[bsalyers]

Well, I reloaded the game just outside of Pearl and decided to do the whole thing over again. Maybe it was a fluke, I thought. This time, I saved the balance of my fish, thinking that if I couldn't snap some shots, I'd settle for shooting some ships. I encountered two unescorted freighters on my way to the Yellow Sea that were just too perfect to pass up, so I took them down with a combination of stern tubes and deck cannon, thus allowing me to arrive at Dalian with most of my fish and 10,000 tons to my credit.

At the mission location, things were a little different. The carrier force composition had changed; whereas last time it was a Shokaku and a Taiyo, this time the Taiyo was matched with a Chitose seaplane carrier. More importantly, the one Akizuki destroyer that had previously been with the two carriers behind the sub net was still there, but there were three more Akizuki (!) in the vicinity, making for a tough escape if I decided to take a shot. As before, I waited submerged in front of the sub net until morning, then began photographing everything behind the net in the rays of the rising sun. As before, it didn't make a difference. No matter how many photos I took, the mission would not complete. I had beautiful, close-up views of both carriers, yet it made no difference. "That's it," I thought, "I'm writing this mission off and sinking some carriers." First, I had to clear my path for escape, so that night, I decided to thin that flock of Akizukis. I slowly approached the first one and fired two fish, all the while watching the others for what I was sure would be a frantic response. The two torpedoes hit, the destoyer burst into flames, I wheeled my 'scope around to the other Akis, and... nothing. Her sister destroyers just sat there. Not believing my luck, I went on to take out the remaining two destroyers in exactly the same fashion. I then returned to the sub net. While the Chitose was using its search lights, no other response was forthcoming. Even the last Akizuki, still behind the net, remained motionless. After a few hours, the Chitose settled down and I decided to try crossing the net. With crew at battlestations, I surfaced and began across at 1/3. Before two minutes had passed, I was being shelled from a distance (remarkably accurately, I might add) by the destroyer. As I went out in a blaze of glory, I decided I would take this chance to experiment. I reloaded the game and waited another hour, then tried crossing again with the same result. As I died the second time, I realized an interesting thing: all the fire I took came from the destroyer. The two large ships hadn't fired a shot. This gave me an idea: I reloaded again and raised my attack 'scope. The destroyer was nearly a half nautical mile away, but I could see it clearly and plotted a firing solution. Then I surfaced and fired two fish pretty as you please right over the sub net. I was submerging again as the second torpedo left the tube. After an interminable wait, the last Akizuki burst into flames and sank. Surfacing, I ran over the net at flank speed. The Chitose fired up its search lights, but that was it; no fire from either carrier. To cut the story short, I proceeded to sink both carriers and fled the scene at flank speed. I really wish I could have figured out how to complete that mission, but two carriers and four destroyers sunk is a hell of a consolation prize!

If anyone solves this mystery mission, I'd love to hear how. Since I took many photographs before I went postal, I may edit the mission manually to allow success anyway.