Picking up Survivors

[SnowCajun]

I think I'm missing something here, wouldn't be the first time I guess. Getting old is hell! Here's my question, how do you pick up survivors? Can you pick up Japanese as well as American's. Sometimes I see a survivor icon like a ship icon on my map, but can't see a soul in the water at all. Toss me a clue please!

Thanks,
SnowCajun

[Torplexed]

You can't pick up the Japanese ones although some American subs did fish Japanese survivors out of the water in real life. Would be cool tho. Get military intelligence points for getting them back to base alive.

[Reaves]

Originally Posted by Torplexed

You can't pick up the Japanese ones although some American subs did fish Japanese survivors out of the water in real life. Would be cool tho. Get military intelligence points for getting them back to base alive.

All nations avoided it as the nature of submarines doesn't allow having enemies on board.

Very cramped quarters means your crew would probably murder the poor SOB before RTBing.

[Torplexed]

In August 1944 the USS Stingray picked up four survivors from the Japanese light crusier Natori torpedoed and sunk by the USS Hardhead about ten days before. All were young about 19 to 23 years old. They were quickly adopted by the crew and were eventually given the names Uncle Donald (their former superior officer) and Huey, Dewey and Louie, (the enlisted men) Having grown found of them the crew actually protested their rough treatment by the Army when they were taken into captivity after docking in Darwin.

Still...it was a rare event for the most part.

[woodstock74]

Originally Posted by Reaves

All nations avoided it as the nature of submarines doesn't allow having enemies on board.

Very cramped quarters means your crew would probably murder the poor SOB before RTBing.

The Barb picked up a Japanese survivor and used a rudimentary knowledge of Japanese to garner intelligence out of him in regards to mine field locations and depths while they partolled off of Hokkaido in the Sea of Okhotsk. As in the other case mentioned above, the captive became part of the crew and by all accounts was universally welcomed.

[Powerthighs]

Just finished Silent Victory and there were quite a few instances of submarines picking up Japanese survivors.

[jazman]

Tang picked up a survivor, and they called him Firecracker, and some of the crew (not at O'Kane's instigation) trained him to answer "10,000 tons" when asked about his ship's tonnage.

[DeepSix]

Originally Posted by SnowCajun

... Here's my question, how do you pick up survivors? Can you pick up Japanese as well as American's. Sometimes I see a survivor icon like a ship icon on my map, but can't see a soul in the water at all. Toss me a clue please!

Thanks,
SnowCajun

Picking them up is easy, it's locating their precise position that seems tricky. On the map, you'll sometimes get a "survivor" icon (blue is friendly, red is enemy, just like ships). The trick is, sailing to that icon doesn't mean you'll necessarily arrive at the exact spot where the survivors are. This seems to be some sort of bug.

Anyway, like Torplexed said, you can't pick up Japanese survivors. In the case of the friendlies, sail toward the survivor icon. Once you get to its general area, look around from the bridge for reddish colored smoke on the water - there's your survivor. There may actually be several of them. Sail toward toward the marker smoke until you get to within about 500 yards; once you get to him (he'll be bobbing in the water near the smoke and - at night especially - may be hard to see), open the binocs tab at lower left. Look at him through the binocs or the TBT and when the crosshair is over him, the "rescue survivor" life-saver lamp will light up at lower left of the screen. Click it and the survivor is rescued.