What a bunch of reading- and logic-impaired morons.
My strategy, as I have often said, is when confronted with an enemy aircraft to turn and run. Whenever possible, one should man the flak guns. Yes, I'm aware that flak guns cannot be manned in severe weather. However, that's entirely irrelevant to the question at hand because the supposed "example" of why "it's bad to fight it out with airplanes" is BS. An inexperienced captain who doesn't check for aircraft, surfaces, finds out a bomber is above him, and crash dives is
NOT AN EXAMPLE OF A CAPTAIN FIGHTING IT OUT ON THE SURFACE and anyone who thinks that it is is a
complete imbecile.
The sad fact of life is that by the time you see that airplane, it's already too late to dive. The airplane will almost certainly be in one of two states. The airplane may be on an attack run, in which case you need all the bullets in the air you can muster because airplanes that are being fired at are much less accurate than airplanes that are bearing down on a submarine with its butt sticking up in the air waiting to get its anal insertion. The other alternative is that the airplane hasn't seen you and is heading in some other direction, in which case getting out of there as fast as possible is still a good idea.
Once the aircraft has passed, you should dive. In case you're too stupid to understand this piece of advice, what I am saying is take the first
SAFE opportunity to get underwater and get away. That's the key phrase:
the first safe opportunity. In case you don't know, a confrontation with an onrushing plane with bombs and guns is not an example of a safe opportunity to take a leisurely trip to periscope depth.
In conclusion, no one here is suggesting that staying on the surface and fighting it out with planes is a good idea. Our job is to find merchant ships and sink them and dancing with planes is not conducive to that goal. The renown bonus for shooting down planes is minuscule.
Nevertheless, as I said before, destroyers are much more dangerous not to mention annoying. Unless, of course, one of you can relate a story in which an airplane circled you for hours pinging you long after it was out of depth charges and you were starting to wonder whether you would ever get a breath of fresh air again.
So anyone who says "I maintain it is not worth risking the strategic importance of a U-boat just to engage enemy aircraft" is a complete idiot who needs a remedial reading comprehension class.
