The effect is real though, just not in this case.
There's an account in Thunder Below! by Adm Eugene B. Fluckey, a WW2 US Navy Submarine Captain, where lookouts spotted a Japanese Convoy in the Sea of Okhotsk 5-10 degrees above the Horizon. After closing in and attacking the convoy, they calculated that they must have sighted it at almost 40 nautical miles away - well below the horizon normally.
Thunder Below, available on Amazon here.
Here’s the link
Thunder Below!: The USS Barb Revolutionizes Submarine Warfare in World War II https://www.amazon.com/dp/0252066707
It’s a good read, written by one of Barb’s commanders himself.
This book was written by WW2 captain and its awesome! We had the ww2 battleflag in our mess hall. Pretty awesome.
http://www.amazon.com/Thunder-Below-Revolutionizes-Submarine-Warfare/dp/0252066707
Could be made into a movie