I Have Some Questions and Probably Some War Crimes.

[Leon West]

Hey guys.

So, here I go with some more random and probably stupid questions.

I just started a new career in TMO 2.5 at the chosen start of "Beginning of 1942" and was given command of the USS Snapper, a Salmon Class submarine on January 2nd, 1942. I started my patrol on January 5th, and was given a search and destroy in the "Pasture" sector around Formosa, which we all know is laden with Japanese traffic.

By the 10th (I think, I'm guessing at this point) I found myself in Mindaro Strait about to enter the Sulu (or is it Celebes Sea? Yay me and Geography) when my watch reported a lone, Japanese merchant.

The setup was just too beautiful. The ship was a small to medium sized freighter, completely unescorted, and while were were caught on the surface in broad daylight, there was a slight layer of fog. I ordered the boat to periscope depth, and barely had to adjust course. Essentially, the freighter was going to cross right in front of our noses. I ran at ahead 2/3 submerged for a few minutes to close the gap, and eventually I was able to call the engines to full stop. At 800 yards the freighter was right in the perfect firing position. I ordered 3 tubes opened, and fired 2 torpedoes. Luckily (and very surprisingly!) the fish ran true and both ripped into the merchant. The first stopped her and was probably a mortal wound, the second produced quite the fireworks show, with secondary and tertiary explosions almost lifting the ship out of the water.

The Japanese merchant went down, a Haruka Maru at 1,000+ tons. Quite the way to start a career and honestly my best to date ambush of an enemy vessel.

I was able to surface and I spotted a life raft of the poor stricken vessel's sailors. However, between them and me was the now burning and sinking wreckage of the freighter.

And here's where I started thinking. In real life, wouldn't the captain of the Snapper in this situation be required to go and rescue said survivors? In order for me to do so, I would've had to make quite the manuevers to avoid the sinking wreckage. I was also in very bright daylight, and though only in the Mindaro Strait, I was afraid of air cover. I know there probably isn't a feature in SH4 to rescue anyone aside from downed allied airmen, but I was still curious about the situation, and actually felt bad just sailing away like nothing had happened.

And finally, my second question. This was, in all the short time I've played SH4 my best ambush attack. During the ambush, I basically sat engines off in the water and let the merchant sail into me. In real life, could a world war 2 era sub actually maintain depth without its engines working? I believe I have read that depth keeping in that sort of situation would be impossible, but I'll be the first to admit I don't know as much as most of everyone here about submarines.

Thanks in advance!