After refit alongside Pelias (AS-14), Atule conducted extensive drills in multiple fire torpedo attacks, gunfire, sound training and evasion exercises. On 2 April, she departed Midway, bound for Guam. After one day alongside Holland ( AS-3) in Apra Harbor, the submarine departed on 12 April for her patrol area off Bungo Suido. Gato (SS-212) covered the east entrance and Atule the west. The patrol consisted almost entirely of lifeguard duty and mine destruction. On 4 May, she sighted an enemy submarine but it escaped before Atule could close for attack.

(My Dad told this story a bit more colorfully! The boat closed the contact in the fog using radar bearings. Trying to get a visual in the fog was damn near impossible. By the time the silhouette materialized they recognized it as a German U-boat. Atule was spotted at virtually the same instant! Both subs reversed course and dived immediately!)

On 5 May Atule and a B-29 “Dumbo” plane-which carried a lifeboat for air-sea rescue operations-conducted a coordinated attack on two Japanese planes. Atule acted as “fighter” director and vectored the B-29 to the Japanese planes. She then submerged and watched as one plane fled and one was shot down in a very unusual dogfight. Atule rescued one badly burned Japanese flyer from the wreckage. The war patrol ended on 30 May when Atule arrived at Pearl Harbor for a three-week refit by Euryale (AS-22).