and let go with two spreads of torpedoes. The 7,158-ton converted seaplane tender Sanuki Maru, exploded and quickly sank, and the frigate Kume spouted flames and began to sink s;owly. Three Japanese escorts pounced on Spadefish, but she made her escape and continued her patrol. Spadefish added to her score on 4 February by sinking the passenger-cargo ship Tairai Maru. Two days later, only five miles from Port Arthur, she blasted the 1,092-ton passenger-cargo ship Shohei Maru, to the bottom. An enemy patrol airplane dropped a depth charge in the vicinity of the submarine; but, although she was rocked by the shock waves, Spadefish was unharmed and returned to Guam on 13 February. Fourth war patrol, March – April 1945 On 15 March 1945, Spadefish departed Guam for her fourth war patrol, conducted in the East China Sea and Yellow Sea. On 21 March, an Allied aircraft mistakenly attacked, dropping a bomb that exploded as she submerged which exploded as she passed a depth of . She sustained no damage or casualties, but her crew found bomb fragments on her deck after she surfaced. On 23 March 1945, Spadefish sneaked past four escorts and let go with three torpedoes that sank the 2,274-ton cargo ship Doryo Maru. Spadefish patrolled along the coast of Kyūshū, continuing north to Tsushima Strait, where she carried out reconnaissance to determine the presence of minefields. She demolished an enemy schooner off the coast of Korea on 1 April and gave the same treatment to a three-masted junk on 7 April. Two days later, she sank the cargo ship Lee Tung; and, on 11 April, damaged a minesweeper. She terminated her fourth patrol at Guam on 21 April 1945. Fifth war patrol, June – July 1945 Equipped with a new mine-detecting device, she began her fifth war patrol, joining eight other United States submarines in penetrating through the minefields of Tsushima Strait into the Sea of Japan. On 10 June, outside the breakwater of Tarukawa Wharf, Spadefish overtook the outbound passenger-cargo ship Daigen Maru No. 2, and blew the enemy ship apart with two torpedo hits. Before the day was over, the submarine had also sunk the passenger-cargo ships Unkai Maru No. 8 and Jintsu Maru. Before dawn on 12 June 1945, Spadefish sank a motor sampan with 20 mm fire; and, later in the day, sank three trawlers in gunfire attacks. On 13 June she