spending three days following the group and using all but nine torpedoes to sink the tender. Twenty-three days later, on 12 August, she made contact with a ten large vessels and their escorts. Five of the remaining nine torpedoes sank the 5,113-ton tanker Teikon Maru and a large freighter, with enough damage to beach another tanker. She completed the patrol at Pearl Harbor, whence she continued on to Mare Island for overhaul. Sixth and seventh war patrols, December 1944 – ~ 1945 Following refresher training at Hawaii, Puffer got underway on her sixth war patrol 16 December. Operating in the Nansei Shoto area, she sank Coast Defense Vessel No. 42 on 10 January 1945; and, prior to her arrival at Guam, 17 January, damaged a destroyer, three freighters, and a tanker. By 11 February, Puffer was underway again for her seventh war patrol, and following patrols in Luzon Straits and the South China Sea, where she bombarded Pratas Island, she made an anti-shipping sweep of the Wake Island area. Eighth and ninth war patrols, May 1945 – ~ 1945 Refitted at Midway she departed 20 May en route to the South China and Java Seas to conduct her eighth war patrol. In a surface sweep of the northern Bali coast, Puffer destroyed by gunfire two Japanese sea trucks and six landing craft on 5 July, and inflicted extensive damage to harbor installations at Chelukan Bawang and Buleleng, Bali. A brief respite at Fremantle followed, whence she headed north for her ninth and last war patrol, in the Java Sea. Post-World War II service Completing her ninth patrol with the cessation of hostilities in mid-August 1945, Puffer headed for Subic Bay, thence to the United States, reaching San Francisco 15 October. With the new year, 1946, Puffer returned to Hawaii where she trained officers and men in submarine warfare until returning to San Francisco, 19 March, for inactivation. Decommissioning and disposal Puffer decommissioned 28 June 1946, and was berthed at Mare Island as a unit of the Pacific Reserve Fleet. At the end of the year Puffer was ordered activated and assigned to the 13th Naval District for training Naval Reservists. Employed in that status, at Seattle, until relieved by 10 June 1960, Puffer was placed out of service and sold for scrapping to the Zidell Corporation, Portland, Oregon, on 4 November 1960. Honors and awards Puffer earned 9 battle stars