The SUNFISH, on her ninth war patrol, was again sent to the Yellow Sea. This was to be the submarine's FIRST experience at "wolf-packing" and they fell upon Jap ships like a starving wolf on its prey. This battle was to be known as the "Battle of the Yellow Sea." She was part of "Underwood's Urchins." On the night of 17 Nov, the six subs of the wolfpack sank 12 Jap ships in an area of less than 50 SQUARE MILES!! In the words of E.E. Shelby, "SHIPS WERE BLOWING UP AND SINKING ALL OVER THE OCEAN!" The SUNFISH was forced down by enemy GUNFIRE twice and, in all, heard the explosions of about 1,000, yes, 1,000 depth charges, over 100 of which were aimed at HER! On one occasion, she dove only to BROACH STERN FIRST being some 28,000 pounds lighter due to the temperature differences in the water! The crewmen in the AFTER TORPEDO room called the skipper and demanded that THEY TOO be afforded the security that was to be found UNDER THE WATER! They said that they objected to the sound of WAVES slapping against the hull!!! The SUNFISH was credited with sinking two Type 45 cargo ships, 6,700 tons each, another luckless freighter of 6,400 tons, and medium transport of 4,000 tons. It was small but a keeper.

The tenth war patrol, the last for the fearless Cdmr Shelby, was again in the Yellow Sea and was conducted in the dead of winter. The run through the Kuriles was not cold compared to the hell of the Yellow Sea with a frozen Manchurian winter howling down. The SUNFISH was chasing a Jap freighter that was slipping in and out of the ice floes, trying to lose the SUNFISH. While closing with the freighter, the SUNFISH took a direct course UNDER the ice floe to gain a suitable firing position. Then, the ice floes came together and the SUNFISH found herself UNABLE to surface. The sub tried to break through the ice but it was too thick. After many hours of trying to find a soft spot in order to surface. They were VERY CLOSE to running out of air (about 20-24 hours of being submerged). Finally, the skipper took her down to 150 feet and blew the ballast tanks for maximum buoyancy! The SUNFISH crashed into the ice several times before breaking through. After surfacing, they were in shock at what had happened to their periscopes that were housed in the periscope shears. The ENTIRE assembly was bent over at a 45 degree angle which made the sub BLIND when submerged. After calling Pearl, they were told to return to port. The submariners said that it was strange to surface and wonder if anyone was up there. After returning to Pearl, they were ordered to Mare Island for extensive repairs.

The last patrol of the SUNFISH was under the hand of Lt Cdmr J.W. Reed. This patrol was spent off of the Japanese home islands of Honshu and Hokkaido. The SUNFISH increased her bag of ships with a savage attack that netted four ships and damaged a fifth. Three of the enemy ships were 4,000 ton freighters and the fourth unlucky vessel was a Hashodate class gunboat of 1,200 tons. A naval auxiliary vessel was the vessel damaged in the attack. The high point of this patrol was the day spent just ONE MILE off of the Japanese SHORELINE listening to fifty depth charges sent her way after the first attack literally disintegrated the gunboat and sunk one of the freighters. A night surface attack, delivered just four miles off the coast of Hokkaido, using her last torpedoes, sunk the other two ships.

And so, after a VERY EVENTFUL three years of patrolling in ENEMY WATERS, the SUNFISH finished her WW2 career. Her record of SEVEN out of ELEVEN patrols declared successful ranks her among the United States TOP 10% of WW2 subs. Her record of 160,586 tons sunk (prior to the JANAC board) and 52,104 damaged ensured her a well deserved spot in the sun. By Directive dated Jan 1947, the USS SUNFISH was placed out of commission, in reserve, attached to the US Pacific Reserve Fleet with her berthing area at Mare Island. By 1949, she was transferred to the 12th Naval District to be used in training. The magnificent submarine, that had carried my father, and many other stalwart men, was sold for scrap in 1960. An undignified end for so valiant a boat. Green Board, Gentlemen.

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