USS Bowfin (SS-287) - Sixth and Seventh Patrols

Sixth and Seventh Patrols

There, Comdr. John H. Corbus relieved Lt. Comdr. Griffith in command of the submarine which got underway again on 24 April and headed for the Palaus. Although this sixth patrol proved to be her longest in both time and distance, she only managed to put two torpedoes into a freighter on 14 May, and it refused to sink. She performed lifeguard duty before heading via Midway for Pearl Harbor where she arrived on 21 June.

On 16 July, Bowfin left Hawaii and headed for the Ryukyu Islands. She encountered no worthwhile targets until 9 August when she sighted four ships heading for the harbor at Minami Daito. She trailed them into port and, after they had moored, fired her bow torpedoes, blowing up two and damaging a third. A stray torpedo hit a dock, sending a bus careering into the water. However, no sinkings were confirmed by Japanese records — again possibly because of the small size of the alleged victims. An authenticated kill came off the Tokara Islands on 22 August when she attacked a convoy, hit several ships, claimed several kills including two destroyers, but apparently only sank the 6,754-ton transport Tsushima Maru carrying 1,484 civilians, including 767 schoolchildren. On 28 August, she set a little trawler afire with her 4-inch gun. However, since she had futilely fired her last four torpedoes at this target before surfacing, the submarine headed via Midway and Pearl Harbor for the west coast of the United States. She reached San Francisco, California, on 21 September and entered the Mare Island Navy Yard for overhaul.

At the end of the yard work, Comdr. Alexander K. Tyree relieved Comdr. Corbus on 16 December 1944; and, later that day, the submarine got underway westward back across the Pacific. Following training in Hawaiian waters, she headed for a station near the Japanese home islands south of Honshū where she performed lifeguard services for American planes — both naval and Army — raiding strategic enemy targets in Japan. On 17 February, Bowfin attacked two Japanese subchasers and sank the 750-ton Coast Defense Vessel No. 56 with torpedoes and then survived a 26-depth-charge attack by her victim’s consort which had herself barely escaped destruction when some of Bowfin’s torpedoes exploded prematurely. The submarine later sank a Japanese sea truck with one torpedo. On 19 March about 15 miles south of Shikoku, she rescued the pilot and gunner of a downed torpedo bomber. The submarine soon set a course for the Marianas and ended the patrol upon her arrival at Guam on 25 March.