'..FM sonar, a short range device which was used for detecting submerged mines or other obstacles.
The ear-piercing "gong" it gave out led the crew to derisively call it "Hell's Bells". Nevertheless FM was highly successful.
This was exemplified by Bowfin's ninth and final war patrol which lasted from May 24 to July 4, 1945. During that patrol, Bowfin was serving in a nine boat wolfpack whose mission was to attack shipping through the Sea of Japan, known to submariners as "The Emperor's Wading Pool". However getting there required the wolfpack to steam through the Tsushima Strait between Japan and Korea. Laced with mines, the strait was thought to be impregnable. Thanks to FM Sonar, Bowfin got through the strait but it was quite a hair-raising transit. At one point a mine's anchor cable scraped along her hull. '
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