Rescuing survivors

[Paukenschlag]

Just a few questions on the survivors of an attack in their lifeboats: Are they just an added piece of scenery (sounds terrible), or do I score bonus points if I rescue them? Can they be rescued? I know they row like mad away from me when I try to approach them. Maybe they have some secret plans...

Were many rescued from attacks on single merchants? I wonder if it would have been regarded as doing the "right thing" (regardless of international law) after Pearl Harbour.

[Cakewalk]

I've never managed to save Japanese survivors... I always end up running over their tiny boat while trying to get close, since the "resuce" button never lights up for them. And it doesn't help that they seem to drown themselves after a few minutes of being out in a lifeboat.

I've never located any US survivors, so can't comment about them.

[nattydread]

Where is this rescue button?

[Quillan]

It's at the far right on one of the command bars, I think the command room set of orders. As far as I can tell, its only use is on rescuing downed allied pilots. Like the OP, I tried to rescue the survivors of the first Japanese ship I sank. It didn't work.

[Bilge_Rat]

You can always use the Mush Morton approach to dealing with japanese survivors...

http://www.warfish.com/patrol3con.html

[Paukenschlag]

Ok the USS Wahoo was an exception (hopefully). But are there any records of rescues of Japanese sailors?

In The Atlantic one thinks of Werner Hartenstein and Laconia and other U-Boat commanders like Werner Henke who although not rescuing survivors supplied them with water and supplies and showed them which way to head for the nearest land.

[Bilge_Rat]

Mush Morton was an exception, there were stories of japanese survivors being rescued, I dont think japanese civilian merchant sailors were as eager to die for their emperor, but that was an exception also.

[OddjobXL]

Originally Posted by Bilge_Rat

You can always use the Mush Morton approach to dealing with japanese survivors...

http://www.warfish.com/patrol3con.html

What kind of sick jughead wrote that? Look, I can understand Morton's logic. He may not have seen himself as killing people as much as he was destroying an enemy asset that might come back to fight another day. Or, as the author presumes, maybe he just hated those damned Japs and was looking for an excuse. But assuming the latter and acting as an apologist for it - using the brain-dead reaction of cultural hostility that arose during the contemporary events following 9/11 as a rationale for comparison is just twisted. And it's awesome how this moron tosses out the accusation of political correctness against any who might deign to disagree with his agenda.

Ignorance is what got us into the idiotic situation America is in now. Celebrating it is doubly ignorant. Morton may or may not have done a necessary thing but trying to make the case that hating an entire race is a good thing in wartime and killing them makes total sense, not because it's a grim military necessity, but because to do otherwise makes one a simpering politicially correct wimp is laughably stupid.

Meh. Over it. /rant

At any rate, I've been reading about the Barb's adventures. They seem to have taken individual survivors as a matter of course for intelligence purposes and kept them until they could be transfered at Midway. One even ended up working as a torpedoman and became an unofficial member of the crew - he hated the Imperial army for personal reasons.

And I randomly was reading the patrol reports of different subs last night in an effort to figure out some terminology. One ship actually went out of its way to pick up two boatloads of Japanese merchant mariners they found floating in rafts. This was near the end of the war so the bloodthirsty, vengence oriented, attitude of the early war might have abated somewhat.

The log goes on to note that, later, hearing the first ever Japanese rendition of "God Bless America" as sung in the mess was among the worst of the horrors of war the crew had experienced.

[nattydread]

Yes, there are many accounts of japanese merchantmen being picked up, they knew where the mines were. Im not sure about naval crew though.