Walter Thomas Griffith (June 3, 1911 – January 25, 1966) was a United States Navy submarine commander in World War II.

While in stormy weather off the coast of French Indochina on the morning of November 26, Bowfin inadvertently sailed into the middle of a large Japanese convoy, which she subsequently attacked.

[6] On November 28, Griffith coordinated with Commander Frederick Colby Lucas, Jr. of USS Billfish (SS-286) to attack another large Japanese convoy east of Cape Varella before returning to Fremantle for repairs, arriving on December 9.

[9] Christie joined Griffith on the bridge during several torpedo attacks in the Flores and Java Seas, and complimented the crew on their methodical nature.

During this patrol, Christie had Griffith operate his torpedoes with modifications to the exploders proposed by submarine commanders Chester Nimitz Jr. and James McCallum in a final attempt to rectify the Mark 6's issues.

Following his rest, Griffith briefly served as an instructor at Prospective Commanding Officers' School before being sent to Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Maine to lead the trial and commissioning crew of the new submarine USS Bullhead.

From Bullhead's launching on July 16, 1944 until her commissioning on December 4, 1944, Griffith oversaw the submarines’ sea trials and assembled his new crew around four experienced sailors who had followed him from Bowfin.

For the three months following Bullhead's commissioning, Griffith led the crew in shakedown training around Narragansett Bay, Key West, and the Panama Canal Zone before heading to Pearl Harbor and then Guam.

[14] At Guam, Griffith met with Commander, Submarines, Pacific (COMSUBPAC) Vice Admiral Charles A. Lockwood who introduced him to Boston Globe reporter Martin Sheridan, who would be accompanying Bullhead on her first patrol.

With no airmen needing rescue, Griffith received permission from COMSUBPAC to bombard Pratas Island with deck guns on March 31, and later on April 24.

[15] On April 8, Bullhead was nearly bombed by a B-24 Liberator while travelling in a safety lane, which caused Griffith to demand an investigation into reports of Fifth Air Force planes improperly patrolling submarine safe zones.

[16] On April 16, Bullhead rescued three airmen from a downed B-25 Mitchell that had already been picked up by Chinese fishermen in Bias Bay near Hong Kong.

On June 19, Bullhead conducted an extensive surface gun action off St. Nicholas Point, Java where she sunk or damaged several small coastal freighters.

[19] On June 24, Griffith spent several hours stalking an 8,000 ton ship with red cross markings that was operating suspiciously, but was denied permission from headquarters to attack it with torpedoes.

Holt, who had already served on 10 war patrols in junior officer positions, wrote to his wife that he hoped to "live up to the wonderful job Comdr.

Griffith spent a few weeks planning Bullhead's third patrol with Holt before departing for Guam to become Assistant Operations Officer to Vice Admiral Lockwood.

On August 6, 1945, Bullhead became the last U.S. Navy ship sunk by enemy action in World War II when it was depth charged by a Mitsubishi Ki-51 while operating in the Java Sea.