Technology and Operations
This forum is for discussing technological & operational matters pertaining to U-boats.
Re: Thermal Layers
Posted by:
kurt
()
Date: July 16, 2004 12:47PM
Dion:
you raise several good observations about Doenitz and the lack of advancement in U-boat techonlogy during the war. Hindsight is 20-20: there are good reasons why doenitz made these decisions, given what he knew at the time, though of course we now know those decisions to be deeply flawed.
but the points you raise are also too broad to address in a single posting or thread.
As for the thermal layer, one good reason for not designing around it, at least in the early years, was that it was so deep in the North atlantic - often 600 ft or even 1000 ft deep. This was below the normal operating depth of most u-boats, and was below the maximum depth setting of early war allied depth charges.
The need to go very, very deep to survive came apparent only with time in the war, by which time, as you have noted, the Kriegsmarine was badly behind the power curve in terms of technological advancement.
Remember that a deep diving cabapility comes at a price: heavier weight of the hull means poorer surface seakeeping, and slower surface speeds and range. A very deep diving sub (1000ft +) was outside the range of early war materials, as the necessary higher strength steels and welding was not available.
I have a post a few months back with some of my thoughts on the evolution of the maximum diving depth of submarines if you want to give a read, here it is:
[uboat.net]
Regards,
Kurt
you raise several good observations about Doenitz and the lack of advancement in U-boat techonlogy during the war. Hindsight is 20-20: there are good reasons why doenitz made these decisions, given what he knew at the time, though of course we now know those decisions to be deeply flawed.
but the points you raise are also too broad to address in a single posting or thread.
As for the thermal layer, one good reason for not designing around it, at least in the early years, was that it was so deep in the North atlantic - often 600 ft or even 1000 ft deep. This was below the normal operating depth of most u-boats, and was below the maximum depth setting of early war allied depth charges.
The need to go very, very deep to survive came apparent only with time in the war, by which time, as you have noted, the Kriegsmarine was badly behind the power curve in terms of technological advancement.
Remember that a deep diving cabapility comes at a price: heavier weight of the hull means poorer surface seakeeping, and slower surface speeds and range. A very deep diving sub (1000ft +) was outside the range of early war materials, as the necessary higher strength steels and welding was not available.
I have a post a few months back with some of my thoughts on the evolution of the maximum diving depth of submarines if you want to give a read, here it is:
[uboat.net]
Regards,
Kurt
