I would completely agree that the destroyers in game are nowhere near effective or as aggressive as they should be. I torpedoed one the other day and had its partner come to a stop allowing me to easily sink it. No self-respecting captain would ever hazard his ship in that manner. To my recollection it was the same when SH3 came out, but I don't think it was as bad. Memory, however, has a way of playing funny tricks. We went from one extreme to the other.
My point about the Italian submarine almost winning was that a lucky shot or even another shot in the right spot would have made it a completely different story. I was by no means stating that it is a normal or even sane situation to put yourself in, but that it was a theoretical possibility. Early in '42 there was a DD along with a CG cutter which were seriously damaged when merchantmen thought they were submarines and opened fire with their gun. Of course, the DD's did not return fire, but one of them was sent out of control by a hit and could not have effectively fought their ship.
Besides my comment about realism was directed to damage control, flight operations, and the fact that the man in the water was actually swimming when you watched him.
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