U.S. Navy service
September–November 1944 Spot completed
fitting out at Mare Island on 18 September 1944 and moved to
San Diego for
shakedown. After a yard period,
Spot departed for
Hawaii and arrived at
Pearl Harbor on 14 November 1944.
First patrol, December 1944 – January 1945 Accompanied by ,
Spot got underway for the
Marianas on 4 December. They were joined by en route, and the trio arrived at
Saipan on 15 December 1944. Two days later, the
hunter-killer group headed for the
Yellow Sea. On 7 January 1945,
Spot sank two small
trawlers with her deck gun. Four days later, she destroyed a small freighter by gunfire. On 13 January off Shanghai, the submarine sank two trawlers by shellfire, and she repeated the feat the next day. In a night sweep through the
Elliott Islands on 18 and 19 January,
Spot torpedoed a cargo ship and a
tanker. As
Spot came down the west coast of
Korea, she sighted a small ship and fired her last three torpedoes. All ran shallow and missed. With only 1,300 rounds of 20 mm ammunition remaining, the submarine closed to and opened fire. The enemy made an unsuccessful attempt to ram. No one manned the Japanese ship's machine gun atop her pilot house; her top deck was in shambles; and the ship was dead in the water but not sinking.
Spot waited for an hour and then sent over a boarding party of seven men to plant demolition charges and search for intelligence material. After about ten minutes on board, the party had to abandon as the ship listed to port and sank by the stern. The boarding party was recovered and one Japanese prisoner taken. The submarine returned to
Midway on 30 January for a refit and training period.
Second war patrol, February – March 1945 On 24 February,
Spot began her second war patrol which took her, , and into the
East China Sea. On the second night in her assigned patrol area,
Spot expended all torpedoes attacking a Japanese
convoy. They sank the passenger-cargo ship,
Nanking Maru, and damaged a freighter. The attack was made in heavy weather and shallow water.
Spot was surfaced and heading for deeper water but could not elude one of the escorts, the minesweeper
W-17, which closed to and opened fire.
Spot manned her guns and returned the fire even though she was wallowing heavily in the rough seas. A lucky hit by her gun knocked out
W-17's forward gun and saved the submarine from almost certain disaster.
Spot secured her guns, cleared the bridge, and submerged. The escort dropped a few
depth charge patterns which caused no damage, and the submarine returned to
Saipan on 23 March to reload. On 27 March 1945,
Spot resumed her patrol. On 31 March 1945, she was on the surface in the
Philippine Sea southeast of
Kagoshima,
Kyushu,
Japan at when she sighted a
destroyer that offered no recognition signals.
Spot maneuvered to close when the destroyer turned towards her and increased its speed. When the range was approximately , the destroyer opened fire.
Spot fired a recognition flare that the destroyer answered with a second
salvo. As
Spot submerged, another salvo straddled her conning tower. After
Spot reached a depth of , she and the destroyer exchanged recognition signals and the destroyer discontinued its attack. The destroyer was later identified as , which reported firing fifteen rounds.
Spot suffered no damage or casualties in this
friendly fire incident.
Third and fourth war patrols, April – July 1945 During the first week of April,
Spot guarded the approaches to
Kii Suido. After aircraft from the
Fast Carrier Task Force sank
battleship Yamato, a
cruiser, and four destroyers in the East China Sea on 7 April, the submarine patrolled in that area. She hunted off the China coast and then conducted a reconnaissance of
Kokuzan To, off Korea and decided to shell a radio station on the northwest tip of the island. On the evening of 25 April, she surfaced and began the bombardment which hit an oil storage area, several barracks, and set the radio station on fire.
Spot returned to the
Mariana Islands on 4 May for refit.
Spot began her last war patrol on 2 June and performed lifeguard services off the coast of
Honshū until 23 June. She then patrolled in the
East China and
Yellow Seas, sinking two
junks by gunfire before returning to Saipan on 18 July. The submarine sailed for Hawaii the next day.
Spot arrived at Pearl Harbor on 29 July for an extended overhaul and was still there when hostilities ceased. She sailed for
San Diego on 27 August and provided services for
antisubmarine warfare units there from 3 September 1945 to 2 March 1946. The ship then sailed to San Francisco to prepare for inactivation. She was decommissioned at the
Mare Island Naval Shipyard on 19 June and attached to the
Pacific Reserve Fleet.
Honors and awards Spot received four
battle stars for
World War II service. == Chilean Navy service ==