@15#
http://www.uboatarchive.net/U-570/U-570INT.htm
V. CAPTURE OF "U 570"
"At approximately 0830 on the morning of 27th August, 1941, "U 570" submerged in position about 62
° 15' N. and 18
° 35' W. to obtain some respite from heavy seas which had already caused much seasickness among her inexperienced crew. At 1050 the captain decided to surface again and brought the U-Boat up from a depth of approximately 90 ft. What happened next can only be attributed to the lack of training of the Commander. Rahmlow entirely forgot to make any observation for hostile aircraft before exposing his ship. It so happened that a Hudson aircraft "S" belonging to 269 Squadron, and piloted by Squadron-Leader Thompson, was almost immediately overhead. "U 570" perceived her danger too late and, while she was attempting to crash dive, the aircraft dropped a stick of four 250 lb. depth charges, at an angle of 30
° to the U-Boat's track. These exploded close to her, the nearest being about 10 yards away. One minute after the water disturbance had subsided "U 570" surfaced again, bow down, and 10 to 12 of her crew came on deck. The aircraft attacked with guns until a white flag was waved from the conning tower. It was established by interrogation of prisoners that, at the moment of the attack, confusion reigned within the U-Boat. The detonation of the depth charges, the smashing of instruments, the formation of gas, thought by the crew to be chlorine gas, and the entry of a certain amount of water apparently convinced Rahmlow that his boat was lost, for her ordered the crew to don life-jackets and mount the conning tower."
Zosimus,
if you have an elite crew and an experienced commander, I accept you may have a fighting chance in a one on one with an aircraft; but only if you are forced to fight it out, because you can't submerge in time.
However, as we both know, Rahmlow was inexperienced, this being his 1st war patrol and out of a compliment of 43, only 4 had completed a war patrol.
As you can see from the quoted text, after the initial mistake of surfacing before checking for aircraft, the situation became compounded by panic and inexperience amongst crew and officers.
The article goes on to say that the seas made it impossible to man the guns, so a fight was out of the question even if the crew had the will to do so.
1st mistake: Surfacing in broad daylight; irrespective that there are upset tummies all over the boat.
This mistake compounded by not carrying out proper air surveillance.
2nd mistake: Resurfacing after being attacked.
The Engineering Officer was one of the 4 that had patrol experience.
Rahmlow should have dived as deep as possible and used his EO's knowledge to assess the situation.
Repair the damage and carry on, or surface and surrender.
As I haven't being in a situation that has required me to make instant life determining decisions, I am certainly not going to criticize somebody for making the wrong mistakes in a real life situation.
From a strategic point of view this is a U-boat that was lost from its main purpose, i.e. the sinking of enemy merchant vessels.
This purpose requires the U-boat to be undetected to maximise its chances of success.
Something, that brawling it out on the surface with aircraft is not going to enhance those chances.
Ok, call me unadventurous if you like, I can take it.
