General Discussions
This is the place to discuss general issues related to the U-boat war or the war at sea in WWII.
RE: eh??
Posted by:
Rich
()
Date: June 30, 2001 01:33PM
<HTML>Gavin,
I think Eric had a great question. I thought you were making an interesting
point as well, but now you\'re talking about some soldiers in the water killing
their rescuers? Or are you saying that Allied propaganda convinced the Allies not to pick up Japanese survivors because they would be \"faking it\" and kill the Allied sailors rescuing them? (Frankly, I find it hard to believe Americans and Australians never picked up any Japanese survivors anyway).
If a sub has a moral responsbility to rescue survivors of sunken vessels how would that apply to a convoy? The convoy ships don\'t stop for survivors and keep going to their desitination. Now, ignoring the fact that sub should probably pursue the convoy, is it supposed to stop and pick up those survivors? Did the ships in the convoy have a moral responsibility to pick them up as well or did they have an operational obligation to make themselves difficult targets and continue zig-zagging their way to their destination? What if there is still a destroyer nearby waiting for the sub with the moral obligation to surface to help the survivors (a conceivable tactic I would think)?
Seems to me it all comes down to Operational Necessity, which has been discussed on the forum before. Could-a, should-a, would-a vs. Reality.
Both American subs and German U-boats fought in very difficult and, for the most part, entirely legal campaigns.
V/R,
Rich</HTML>
I think Eric had a great question. I thought you were making an interesting
point as well, but now you\'re talking about some soldiers in the water killing
their rescuers? Or are you saying that Allied propaganda convinced the Allies not to pick up Japanese survivors because they would be \"faking it\" and kill the Allied sailors rescuing them? (Frankly, I find it hard to believe Americans and Australians never picked up any Japanese survivors anyway).
If a sub has a moral responsbility to rescue survivors of sunken vessels how would that apply to a convoy? The convoy ships don\'t stop for survivors and keep going to their desitination. Now, ignoring the fact that sub should probably pursue the convoy, is it supposed to stop and pick up those survivors? Did the ships in the convoy have a moral responsibility to pick them up as well or did they have an operational obligation to make themselves difficult targets and continue zig-zagging their way to their destination? What if there is still a destroyer nearby waiting for the sub with the moral obligation to surface to help the survivors (a conceivable tactic I would think)?
Seems to me it all comes down to Operational Necessity, which has been discussed on the forum before. Could-a, should-a, would-a vs. Reality.
Both American subs and German U-boats fought in very difficult and, for the most part, entirely legal campaigns.
V/R,
Rich</HTML>