USS Bowfin (SS-287)
1 November 1943 to 9 December 1943
USS Bowfin traveled from Fremantle to the South China Sea, then back to Fremantle for refit by USS Orion (AS-18). En route to the South China Sea on 9 November, Bowfin sank three of a group of five schooners with her 4" 50-caliber gun, in spite of intermittent attacks by Japanese aircraft. That night she also sank another large schooner with her main gun. Two nights later she used her 4" 50-caliber gun to set afire two oil-laden coastal vessels at the entrance to Tawi Tawi Bay at the tip of Borneo. In a pitch-black rainstorm off the coast of French Indochina (now Vietnam) on 26 November, near Cape Varella, the surfaced Bowfin found she was in the middle of a Japanese convoy and had to back all engines to avoid ramming a tanker. Bowfin sank two of the enemy ships in a surface torpedo attack. About two hours later, in a submerged attack, she sank a small Vichy French coastal steamer from the convoy. On 28 November Bowfin and USS Billfish made a coordinated attack on a large convoy. Bowfin made a surface torpedo attack in a rainstorm which resulted in sinking two ships, the second after a 5" shell, fired from the enemy ship, hit Bowfin's starboard main air induction piping. Bowfin's last two torpedoes, fired at a third ship, prematured. The patrol was cut short and, after emergency repairs to the main induction line, Bowfin headed back to Fremantle. En route on 2 December Bowfin sank a yacht-sized vessel with her deck gun.
USS Bowfin was underway for 10,023 miles during her second patrol. Commanding Officer Griffith and higher authorities believed Bowfin sank 70,948 tons (nine large vessels plus five small craft). JANAC credited USS Bowfin with 26,458 tons sunk (five large vessels plus eight small craft). LCDR Griffith was awarded the Navy Cross and USS Bowfin was later awarded the Presidential Unit Citation.
Commanding
Officer: LCDR Walter Thomas Griffith, USN
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