"Emergency surfacing!" Colonel Hering shouted, his voice trembling with fear: "Immediately!"
Europeans, including the Germans, choose to save their own lives and those of their soldiers when they know the battle's result cannot be changed.
Colonel Hering was no exception—he chose to surrender.
Unfortunately, a submarine can't raise a white flag underwater, and Colonel Hering didn't even know what was attacking the submarine.
If he could raise a white flag, the destroyers on the surface would stop their attack immediately upon seeing it.
If Colonel Hering knew he was being attacked by depth charges and understood their method of attack, he should have ordered the submarine to stop immediately or change course, causing the destroyers to misjudge its position and drop the bombs elsewhere.
But war knows no "ifs."
Under Colonel Hering's orders, the U-21 submarine surfaced at full speed, trying to emerge more quickly by moving forward while ascending.
