8th and arrived there the next day. On the 10th, Trathen returned to Kwajalein to conduct antisubmarine patrols.Trathen next formed up with Indianapolis (CA-35) off Eniwetok. Based on an intelligence report that the island was unoccupied, the American warships carried out relatively light bombardment. In the meantime, analysis of papers captured at Kwajalein revealed that Eniwetok was, in fact, defended by tough, crack Japanese troops. Too late for a radical change of plans, Indianapolis and near-sister Portland (CA-33), accompanied by Trathen and Hoel (DD-533), stationed themselves on the flanks of the LCI(G)'s, with waves of LVT's in the middle. Trathen screened the former cruiser while Hoel drew the latter, and the ships joined the gunboats (LCI(G)) in firing on the island. Eniwetok soon fell to the mailed fist of American land and sea power. Trathen furnished fire support intermittently until the 29th of the month and thereafter remained at Eniwetok until 4 March when she headed for Majuro for a tender availability. Then, following exercises at Purvis Bay in the Solomon Islands and patrol duty between the Emirau and New Hanover Islands, Trathen subsequently joined the 7th Fleet on 3 May. The destroyer departed Manus, in the Admiralty Islands, on 15 May in company with TF 74 and 75, bound for New Guinea waters. The target island, Wakde—occupied in 1942 by the Japanese—possessed an excellent airstrip and vital facilities which would be immensely useful to the Allies as they "island-hopped" closer to the Philippines and Japan. Arriving on the 17th, Trathen provided gunfire support for the force which landed on Wakde and later operated off the coast supporting the operation until the 25th, when the ship sailed for Biak Island. The next target on the Navy's timetable, this island—the largest of the Schouten Islands group—lay fringed with coral reefs. The attack force scheduled to bombard the island arrived off the landing beaches 15 minutes ahead of schedule; and, at 0629 on the morning of 27 May, the 6-inch guns of cruisers Phoenix (CL-46), Boise (CL-47), and Nashville (CL-43) began lobbing the first of 1,000 rounds of shells shoreward, while the destroyers looked for "game" along the landing beaches—such as small Japanese patrol craft. At 1100, four Japanese fighters made half-hearted passes over the airstrips on Biak. Two fighter-bombers came over late in the afternoon shortly thereafter followed by four twin-engined planes—three of which were destroyed by antiaircraft fire. The fourth