USS Billfish (SS-286), a Balao-class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy to bear the generic name for any fish, such as gar or marlin, with bill-shaped jaws.

The Royal Australian Navy Motor Launch HMAS ML 815 escorted her into Darwin, Australia, on 18 August for an overnight stop to top off with fuel and provisions.

While submerged at 07°58′N 117°18′E / 7.967°N 117.300°E / 7.967; 117.300 at 12:15 that afternoon,[5] she sighted a Japanese ship exiting Balabac Strait at a range of 5,000 yards (4,600 m)[5] which she took to be the tanker that had eluded her earlier.

[5] While in position 12°15′N 111°25′E / 12.250°N 111.417°E / 12.250; 111.417 at 06:21 on 8 September 1943, Billfish sighted the smoke[5] of what turned out to be a convoy of five Japanese ships steaming in the South China Sea along the coast of Japanese-occupied French Indochina.

[5] At 12:10, she sighted the submarine USS Bonefish (SS-223) surfacing 3 nautical miles (5.6 km; 3.5 mi) away and beginning an end around on the convoy's left flank.

[5] Her crew saw a bright flash and a water column rise from the stern of one Japanese ship, which stopped, began to settle, and opened gunfire as Billfish retired to a range of 14,000 yards (13,000 m).

After stopping at Exmouth Gulf on 4 November 1943 to top off with fuel,[5] she made a submerged northbound transit of Lombok Strait on 9 November[5] and headed through the Netherlands East Indies via the Makassar Strait and waters north of Borneo toward a patrol area in the South China Sea off the coast of French Indochina.

While she was in the Makassar Strait at 00°22′S 118°42′E / 0.367°S 118.700°E / -0.367; 118.700 at 09:20 on 11 November 1943, she sighted an approaching Japanese torpedo boat which passed her, apparently unaware of her presence.

[5] She abandoned her approach at a range of 3,600 yards (3,300 m) at 14:50, but the vessel turned and headed toward her, so she submerged to 300 feet (91 m) and rigged for silent running and depth charging.

[6][7] Meanwhile, Chief Electrician's Mate John D. Rendernick took action from his battle station and led emergency repairs, which included using a hydraulic jack to reposition the port main motor, which had been knocked off its foundation, and filling a leaking stern torpedo tube with grease.

[6] Some four hours after the Japanese attack finally ceased,[7] Billfish surfaced under the cover of darkness at 00:25 on 12 November,[5] recharged her batteries using the single operating generator, and completed repairs.

While transiting Sibutu Passage, she slipped by a Japanese antisubmarine warfare ship without harm and entered the South China Sea on 16 November 1943.

In the predawn darkness of 28 November 1943, Billfish detected an escorted five-ship Japanese convoy and reported the find to Bowfin.

In a surface attack on the convoy, Bowfin fired a spread of four torpedoes, all of which hit and quickly sank the 2,866-gross register ton tanker Tonan Maru.

On 13 February 1944, a comparatively small Japanese warship surprised Billfish on the surface and bracketed her with 4.7-inch (120 mm) gunfire, forcing her to go deep.

[9] At 13:37 on 24 April 1944, she detected an approaching Allied twin-engine bomber which mistook her for a Japanese submarine and responded to her recognition flare by strafing her with machine-gun fire as she crash-dived to 100 feet (30 m).

According to Billfish′s patrol report, three torpedoes sent one ship to the bottom and one hit the second, severely damaging her, as depth charges forced Billfish deep, but postwar analysis of Japanese records failed to confirm the kill.

The submarines stopped at Midway Atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, then proceeded to their patrol area in the Luzon Strait.

On 7 August 1944, after Sailfish reported her detection of a Japanese convoy, Billfish launched a spread of four torpedoes at a 300-foot (91 m) cargo ship from a range of 2,000 yards (1,800 m).

Postwar analysis of Japanese records failed to credit her with any sinkings on that day, although she may have severely damaged one or more ships in the convoy.

Upon its completion, she departed San Francisco Bay on 12 March 1945 and proceeded Pearl Harbor, from which she conducted refresher training in the waters of the Hawaiian Islands.

After a stop in the Mariana Islands, she headed for a patrol area in the East China Sea to provide lifeguard service for U.S. Army Air Forces B-29 Superfortress bombers during raids on Honshu.

Late in May 1945, she shifted to the Tsushima Strait area where, on 26 May 1945, one of her torpedoes sank the Japanese 991-gross register ton cargo ship Kotobuki Maru No.

Following an unsuccessful torpedo attack on a small Japanese coastal cargo ship two days later, Billfish scored again when two of her torpedoes sank the 2,220-gross register ton cargo ship Taiu Maru on 4 June 1945 in the Yellow Sea about 1 nautical mile (1.9 km; 1.2 mi) off the coast of the Korean Peninsula.

During the action, rifle fire from the third and last schooner she attacked killed Quartermaster 1st Class Robert V. Oliver and wounded another Billfish crewman.

Billfish got underway again on 12 July 1945, departing Midway Atoll for her eighth war patrol, which took her to Japan's home waters.

Japanese shipping had become a rare commodity by this time in the war, and Billfish only achieved two significant successes during the entire patrol.

On 5 August 1945, near the coast of Manchuria, three torpedoes from a salvo of four she fired hit and sank the 1,091-gross register ton cargo ship Kori Maru.

[citation needed] Towed back to New London by the rescue tug USS ATR-64 early in the autumn of 1946, she was decommissioned there on 1 November 1946.