February 29, 1944 a Japanese troop convoy was en route from Korea to Guam, waiting for them about 650 miles east of Formosa was the submarine USS Trout SS-202. Sent there on information received through radio decrypts, her commanding officer, Lt. Commander Albert H. Clark, waited patiently for his targets to appear.

The Japanese ships were carrying thousands of troops and were escorted by at least two destroyers, one of which had damaged USS Rock SS-274 some hours earlier. It is not known what Clark's approach and tactics were in the attack, but it is known that torpedoes thought to have been fired by Trout damaged the transport Aki Maru and sank the transport Sakito Maru, the latter with the loss of between 1,300 and 2,000 troops.

After the explosions one of the escorting destroyer, Asashimo, the same destroyer that had damaged Rock, depth charged the submarine and reported debris and oil, this is believed to have been the end of USS Trout and her 81 man crew. Trout was officially declared lost on Apr. 17, 1944