...the Psycho-Haruna!
This is another of the weird encounter posts. In the fourth war patrol of my current I had the order to patrol the Makassar Strait and I circled off Balikpapan. After a bit of a chase I managed to disassemble a Nippon Maru and another ship (Momoyama Maru, I believe) and was already a bit low on torpedoes (duds, duds, duds,...) when I encountered another tanker: a small Haruna Maru. Small vessel and few fish left called for surface action, so called my gun crew to their stations, and surfaced.
While I'm an aggressive skipper when it comes to the choice of attacking or not, I make sure I don't get too overconfident, so I always dive deep after a torpedo attack and I always stay at least 2'500m away during surface engagements (unless heavy fog) and at least 3'500m on the surface if the target has heavy guns.
So, as per modus operandi, I engage at about 4'000m and slowly get closer, as soon as I confirm that they don't have heavy weapons. It works very nicely until I reach around 3'500m. Suddenly all hell breaks lose in the form of 20mm fire. I get hit almost immediately and damage reports are called out, so I have the boat turn around at flank speed to put distance between us again. This takes maybe 3 Minutes and in this time frame the Psycho-Haruna pours magazine after magazine into my poor little boat. Judging by the tracers coming in and the sound of splashes and metal hits, I guess that the freaks hit with about 75%-80% of their shots AT 3 AND 1/2 KILOMETERS and cause 22% hull damage, several bulkhead breaches and internal damage!!!
Eventually slip beyond their range and sink the bloody monster. While I'm usually happy when I see survivors in boats I'm a bit torn this time. One half of me wants the gunner to survive so I can recommend him for a medal and get him to train our crews after the war. The other half of me is worried what happens if the give him Buzyun Maru and let him spearhead the Japanese attack during the invasion of the Marianas!!!
Anyway, I try to limp back to port when I get a Flash Message of a large convoy in the Celebes Sea. What can I do???? With a heavy heart and a lot of foreboding I decide to investigate and direct in reinforcements. Since I don't dare to dive deep I can only make one half-hearted attack at maximum range from periscope depth. The fish miss, of course and I get destroyer company. Through blind luck one of the defensive shots manages to sink the closest destroyer as I slip aways to the south. Most of my crew - including my humble self - is probably already on anti-anxiety medication, so I call it a day and return to port after something like 25 days with a boat shot to pieces and "only" four kills (that would have been amazing during the war, but obviously isn't in the game).
Fortunately my previous patrols were pretty good (ran into two slow, unescorted Takao Class cruisers during the invasion of Celebes
), so instead of the boot, they give me another boat. All is well that ends well, I guess, but I guarantee you that I will - very carefully - make it my devoted duty to sink every single Haruna Maru for the rest of this career!!!!