The quoted assessment treats the A class as easier to handle and dive than the T class, with a 600-foot test depth and an 800-foot depth judged within its limits. It was not a clean-sheet breakthrough: wartime material constraints and the engine-production bottleneck forced reuse of a supercharged T-class engine. The officer considered the boat undergunned and found its mixed internal and external torpedo arrangements uncomfortably crowded. A Type 267 radar set on a periscope tube could provide range and bearing on a plan-position display, but it still had problems. Taken together, the details show how wartime production realities could yield a capable improvement without producing an outstanding new design.
Notable Point · 5:36-6:37
The A-class submarine as a wartime compromise
A contemporary assessment praises the A-class boat's diving and handling while identifying limits imposed by reused engines, wartime materials, cramped torpedo spaces, light armament, and imperfect radar.