war patrol. On 19 February, she arrived at Saipan for training in wolfpack tactics, and, on 27 February, she sailed for the Yellow Sea in company with submarines , , and . At the end of the month, she was diverted to search for downed aviators; and, on 3 March, she continued on to her patrol area to further decrease the declining traffic between China and Manchuria, and the Japanese home islands. For over a week, fishing junks, sailing junks, and floating naval mines provided the only contacts. On 24 February, she sighted a large tanker with four escorts but lost the convoy. On 25 February, she sighted and evaded a Japanese hunter-killer group. On 29 February, she sank or exploded four mines and attempted to do the same to two others. Fog shrouded her area during the last days of the month. On 2 April, visibility was still poor, less than . At 07:10, she made radar contact with an enemy convoy-four merchantmen and three escorts. At 09:15, she commenced firing at the lead merchant ship. Forty seconds later, she fired at the next ship. She then swung around to bring her stern tubes to bear on a third merchant ship; found herself well inside the escort on the convoy's starboard quarter; continued swinging and fired three stern shots at the escort. Between 08:19 and 08:22, seven hits were heard and felt. Sea Devil then left the formation and opened range to reload. The radar screen now showed only three small pips. The third torpedo of the first salvo had apparently missed its target and run on to hit the third maru. After reloading, the submarine tracked the remaining units of the convoy. Shortly after 10:00, she fired on and damaged one of the escorts. Forty minutes later, she fired on the remaining merchantman and observed it suddenly disappear from the radar screen. After 11:00, she made her way through the wreckage to pick up survivors. Only four allowed themselves to be picked up; and, of these, one died of his wounds. Of the seven ships, Sea Devil had sunk three — cargo ships Taijo Maru, Edogawa Maru, and Misshan Maru — and had damaged the fourth maru and at least one of the escorts. The submarine remained in her Yellow Sea patrol area for another three days, then headed for Midway. On 6 April, however, she received orders