If, am not mistaken... compressed air was what all subs of the day, used to drain the ballast tanks to change from deep depths to more shallow ones or, to surface.... (emergency blow would of course be called for in serious circumstances... as in taking in a lot of water from numerous damaged areas of the boat & if that continued unabated... would result in the subs loss
)
As I can recall, off the top of My head... & think am pretty spot on, I believe... in recalling that right.
So... if that was the case... then the chances of being able to surface... under those conditions... would be... nil, I'd think. No compressed air... no chance to blow ballast to surface.
Hmm... given all that... would think it likely that the skipper (or next in charge in the event the skipper was seriously injured or killed... & so on, so forth.. down the chain...
) would in all probability, order abandon, at that point... as the sub would for all intents, be untenable. Meaning, a loss.
As I recall... don't think they had rescue craft, capable of going into a combat area & doing a rescue... not like they do, nowadays.
M. M.