Quote:
Originally Posted by iambecomelife
One thing I never liked about the Silent Hunter series? Escorts not having to rescue survivors. In WWII this was always an agonizing decision for a destroyer commander. Whenever a ship was torpedoed - do we track down the submarine and leave the survivors to die? or do we rescue the survivors and maybe let the sub continue its attack? For all they knew, the same sub they let go could sink a battleship or troopship next time - costing thousands of lives.
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That's exactly the reasons why convoys had designated rescue ships for that task.
Convoy escorts where there exactly for one reason, protecting the convoy and attack U-Boats whenever possible.
When you rescue survivors with your escort you have to considerably slow down and therefore you become a target yourself.
Convoy rescue ships were equipped with all the stuff needed to acommodate survivors including a small surgery room, they were also armed with deck guns and AA guns and were not marked as red cross ships, therefore being legit targets themselves.
For more infos about rescue ships, feel free to read:
http://www.halcyon-class.co.uk/rescue_ships.htm
And how tragic it can end when Warships slow down to rescue survivors of a sunken ship you can read here:
Action_of_22_September_1914
Most famous of the WW2 convoy rescue ships were:
- Perth 2258 tons, built 1915, in rescue service from 5 May 1941, sailed with 60 convoys, rescued 455 survivors.
- Zamalek 1565 tons, Master Owen Charles Morris DSO, built 1921 as SS Halcyon, in rescue service from 26 February 1941, sailed with 68 convoys, including Convoy PQ 17 and Convoy SC 130, rescued 665 survivors
- Stockport 1683 tons, built 1911, in rescue service from 22 October 1941, sailed with 16 convoys, rescued 413 survivors. Sunk by U-604 23 February 1943 while assigned to Convoy ON 166. There were no survivors from the crew of 63 and survivors previously rescued from other ships.