remained with TF 58 while the task group of cripples retired to base. She continued to screen the carriers as they launched air strikes on Okinawa during the last week in March and the week following the 1 April landings. Throughout the entire period, the Japanese launched air attacks at them incessantly. It was not until the 6th, however, that sighting reports made it apparent that the enemy planned a suicidal surface attack with the remnants of their fleet. Superbattleship Yamato, screened by a cruiser and eight destroyers, started south to contest the landings. The fast carriers continued to steam on station off Okinawa protected by Wedderburn and her colleagues but, on 7 April, launched a series of search and attack sorties which ultimately sent the mighty Japanese battleship to the bottom along with light cruiser Yahagi and four of the escorting destroyers. After that scrape, TF 58 concentrated its efforts on supporting the troops ashore and defending itself and the invasion force from the final onslaught of Japanese air power. Wedderburn remained in the vicinity of the Ryukyu Islands for another 20 days until TG 58.1 headed for Ulithi on 27 April. On 18 May, the destroyer departed Ulithi to escort Missouri (BB-63) to Guam to pick up Admiral William F. Halsey who was scheduled to take command of the naval forces off Okinawa later that month. She then escorted Missouri back to the Ryukyus and reentered the fray at Okinawa at the beginning of the final week of May. Halsey took over from Admiral Raymond Spruance on 27 May; and—now that Admiral Halsey was back in overall command—Wedderburn and her associates became units of the 3d Fleet rather than of the 5th Fleet. For the remainder of World War II, she screened various task groups of TF 38 first while they continued support for the Okinawa operation and, later that summer, when they went on their final rampage in the Japanese home islands. The Japanese capitulation on 15 August found her in the screen of TG 38.4 while the carriers were preparing for yet another air strike—one which they did not launch. Immediately following the war, the destroyer served with the occupation forces around Tokyo Bay, escorting Japanese merchant ships, supervising mine-clearing operations, and making hydrographic surveys. On 31 October, she shaped a course back to the United States. After a stop at Pearl Harbor from 9 to