skeleton you BO and your Aft torper

you might gain an extra knot or 2

i cant remember (because it was two years ago) but i think the max i got out of my ss3 was 39knts

but i am not like most and some dont agree with my crew

my sonar and planesman are 12 eng base....people way that eng base doesnt effect my speed... i beg to differ...the proof is in the pudding :)

my crew then was eng sonar planesman on supports and the i had a BVE high lvl seaman and another lower lvl engineer on my gun slots...always had bo and aft torp skeletoned

good luck

So I took the suggestion of putting a Repairman on board (front gun slot).

Verdict: "TOTALLY USELESS"

Yes, my DP went up, but after a dozen games, I found that the absence of my front gunner was more of a loss in my ability to defeat enemy ships than any repair ability gained in surviving. If you don't get damaged, the Repairman is useless. If you surface and want to counteract an approaching DD or CL ASW, you're gonna want to have some gunners operating the U-flak guns. Polishing off some smoking heap of a CV or BB with U-Flak guns is very impressive and completely insulting to the enemy you just sank. (I love it). A Depth charge dropping FF will put you away and you can't do anything about...unless you surface and swing your guns around and blast him. Can't do that with a repairman and engineer sitting in your guns slots.

In a KM SS4, when you fall below 7200 DP, you cannot OH. If DP falls below 5000 DP you cannot dive.

So, if you get hammered and lose DP below 5000, you're deadmeat once you surface and cannot dive again. Regardless of how fast some repairman puts out the fire, you are a sitting duck and will get bulldozed.

Spend 1 knot of speed and add some armor, put two gunners on board and rip holes in CLs and wipe out some enemy bombers while you're at it.

Well, i made my SS3 as light as possible - lost 0.2 belt, only have now 9 front torps now, and trimmed all my crew as much as possible, most of my sailors has vets only, only engineer and planesman has full expert. and now my speed is 31/39 (was 30/37 with 22 torps and 0.2 belt) and 26/33 (was 25/31) underwater, i feel like im driving speedboat... :D 9 torps is not enough, but i only have 180k exp till i get U-flak.
Anyway, how is U-flak? Faster then SS3? Easyer to get 40 knts with same engineer? Or need better engineer then SS3?

best way to test is put your best engineers (all 3 support slots) on an empty ship (just engine).

see what is possible.

then put the essentials (fcs, couple of torps, planesman).

see the OH cut and plan accordingly. perhaps moar vets

Then put on the fluff... or not (belt, gunners, restore, rookies)

I have used every setup there is and have determined that faster speeds are not required to be great in a sub.
I never used an engineer on my submarine until my entire crew was lvl 110 with very good results. I use the
light engine. I orginally used one restore and one repair. Then I would try either a restore and seamen or repair and seamen. I have now settled for the following setup.

1 Gunner manning the front gun only
1 seamen sits on the rear gun slot
1 elite & boasted prem Egnineer

Light Engine SS2 with max speed of 32 knots but OH is like 40 seconds.. I drive circles around other subs...

The name of the game is to engage the enemey at max range forcing them to drive through your torps, or crit dive.
Simply stop moving to engage and you will be far more successful regardless of crew makeup.

PS... All my crewmen are maxed out and superfat. Not all stats have a cap and fat crews give huge advantage in
all areas when summed up together.