Eli5: Why did early Military/Naval submarines have deck guns?
In: 2
Early submarines couldn’t stay underwater for long, they actually spent most of their time on the surface so they could run their diesels
A deck gun provides some mild anti air protection especially if the sub absolutely can’t dive for some reason
The deck gun also gives a much cheaper way to engage a target. The sub might carry 20 torpedos but those won’t last terribly long especially with early war accuracy and detonator problems. Against an unarmed and unarmored merchant ship a 3″ gun is good enough and won’t use a valuable torpedo that could be used on an armed escort
Eli5: Why did early Military/Naval submarines have deck guns?
In: 2
Early submarines couldn’t stay underwater for long, they actually spent most of their time on the surface so they could run their diesels
A deck gun provides some mild anti air protection especially if the sub absolutely can’t dive for some reason
The deck gun also gives a much cheaper way to engage a target. The sub might carry 20 torpedos but those won’t last terribly long especially with early war accuracy and detonator problems. Against an unarmed and unarmored merchant ship a 3″ gun is good enough and won’t use a valuable torpedo that could be used on an armed escort
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