The Harekaze's Real Battle Damage

Why Did She Sink?

SPOILERS AHEAD

The last two episodes of, what I hope to be, the first Season of High School Fleet (also known as Haifuri) is, I think, one of the greatest animated naval combat moments ever. Spread out over two episodes, the Harekaze catches up to the Musashi and is ordered to keep track of the other vessel until the Blue Mermaid fleet arrives and can disable the Musashi and board her to save the crew from the effects of a virus. The only crew on the battleship not affected are the Captain and several Bridge crew as well as a crewmember they found being chased. Of note is the fact that Musashi's Captain, Moeka China, is friends with the Harekaze's Captain, Akeno Misaki since their childhoods.

Now we come to the point of this blog post - why does the damage heard, seen and discussed not match up with how she sinks later on...

Shortly after making contact with Musashi, the Harekaze is fired upon. There are no hits seen or mentioned, but there are several near-misses which shower the ship with water. The Helmsman is ordered to evade with a turn to starboard, executes a hard-to-starboard turn which Harekaze answers to sharply. When it comes time to return fire, Akeno freezes and drops to the deck of the Bridge in fear. The Deputy Captain starts to talk to her, but the Blue Mermaids turn up at that point and order the Harekaze crew to retreat to a safe distance. During the attack of the Blue Mermaids, the Deputy Captain takes Akeno off the Bridge leaving the Ship's Secretary in command - it is not mentioned in the series what position in the chain of command she is in, but the crew follow her request/order all the same. During the time the two senior officers are talking in the Captain's cabin, the ship continues to be at a safe distance and evade and stray shots in their direction. At no point are they hit by any incoming fire. The school that the Harekaze and Musashi both belong to orders all ships to retreat and return to port, but the Harekaze seems not to get the message and has it relayed to them by the flagship of the Blue Mermaid task force - they will stay behind and cover the retreat of the students. It is interesting to note that, at that moment, they don't comply with the order. Meanwhile, after listening to Akeno admit she is worried about getting them all injured or worse, a number of the departments report they are at full battle readiness and request targets to fire upon. After a rather amusing talk between the Deputy Captain and the Chief Engineer, the Deputy Captain races back to the Bridge where Akeno was taken. Musashi fires at them but the shot seems to miss as there is only shaking and no damage reported. Seconds later, another salvo is fired and the shells land just off the bow of the Harekaze - one of them landing near the port bow as a hard right is again ordered. By now, the Blue Mermaid ships are of little to no threat to the Musashi which switches its main target to Harekaze - straddling her with salvos from all the turrets at once - though they manage to evade.

At least one shell manages to hit the Harekaze as a deeper impact sound is heard, though where the shot lands is not known. Akeno, now with her fears allayed, gets her wits back together and orders the cannons and torpedoes set to port and to start an attack.They fire all torpedo tubes at once to hit the stern of the Musashi in order to disable the engines and slow her down a little. Despite the fact that all torpedoes hit their mark, the Musashi keeps going and turns all weapons onto the Harekaze - firing a salvo so bad that at least two shots hit as they dip into a wave trough - causing the stern to rise sharply and then slam down hard - suggesting that her back may have broken or, at the very least, suffered ventral hull damage. Second later, the Harekaze steams past the "camera" allowing us to see damage sustained in the port bow, midships port beneath the Bridge and with the stern smoke generator and torpedo launcher damaged and put out of action. In addition, one operation shed, presumably a workshop, suffers the breakout of a fire. In addition, radio communication between other ships and shore bases is knocked out - but the reason for this is not made clear. Another couple of salvos are fired from Musashi and she's straddled again - with one or two impacting on the portside aft and which results in the primary firing system being disabled and a fire started in the galley. Either as a result of these impacts, or the stern rising and then slamming back down, the ship starts to take on water in the port engine room. This appears to be major as the order is passed to get all of the pumps to the engine room and to keep it under control somewhat. Indeed, the Deputy Captain asks if Akeno wishes to muster everybody and abandon ship.

More ships from their school arrive, as well as the visiting Admiral Spee, which makes Musashi concentrate on them and not the Harekaze - though she's sometimes bracketed by rounds. The crew of the Harekaze hatch a plan to cover their approach to the Musashi by firing a smoke rocket and then swing round to come alongside and board. Whilst this happens, they sustain another hit to the deck on the stern. However, their rudder fails and so they have to throw a parachute over the side to swing them round by using it as a sort of water based aerobrake. It is interesting to note that the rudder fails whilst in the middle of a hard-to-starboard command... The ships starts to turn, but does nothing else until the parachute is thrown over the side. After swinging around so they are now alongside the Musashi, they brace for impact and smash at full speed into the other ship - travelling a few hundred feet as they do so and causing major hull damage all along the port side. Damage sustained in the ramming appears to hull damage and breaches as well as some parts of the upper deck being damaged and broken up - debris sent flying all over.

We next see the Harekaze as it is being towed stern first by Tenjin - indicating that she's lost the ability to turn using her engines. She also appears to be down by the stern with a list to port - evidenced by her position in relation to the horizon and with the Musashi closest to the "camera". We then see a shot of her from the harbourside from the port view - showing damage on the upper deck from the bow all the way down to midships. After the crew disembarks, the Harekaze sinks at her mooring after showing a view from the starboard bow looking aft - clearly visible is a impact from some sort of shell on the starboard side just on the Y and 4 of her hull number. This is strange as we never see any damage sustained to the starboard side of the ship in the last two episodes. The last good shot is of the starboard stern showing the rudder set to midships - which it shouldn't be as the thing should show it locked into the starboard turn.

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Okay, a bit geeky, but hey ho... Thats what it is and thats how it will be