I had the same thing happen to my last mission, heading out in the middle of the English channel and I have 5 warships hunting me down, and no place to go. DC's all around and damage, damage, damage. I finally ended up stuck on the channel floor, with flooding a few dead crew and no batteries and damaged diesels. I tried to blow ballasts after my diesel were repaired and was willing to try one last surface run but my boat would not float !?! I was in a panic the ships heard the ballasts and came back with a vengance they dumped all the dc's my poor little boat could handle and I finally drowed due to heavy flooding all in all that was about 3 hours of game play I was so sad when my crew and I died.
but wanted to start a new career asap.
Great game !!