TFLYTSNBN wrote:ThisName1 wrote:I couldn't find any specific mentions but it makes a certain sense. While re-reading war of honor and at all costs a thought popped in my head, if after the raid the raiders were in control of the system how long would they stick around to help with rescue efforts. This led to wondering what happened if during those efforts they found a senior officer, it makes sense to me to take them back for interrogation and to deny the enemy of their services. Especially if they were a particularly effective officer. For instance if Giscard hadn't been killed and had been found by Harrington's people, claiming him as a POW and taking him back would be a good idea.
In IN ENEMY HANDS, the PRN actually arranged to ambush a task force commanded by HH in order to capture her.
It's pretty clear from the book that they had no idea who was in command until after Prince Adrian had surrendered. The PRN set up an ambush to kill or capture anybody small enough force, merchantman, or convoy, that stuck it's head into the captured system. Grabbing Honor was just a massive and totally unexpected bonus.
As for taking prisoners during the raids I suspect it maters a
lot how safe it was to hang around vs how well any survivors could make out if left alone. The first post mentioned if Giscard has survived; in that battle the raiding forces were fleeing superior numbers and never really got close to where any RHN survivors might be. Picking those up would be left to all the nearby RHN warships - so a hypothetically surviving Giscard wouldn't be in a position to end up a POW to the Manties; he's have been picked up by RHN forces after 8th fleet escaped the trap.
In general I think if you have time it's probably worth taking POWs even if there are forces, or a habitable planet, within range to provide support once the raid withdraws. But often you're worried about reinforcements so you've got limited time to do S&R. And if the survivors were from ships or stations in planetary orbit their escape pods may be down on the surface before you could get there. Landing Marines to try to capture survivors who are probably trying to escape and evade on the surface seems like a great way to lose a bunch of lives.
OTOH if you were raiding an uninhabitable system you'd be morally obligated to pick up as many survivors as you could unless chased off by enemy reinforcements (and then they'd have the obligation to save their own people)
