south as Callao, Peru. Secondary assignments included duty as target and training ship for submarines preparing to enter the war zone and for Army patrol bombers getting ready to do the same. After the Guadalcanal landings on 7 August, her runs to the Society Islands took on new meaning because the bulk of the ships she escorted after that date carried supplies and reinforcements to support America's first offensive in the Pacific. On 10–11 December, she had the honor of escorting the battleship , heavily damaged in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in mid-November, into Balboa on her way to repairs at New York. She continued her patrol and escort duties with the Southeast Pacific Force until early June 1943. On 23 May, she stood out of Balboa on her last mission with that organization, to escort a convoy to the Society Islands. Upon arrival at Bora Bora on 4 June, she received orders to report for duty to the Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet. Southwest Pacific At that juncture, the southwestern Pacific became Warringtons area of operations. Upon reaching Nouméa, New Caledonia, she began a five-week stretch of convoy duty that took her to such diverse places as Australia, Samoa, Hawaii, Guadalcanal, and the New Hebrides Islands. On 1 October, she departed Espiritu Santo in the last-named island group to escort to Samoa, whence the destroyer headed to Pearl Harbor for repairs and to pick up a convoy. Warrington returned to Espiritu Santo on 30 October but by 6 November had arrived off Koli Point, Guadalcanal, where she joined up with the second echelon of the Bougainville invasion force. At daybreak two days later, she escorted the troop ships charged to her protection into Empress Augusta Bay, Bougainville. She patrolled to seaward while the transports landed reinforcements and supplies on the beaches to the east and southeast of Cape Torokina. Near noon, the air raid warning sounded. Both troop and cargo ships got underway to evade the action; and Warrington joined the antiaircraft defenses for the anchorage and beachhead. At four minutes after noon, the destroyer opened fire on two Japanese planes crossing her stern. The first began smoking almost immediately and crashed dead astern. The second came under fire from the other ships as well; shuddered under the impact of the combined fire of the ships and then, trailing pieces from his fuselage, splashed down, too. Warrington claimed