USS Bowfin (SS-287) - Eighth and Ninth Patrols

Eighth and Ninth Patrols

Underway on 23 April for her eighth war patrol, the submarine plied the waters north of Honshū and Hokkaidō. Her first kill came on 1 May when two of her torpedoes sank the 2,719-ton transport Chowa Maru. A week later, she overtook, torpedoed, and destroyed an 880-ton freighter Daito Maru No. 3; but, that proved to be the last score of the patrol. After a fortnight of futile searching for targets, she arrived at Apra Harbor, Guam, for refit.

While training for her ninth and final patrol of the war, Bowfin rescued a Marine Corps pilot whose fighter had crashed. She got underway on 29 May and pointed her bow back toward the enemy homeland. One of nine submarines protected by newly developed mine-detecting sonar and sent into the Sea of Japan, she carefully threaded her way through the dangerous minefields of Tsushima Strait which guarded this previously sacrosanct maritime heart of the Japanese Empire, but found little enemy shipping. Nevertheless, she wasted neither of her two attackable contacts: the first, the 1,898-ton transport Shinyo Maru took four torpedoes before sinking on 11 June; and the second, the 887-ton freighter Akiura Maru met a similar fate on 13 June.

The submarine left the Sea of Japan by La Pérouse Strait (Soya Misaki) and headed for Hawaii. She reached Pearl Harbor on Independence Day and began preparations to return to action. Early in August, Bowfin sailed for the Marianas, her staging point for her 10th war patrol. However, while en route, she received word of Japan’s capitulation. As a result, she reversed course and returned to Hawaii and, then, headed for the Panama Canal on her way to the east coast of the United States. Bowfin arrived at Tompkinsville, Staten Island, New York, on 21 September 1945. She served in the Atlantic Fleet until decommissioned at New London on 12 February 1947 and placed in reserve.