the Japanese fleet as it closed the Marianas for a decisive naval battle. The great fleets approached each other on 19 June for the biggest carrier engagement of the war. As four large air raids hit the American fleet formation, fighter cover from Helm'''s task group and surface fire from the ships annihilated the Japanese planes. With able assistance from American submarines, Mitscher succeeded in sinking two Japanese carriers while inflicting such staggering losses on the enemy naval air arm that the battle was dubbed the "Marianas Turkey Shoot." Admiral Spruance had succeeded in protecting the invasion force in a battle the importance of which was well understood by the Japanese. Admiral Toyoda had said on 15 June: "The fate of the Empire rests on this one battle," repeating the words of Admiral Togo at the Battle of Tsushima. Following the decisive Battle of the Philippine Sea, Helm and the fast carriers turned their attention to neutralizing the enemy bases on the Bonin and Volcano Islands and supporting the invasion of Guam. The mobile carrier groups, screened by destroyers and cruisers, also began attacks on the Palau Islands on 25 July 1944. With occasional respite at Eniwetok or Ulithi, the carriers attacked Iwo Jima and other islands in the western Pacific until well into September. Helm sank a small Japanese freighter off Iwo Jima on 2 September and later that day surprised and sank a small cargo ship.Helm and her carrier group arrived in Seeadler Harbor on 21 September 1944. They sortied again on 24 September; and, after ground support strikes in the Palaus, rendezvoused with the entire task force of seventeen carriers with their supporting and screening vessels for an important sweep to the west. Strikes were launched against Okinawa on 10 October; after which the carriers turned to their real objective, the airfields and military installations on Formosa. In a devastating 3-day attack carrier planes did much to destroy that island as a supporting base for the Japanese in the battle of the Philippines and other invasions to come. Enemy planes retaliated with heavy and repeated land-based attacks. Helm brought down one bomber with her 5-inch guns on 13 October and assisted in shooting down several more. Following the Formosa Air Battle, a convincing demonstration of the power and mobility of sea power, Task Force 38 returned to the east coast of Luzon to strike enemy air bases