Silent Hunter III

Guide to Enemy Submarines

The Allied counterparts to the German U-boats during the Battle of the Atlantic were primarily the submarines of the Royal and United States navies. In the North and Black Sea, the Soviet Union also maintained a sizable submarine service as did the Italian Navy in the Mediterranean.

The Silent Hunter III game engine allows for limited combat from enemy submarines, mainly that enemy submarines will fire on the surface while moored in port. Enemy submarines can not dive in Silent Hunter III nor is sub-to-sub underwater combat possible.

S-Class

The British S-Class submarine was the mainstay attack boat of the Royal Navy during the Second World War. The S boat design was first introduced in 1931, with three variants eventually constructed. The third and largest variant produced fifty boats between 1942 and 1945.

S-class submarines carried a crew of fifty, much like their German counterpart the Type VII, but were slower at 14 knots surfaced and 8 knots submerged. This was made up for with armament, in that the S-class possessed six forward torpedo tubes with the capability of launching thirteen torpedoes. As with the German Type VII, the S-class possessed a single stern torpedo tube as well.

T-Class

The T-Class submarines were a larger version of the S class and were slightly faster at 15 knots surfaced and 9 knots submerged. The greats offensive advantage of the T-class were four additional external torpedo tubes, mounted on the bow, which allowed the submarine to launch ten of her sixteen torpedoes at once.

The submarine was also slightly longer than the S-class at 85 meters, held a crew of 48, and possessed an operational range of 8,000 nautical miles.

GATO Class

Gato class submarines, of which there were seventy seven produced during World War II, were the front line American attack boats from 1942 through the end of the war.

With an engineering plant of four diesel and electric engines, the Gato class could achieve an impressive speed of 21 knots surfaced and 10 knots submerged. The submarine was capable of diving to 300 feet and carried an arsenal of twenty four torpedo tubes with six forward tubes and four in the stern.

BALAO Class

Operational range of the Gato class at cruising speed was 11,000 nautical miles. The submarine carried a compliment of sixty with 6 officers and a crew of 54.

Internal cross section of the Gato class submarine

The Balao class was a successor design to the Gato submarine and incorporated many of the same systems. the submarine was slightly larger and slower, but could dive to a maximum depth of four hundred feet, and as such was one of the deepest diving submarines of the Second World War.

The submarine carried a compliment of 80 (10 officers and 70 enlisted) and carried twenty four torpedoes with ten tubes, spread six forward and four tubes in the stern. One hundred and twenty Balao submarines were manufactured between 1942 and 1945, many of which continued in service until the mid 1970s.

S Boats

S boats were inter-war submarines constructed during the 1920s and deployed in four variants, known as "Groups I through IV". The latedr two groups (III and IV) so the most service during World War II, mostly as sentry boats in the Atlantic.

The S boats could achieve a speed of 15 knots surfaced and 11 knots submerged with a range of approximately 5,000 nautical miles. They carried an armament of twelve torpedoes with four forward launching tubes. The submarine held a compliment of forty men, normally five officers and thirty five crew members.

In the 2000 submarine action film U-571, a S-boat is featured in the first half of the film, carrying Americans to capture a disabled German U-boat. The submarine (S-33) is shown destroyed in a climatic scene; however, historically, the S-33 survived the war with eight war patrols and was stricken and sold for scrap in 1945.

Return to Home

Return to U-boat Information

Shchuka Class

The Shchuka class submarine was the front line submarine of the Soviet Union during the Second World War. The first ships of the class were built in the early 1930s, with nearly ninety eventually constructed. Submarines of the Shchuka class were distributed between the four major commands of the Northern, Baltic, Black Sea, and Pacific fleets.

Compared to other submarines of the period, the Shchuka was relatively standard, propelled by a two shaft diesel engine and capable of making way at 12 knots on the surface and 7 knots submerged. The submarine could dive to 90 meters (300 feet) and carried an arsenal of six torpedo tubes (four forward and two in the stern) with a maximum payload of ten torpedoes. The submarine also had two small deck guns.

The maximum range of the Shchuka class submarine was six thousand nautical miles. The submarine typically carried a crew compliment of 38.