Why Depth Charges Don't Have to Touch a Submarine to Sink It

It's 1942 and the USS Silversides, a U.S. submarine submerged in the Pacific, is frantically trying to dodge depth charges dropped by a Japanese warship. Even a near miss could be catastrophic.

[mrcorncakez]

fun fact: there are more airplanes in the ocean then there are submarines in the sky

[SIDEKICKONYOUTUBE]

i got confused from the start. i thought the enemy vessel was a submarine. as they scramble to battle stations, THEY WERE the submarine and the enemy was a ship. zzzz
and when they fired two torpedo they were already submerged, but after they miss they closed the hatch and starts submerging. arrrggg

[dan-gheorghe]

Uhhh but isn't a submarine already sunk?

[russg]

The pressure hull is already under strain. Depth charge effectively increases localized pressure and ruptures the hull.

[itsfinnickbitch]

those depth charges look like large Heinz 🅱️ean Cans

[itsmemaario]

If this interests you, I recommend watching a movie called "Das Boot".

[criticalthinkingalways]

This is why you always wrap your submarine in a kevlar condom👍

[bodhi_db]

Wow! The cgi is pretty damn good, especially for a documentary.

[CHaas-bnxi]

submarines are just plain scary I'd freaking freak out and die of a heartache

[lairdriver]

My great grandfather served on a WW2 submarine, they got depth charged by a German destroyer. The depth charges never hit the hull of the submarine. They explosions were powerful enough to break his jaw. His crew mate bit half of his tongue off because he braced himself near a dry valve and the shock waves traveled through his body and slammed his mouth shut. It's so psychologically terrifying that guys on submarines in WW2 have been driven to suicide from it.

[yatharthpandey]

Imagining the sub's crew at the time of depth charges creeps me out

[WSB]

The massive balls of the submariners is what keeps submarines underwater.

[mace]

My grandad was in the merchant fleet when the war broke out, and the day the Germans occupied his country (Denmark) he was on his way to Liverpool, where he volunteered for the Royal Navy upon arrival. He ended up serving on a destroyer, and when he was still alive, he told me how they hunted U-boats back then - when they set out on patrol, he told me, they always had the deck covered in barrels of green paint. When they got a hydrophone contact, they'd slowly circle the area above the German U-boat, in a spiral pattern while they poured paint over the side. Then when the submarine came up to periscope depth to take a look, the paint would cover the periscope lens. The germans, looking through their periscope would think they were still underwater and keep rising. Then when the U-boat had reached a height of about 150m they'd shoot it down with anti aircraft guns.:-)

[oldschoolcfi]

Initially the Japanese were setting the depths on their depth charges too shallow, enabling some of the US Subs to escape. This interesting fact was broadcast by a US Politician to the press, whereupon the Japanese corrected their deficiency, and the US Submariners became the Silent Service ever after.

[breakingtoast]

the giant balls of these sub marine men shielded the sub from destruction

[tomsawyer]

This video never answered the question of "why depth charges don't have to touch a submarine to sink it". I believe the answer is - that water is non-compressible. SO, water is very efficient at propagating the shockwave from the depthcharge explosion to the surrounding area. btw - the air inside the sub WILL compress.

[thom]

Silversides did survive. It is docked in Muskegon, MI

[houroflove]

The Title vs What's Depicted - huh?

[markherc]

I went to the USS Silverside museum in muskegon Michigan, it was huge compared to a German U boat exhibit in Chicago i saw. Another cool thing about the Silverside was how it remained almost untouched since the war and had levers that could still activate the sub.

[Otokichi]

Hydrostatic pressure from a "near miss" will do more damage than a direct hit. This advice from a Naval officer to U.S. Army General William "Billy" Mitchell led to the successful sinking of the German battleship "Ostfriesland" by aircraft in July, 1921.