South China Sea on 19 January. Steaming 75 miles (120 km) north of Luzon at dusk the next day, the formation came under attack by enemy aircraft, and Uhlmann joined other ships of the formation in repelling raiders. Following strikes on Formosa and Okinawa, TF 38 returned to Ulithi on 26 January. That day, the 3d Fleet was redesignated 5th Fleet and placed under the command of Admiral Raymond A. Spruance. Following antisubmarine training, Uhlmann got underway from Ulithi with TG 58.2 on 10 February. During a Japanese air raid on 16 February, the first of two days of strikes on the Tokyo area, Uhlmann took under fire an enemy fighter which made a low-glide, diving attack on the ship's port beam and dropped a bomb in the wake of destroyer . Neither destroyer suffered any damage in this exchange. On 19 February, Uhlmann screened TF 58 as it steamed north of Iwo Jima launching strikes on that island in support of the initial landings there. On 20 February, mechanical difficulties in her steering mechanism forced Uhlmann to part company with the task force, and she put in at Ulithi on 23 February for repairs. Underway on 14 March, she rendezvoused with TG 58.2 on 16 March. The next day, the carriers began a highspeed run in for strikes on Kyūshū. While the planes of TP 58 pounded that Japanese homeland, Uhlmann protected the carriers from air and submarine attack. Air activity began early on 18 March; and Uhlmann, acting as linking vessel between TF 58 and its picket line, began firing on aerial snoopers before dawn. Shortly before 0700, she joined the picket line and, at 0956, rescued three Navy aviators from a torpedo bomber which had splashed nearby. Throughout the dav and into the night, alerts prompted by Japanese surveillance planes brought the ship's crew to general quarters. Four minutes before midnight, Uhlmann opened fire on an enemy aircraft at . The plane burst into flame and splashed off the destroyer's starboard quarter and burned brightly for several minutes. Air activity continued into the early hours of 19 March. Before dawn that day, Uhlmann joined in firing on a high-altitude Japanese raider which burst into flames and splashed. Fifty miles (80 km) off the eastern shore of Shikoku on the morning of 19 March, a Japanese plane dove toward the destroyer and, despite fire from the ship, dropped