formation early in the first dog watch for a high-speed observation sweep of the objective beaches – White 1, 2, and 3 – on Okinawa. Delays in sweeping the waters off the beaches for mines and the consequent crowding of heavy fire support units on the outer edge of the unswept area prevented Bunch from getting closer than five miles to the objective. She retired from the scene at 1637 to permit the other ships of TG 52.13 to do their own reconnoitering. After spending the night with the fire support night retirement unit, Bunch went to general quarters for the dawn alert at 0555 on 28 March. From her ringside seat, the fast transport observed splash two Aichi D3A "Val" carrier dive bombers and watched a suicide plane attempt to crash the nearby . Bunch secured from general quarters at 0655 and, after being detached from the night retirement group's screen, moved to cover the fire support units off the main invasion beaches. That assignment occupied her through the afternoon watch and into the first dog watch. At about 1635, the warship left the fire support units for Kerama Retto where she assumed patrol station R-16 off Mae Shima. At 2314 on 28 March, lookouts sighted enemy planes on Bunchs starboard beam at extreme range, and she immediately went to general quarters. Still, the high-speed transport did not commence firing – on a plane that she identified as a Mitsubishi G4M "Betty" twin-engined bomber – until 0110 on the 29th. Even then, the plane fell to gunfire from the ships astern, and Bunch secured from battle stations soon thereafter. Going back to general quarters for the dawn alert at 0525 on the 29th, Bunch spotted planes at 0605, but they remained out of range. Just seven minutes later, however, danger approached from an entirely different quarter. Her lookouts and SL radar operator picked up a small boat, 2,200 yards away on the port bow, and Bunch rang up full speed and altered course to investigate. After identifying the boat as enemy, she opened fire with .50-caliber, 20- and 40-millimeter batteries and destroyed it 500 yards away. At 0631, Bunch detected a second suicide motorboat – later judged to have come from Mae Shima, which was still in enemy hands – bearing down upon the ship. Machine gun fire from the fast transport stopped the craft dead in the water,