The game does attempt to simulate the German torpedo crisis, which was similar in nature to the US torpedo crisis. Uboat dot net has a small article:
Die Torpedokrise
If you like reading graduate school papers, here is one by David Habersham Wright, which is interesting:
WOLVES WITHOUT TEETH
What you encountered would be par for the course... unfortunately. Sometimes worse, sometimes better. The US, when they obtained a German G7e from the British, brought it home, and copied it verbatim, including the defects... sigh...