When we see photos of submarine interiors from the WWII-era, there is a general monochrome aspect to them due to the B&W nature and washed out “copy of a copy” life span of such imagery.
Submarine officer sights through a periscope in the submarine’s control room, during training exercises at the Submarine Base, New London, Groton, Connecticut, in August 1943 80-G-K-16013
Well, the USS Cod Submarine Memorial has done the research and determined that the inside of a sub actually had a lot of colors, and are acting accordingly by painting their electrical control boxes gloss black, lockers gray, flashlight bins flat orange, and torpedo pyrotechnic casks red.
It seems that most of the remaining vessels passed into museum status after years as USNRF trainers in the 1950s and 60s, during which the old, “If it moves: salute it. If it doesn’t move: pick it up. If you can’t pick it up: paint it,” mantra came into play during drills and the only paint available was haze gray– so everything got a coat or seven.