That's when you have to weigh the pros and cons, notably fuel status, distance back to base, remaining torpedoes. I just abandoned a chase in similar circumstances. At flank speed on the engines, I was only making maybe a knot better through the water than the targets. Having to maintain the necessary distance in daylight, I just wasn't going to overtake and get into attack position for a very long time. My fuel was at less than half and I've only used two torpedoes on this patrol so far, so I want to stay out on patrol. Given the distance back to base and the fuel needed to continue patrol for a decent amount of time to use my remaining torpedoes, I decided to give up the chase. BdU should understand, although some bureaucrat there will probably send me a snippy radio message.
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