The remainder of the convoy escaped as Guitarro eluded the determined attacks of an escort destroyer. She surfaced the next day to sink a small coastal vessel with her deck gun, and then steamed toward Cape Bolinao, where she was to rendezvous with the next day. Guitarro detected a convoy along the coastline 10 August, maneuvered from beachside, and launched four torpedoes. Tanker Shinei Maru exploded and burned furiously as Guitarro dived to avoid depth charges. The submarine suffered considerable outside damage but no serious injury, and she departed for the vicinity of Cape Calavite with Raton. While submerged the morning of 21 August Guitarro heard a distant depth charge attack, and soon sighted the smoke of a convoy. Hampered by an unfavorable current and a radically maneuvering convoy, she was unable to mount an attack on two tankers; but a cargo ship turned into her and received four torpedoes as a reward. Passenger-cargo ship Uga Maru (4,433 tons) was sunk, and Guitarro escaped amid a violent depth charge attack. The versatile submarine, finding the water too shallow for a torpedo attack, surfaced 27 August to engage three coastal tankers with her deck gun and succeeded in sinking Nanshin Maru. Two other tankers were damaged but managed to escape into shoal water. Guitarro returned to Fremantle to complete her patrol 8 September 1944. Third war patrol, October – November 1944 In company with , Guitarro departed Fremantle 8 October 1944 for her third war patrol in Philippine waters. As the epochal Battle of Leyte Gulf developed, Guitarro played an important role. She sighted the Japanese Central Force under Admiral Takeo Kurita on the night of 23 – 24 October and tracked the ships through Mindoro Strait, unable to close for an attack. Her contact reports on the force were vital to the success of the ensuing engagements, which by 26 October virtually eliminated the remaining Japanese naval forces in the Pacific. Guitarro, Bream, and Raton rendezvoused 30 October and the three boats attacked a convoy off Cape Bolinao that night. Unable to score any hits until the next day, Guitarro managed to work her way inside the screen and fire no less than nine torpedoes at 08:47. She observed one cargo ship break in half and was rocked by a tremendous explosion from another direct hit on an ammunition ship. Guitarro was driven down by the force of the explosion,