Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. The following day she got underway via Boston for Norfolk. Returning north, she arrived Casco Bay, Maine, 28 April and provided for the health needs of men training to man the navy's new fighting ships. She also cared for victims of the war in the Atlantic. Relief departed Casco Bay 8 February 1943 and put into the Boston Navy Yard to prepare for duty in the Pacific. By the 23d she was bound via the Panama Canal to the South Pacific Advanced Fleet Base at Nouméa, New Caledonia. The bitter struggle to drive the Japanese from the Solomon Islands was still in progress when she reached her destination 2 April. Marine, navy, and army patients brought out of the combat zones of the Solomons awaited in the New Hebrides for transport to better hospital facilities at Auckland, New Zealand. This evacuation duty kept Relief occupied until 15 November, when she departed Auckland to evacuate battle casualties of the amphibious assaults on the Gilbert Islands. 1944 Relief arrived off Abemama in the Gilberts 24 November, but immediately retired to Funafuti Atoll, Ellice Islands, to serve as a base hospital there until 4 January 1944. She then performed service off Tarawa in the Gilberts for the remainder of the month. She steamed for the Marshalls 31 January to care for battle casualties. On the east side of Carlson Island in Kwajalein Lagoon, she received battle casualties transported by small boat directly from the islands under attack. By the afternoon of 4 February she was bound for Hawaii with 607 patients. By 21 February, Relief returned to the newly-won Marshalls, bringing medical supplies to be used in establishing shore hospitals on Roi Island. After embarking battle casualties from navy transports, she shifted to Majuro Atoll lagoon 4 March. During the following 3 months, she was the only hospital ship at Majuro where she served some 200,000 officers and men of the 5th Fleet. With medical facilities ashore limited to dispensary service, Relief provided hospitalization for fleet casualties. During this period, units of the fleet made constant air and surface attacks on the Japanese at Jaluit, Mili, Maloelap, Wotje, and other outlying Marshall Island atolls. Enemy attacks on Eniwetok were repulsed. These operations, as well as attacks made by the fleet against Truk and Palau, produced a large number of battle casualties. Relief admitted 1,329 patients and discharged 693 from