gato is HUGE. I wonder why they made it so damned big.

The better to SINK you with, my dear!

[Ducimus]

Originally Posted by Keelbuster

The tower on the Gato is HUGE. I wonder why they made it so damned big.

Remember thats an early war tower before alot of it was cut down to minimize silloutte. Overall though, i think it was orginaly designed like that for two reasons. Hydrodynamics being number 1, and crew comfort on the bridge being number 2. You won't get as wet on a fleet boat bridge then a uboat bridge, at least thats my guess.

The periscope shears, or rather, the height of them ive always viewed as an advantage. Your lookouts are higher up, hence can see farther, and once equiped with radar, your able to use radar while having 90% of the boat submerged, lastly, the boat is deeper while at periscope depth.

[Ducimus]

Since were comparing sizes here , i made some late war screenies of the same. Im inclulding the first pic i already posted because it gives the best comparision. Again, this is a Tambor class fleet boat, next to a type 9B uboat. Except this time, both boats are in their late war configurations/modifications.


(pic posted earlier, no sense in making 2 shots of the same thing since the hull isnt changing sizes)
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[mrbeast]

Very interesting pictures. Perhaps the reason for the difference in the conning tower sizes is due to the differing combat doctrines of the USN and KM.

Prior to the war USN doctrine was dominated by the notion that sbmarines should always mount attacks while submerged, preferably at around 100-150ft deep using sonar bearings. The fear of attack by aircraft while opperating on the surface and at periscope depth was an important factor in this strategy. This may also explain why fleet boats had long periscope shears, to allow the boat greater depth while at periscope depth. Notice that S boats and the earlier fleet boat designs didn't have the tall shears and were designed before the deep sonar approach became doctine.

The KM on the other hand had a very different tactical doctrine which centred on the boat conducting attacks while surfaced. Only diving to complete an escape or if attacks were conduted during the day. This tactic allowed the boat to maintain higher speeds and thus the initiative during an attack. Also U boats operated surfaced during daylight hours as this gave them greater mobility to positon themselves in the path of convoys etc and to receive radio messages co-ordinating them in wolf packs. Thus they have small conning towers, no shears, and a generally smaller silhouette, to give them greater stealth at night and during the day.