Third Patrol
After his return, Lent was transferred to command of the Tambor class submarine Grenadier (SS-210), departing for the East China Sea in April 1942. He found a convoy of seven ships, including the "magnificent passenger freighter" Taiyo Maru (14,500 tons). Lent fired four torpedoes, two for influence, two for contact; the influence feature failed to function, but the other two sank Taiyo Maru, sending over a thousand oil field technicians with her. Lent then went to 250 feet (76 m), where he suffered 36 depth charges over the next four hours, so he did not observe the sinking, and on his return to Pearl Harbor, joined the chorus of complaints about the Mark XIV torpedo and its Mark VI exploder. He was echoed by his division commander, Marmaduke O'Leary; Admiral English, (replacing Withers), "tubbornly following the policy of his predecessors -and the Gun Club line", instead blamed his skippers and crews.
Lent's biggest opportunity was ShÅkaku, which he was detailed to intercept in the Bungo Suido. Like Gar (SS-206), Ed Hutchinson's Grampus (SS-207), Chet Bruton's Greenling (SS-213), Joe Willingham's Tautog (SS-199), Spike Hottel's Cuttlefish (SS-171), Bob Rice's Drum (SS-228), Stan Moseley's Pollack (SS-180), and Triton (now under C. C. Kirkpatrick), Lent never sighted her.
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