At 1600, the warship departed Kerama Retto to rendezvous with east of Okinawa for a conference on board the command ship. Bunch then screened Estes until 2300 when she received orders to patrol a station 20 miles south of Mae Shima. That duty lasted until 1045 on 5 April when Bunch rushed to another meeting with Estes. At 1230, she joined the Eastern Islands Bombardment Group, comprising Estes, , and Arikara. While Bunch screened that unit, the embarked staff of TG 52.11 supervised UDT reconnaissance and demolition operations at the eastern islands and in Nakagusuku Wan (Buckner Bay). Bunch continued her duties in the screen into the 6th, when she received orders to rendezvous with off Okinawa's western beaches for a conference on board that ship. She remained close by during the conference and, at 1605, received a report of enemy planes in the area. While anti-aircraft fire blossomed in the sky on her port quarter, Bunch spotted a Mitsubishi A6M5 "Zeke" carrier fighter on her starboard quarter at long range. Her starboard 40-millimeter guns took the fighter under fire at a range of 700 yards and soon disintegrated his tail. The "Zeke" then went out of control, splashing into the sea 100 yards from the warship on her port beam. After returning passengers to Estes during the first dog watch, Bunch resumed screening and remained with Estes through the 7th and into the 8th. Leaving the screen at 1000 on the 8th, she delivered the TG 52.11 staff to a conference on board Vice Admiral Richmond K. Turner's flagship, Eldorado. The staff returned from that meeting just before 1800, and Bunch resumed screening station about an hour later. Another conference – this one on board – took her away from the screening station on the 9th, and she returned to Kerama Retto on the 10th to transfer the idle UDT-21 out of harm's way to while it waited for another mission. She spent the rest of the 10th on an auxiliary radar picket station. Ie Shima That same day, Bunch received her orders for the scheduled capture of Ie Shima. On the 11th, she rejoined Panamint to deliver the TG 52.11 staff to confer on the Ie Shima operation and then reembarked UDT-21. Preparations for the Ie Shima mission continued on the 12th, but Bunch finally set out for the objective early on the 13th. Between 0830 and 1100