USS Perch (SS/SSP/ASSP/APSS/LPSS/IXSS-313), a Balao-class submarine, was the second submarine of the United States Navy to be named for the perch, a freshwater spiny-finned fish. Construction and commissioning Perch was laid down on 5 January 1943 by the Electric Boat Company at Groton, Connecticut; launched on 12 September 1943, sponsored by Mrs. David A. Hart; and commissioned on 7 January 1944. Operational history After shakedown, Perch departed 19 February 1944 for Key West, Florida, where she gave services to the Fleet Sound School. She then sailed for Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, arriving 3 April 1944. First and second war patrols, April – August 1944 On 29 April she departed Pearl Harbor with for Midway where joined them. The South China Sea was the hunting ground for the wolf pack. Early in the morning of 24 May, a medium tanker was contacted and damaged by four torpedo hits. The counterattack by a lone escort prevented further observation of the damage inflicted and knocked out both high pressure air compressors by flooding of the pump room. Perch headed for the Marshall Islands, arriving at Majuro on 4 June. On 27 June Perch began her second war patrol, this time off Surigao Strait in the Philippines. She sank a 100-ton Japanese trawler with gunfire before returning to Pearl Harbor 26 August. Third and fourth war patrols, September 1944 – February 1945 Perch departed Pearl Harbor on her third war patrol 19 September. At Midway she joined submarines and and the three set out for the confined waters of the East China and Yellow Seas. Perch unsuccessfully attacked one heavily escorted transport, and performed lifeguard duty supporting B-29 raids on Honshū. Perch then headed for Saipan to refuel en route to Brisbane, Australia, for duty with Submarines, Southwest Pacific Fleet. The fourth war patrol began 19 December from Brisbane. First Perch patrolled off Hainan, China; next off Singapore; and finally in Balabac Straits off Borneo. She sighted no enemy ships, and the patrol ended at Fremantle, Western Australia, 15 February 1945. Fifth and sixth war patrols, March – June 1945 On 12 March Perch departed Fremantle carrying with her eleven Australasian specialists trained in commando warfare, under the command of Major Donald Stott. On the first night of the mission, in the Makassar Straits, above Balikpapan, Borneo, she landed four of the party (including Stott) who were to make a reconnaissance of the beach and