December, and decided to attack it with her gun. During the action, a Japanese plane approached, forcing Bream to cease fire and dive. On 9 January 1945, Bream began patrolling the western approaches to Balabac Strait. After four uneventful days, she moved to the northern end of the strait but again made no contacts and so shifted to Miri on the coast Borneo for reconnaissance work. She sighted a large Japanese vessel on 24 January, but the contact proved to be a hospital ship. Bream transited Lombok Strait southbound on 4 February 1945, paused at Onslow, Australia,, for refueling on 6 February, and finally arrived at Fremantle on 10 February 1945. Fifth war patrol Bream left Australia on 7 March 1945 for her fifth war patrol, made a refueling stop at Exmouth Gulf on 10 March, and proceeded through Lombok Strait northbound to the shipping lanes between Balikpapan on Borneo and-Surabaya on Java. On 13 March 1945, she intercepted two Japanese "sea trucks" — the U.S. term for small cargo ships — and sank them with her gun. On 14 March, she came across a Japanese convoy of three small cargo ships and an escort. She fired three bow tubes at the leading cargo ship, but all of them broached. She then got off one more torpedo, and it seemed to hit the ship, which blew up with a tremendous explosion. However, postwar accounting failed to confirm a kill. On 15 March 1945, Bream sighted a Japanese escort destroyer and began preparing for an attack. However, the destroyer detected Bream and began depth-charging her. Several depth charges went off close aboard and drove Bream to the bottom in of water. Bream remained on the ocean floor, mired in mud, for five hours and underwent repeated depth-charge barrages. During one attack, her conning tower hatch was lifted, forcing her crew to abandon the conning tower and secure it by closing the lower hatch. When the destroyer gave up the chase later that night, Bream surfaced and began evaluating the extent of her damage. The damage proved extensive, and she spent several days making temporary repairs. Bream later detected two ships on radar that proved to be Japanese cargo ships. She fired four torpedoes from her bow tubes, but all four promptly sank. Apparently the tubes had been damaged in the encounter with the Japanese escort destroyer. Bream then set a course