Originally Posted by connan_add
Think abought the size of the holes blown into the side of a sub, from takeing a full salvo from a BB, TB's, DB's. Would you honestly think a ssub would try to dive without plugging them fist, sounds like scuttling a ship order or suicide to me.
You obviously don't understand how submarines work. Allow me to explain. I'll take this slow.
First: The odds of a battleship shell actually HITTING a submarine are slim to none. Submarines are very small targets with a low profile, and low freeboard (Ie area above the surface.) Compound that with the average sub being only about 50 feet wide in WW2, you have a target that it would take one heck of a lucky shot for a battleship to hit. As such, when NF added submarines back in the day, they addressed this low probability of a submarine being actually hit, by allowing the submarine to "shrug off" so to speak, one to two 'hits' from a battleship.
Second: Submarines aren't just open tubes. They, like major ships such as cruisers, destroyers, battleships, and carriers, have water tight compartments. Truth be known, submarines actually have MORE water tight compartments than the average ship. Where in destroyers you might go thirty feet or so before running into a watertight door, in a Submarine, it's on average every fifteen feet. What's more, contrary to what movies show, it was standard operating practice to seal all watertight doors when the submarines submerged. This way, if flooding were to happen in one room, it wouldn't cause the whole boat to flood.
Lastly: Thee are numerous accounts of submarines in WW2 taking penetrating hits from both destroyers and cruisers, submerging and taking out the ship that had shot them, only to surface and continue on. Remember, as I stated in the first, the odds of a battleship actually hitting a submarine are SLIM to NONE. Contrary to popular belief, most battleship engagements (against other shipping) happened at ranges over one mile. At that distance, a submarine on the surface would be nearly invisible to the naked eye (for reasons stated in the first.)
To further disprove the "repair before diveing (sic)" idea, consider this real world submarine from WW2:
USS Squalus/Sailfish : 11/43. During a surface attack on a japanese convoy, Sailfish was attacked by a Japanese destroyer. The destroyer damaged Sailfish, forcing her to dive to evade further fire. Sailfish went on to sink three ships of the convoy, totaling 35,700 tons, and thee escort ships (destroyers and cruiser) totaling 29,571 tons. Returned to Pearl harbor after the engagment for repairs and refit.
