Who made the best Subs in WW2

[Glider]

The Type 21 was the best sub of the war beyond question.

However if you take that out of the equation and ask which was the best then my vote would go to the American Fleet submarines. These were modern boats with radar and all other mod cons, an excellent range and were quite fast with a heavy warload.

The type VII had the sole advantage of being able to go very deep but if picked up on the surface as most were then this was of little benefit. It wasn't for nothing that they were called black coffins. The Type IX was a better all round boat but its equipment was similar to the VII.

The US boats had a better all round advantage.

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Originally Posted by Glider

The Type 21 was the best sub of the war beyond question.

However if you take that out of the equation and ask which was the best then my vote would go to the American Fleet submarines. These were modern boats with radar and all other mod cons, an excellent range and were quite fast with a heavy warload.

The type VII had the sole advantage of being able to go very deep but if picked up on the surface as most were then this was of little benefit. It wasn't for nothing that they were called black coffins. The Type IX was a better all round boat but its equipment was similar to the VII.

The US boats had a better all round advantage.

I will agree with that, but with what the Type VII was lacking they made up for in the Wolfpack tactics, atleast in the beginning.

[Glider]

There is no doubt that the use of the Wolfpack tactics was an excellent plan A, the problem was that the germans didn't have a plan B. Once the allied forces had the equipment to deal with the Wolfpack, the germans were always on the defensive and never caught up.
There is no reason why they couldn't have developed the type XXI a couple of years earlier and then we would have been in real trouble.

[delcyros]

If I am allowed to put my money on something, I would still choose Type VIIb in early stage, Gato in the middle stage and XXI or XXIII for the late stage.
But the most advanced submarine wasn´t Type XXI, this title doubtless belongs to Type XXVII true air independent Walter subs with very high submerged speed (25-27kts) and decent range.
I only have to confirm the worries about german torpedoes for the early (NOT INITIALLY) stage of ww2, particularly for the year 1940 and for electric torpedoes with magnetic pistols. The original steam driven ones were much better and reliable (1939-1940). Japanese submarine torpedoes are average, the vaunted long lance wasn´t used on subs.
British submarine torpedoes were average but reliable.
Italian submarine torpedoes were highly unreliable.
US torpedoes share a lot with german ones, they developed to a higher degree in reliability. Later in the war, both navies fielded very advanced torpedoes (partly with passive homing). US and british submarines also had more sophisticated torpedo calculators on board, german ones had more sophisticated sonar and from mid 1942 on quite advanced passive radar detectors. The dive depth is a vital point. The deepest recovered dive of ww2 was accidently a Type VIIC41 in the Mediterranean, diving to approx. 352m (1.165 ft), hitting the seabed and damaging the boat heavily. It´s close to a wonder that the boat sustained the stress and returned to surface.