1945 As the ships entered the Sulu Sea, heavy air attacks began. The Japanese struck with suicide planes on 4 January 1945 and sank escort carrier Ommaney Bay. Gunfire from Helm and the other screening ships took a heavy toll of the attackers. From 6 to 17 January the destroyer operated with carriers west of Lingayen Gulf providing air support for these important landings. The ships departed on 17 January and arrived in Ulithi six days later. As the great naval task force assembled for the invasion of Iwo Jima, next stop on the island road to Japan, Helm sailed on 12 February in the screen of a group of escort carriers, arriving off the volcanic island fortress on 16 February. She screened the carriers during the preliminary strikes and protected them while they lent close support to the invasion, which began on the 19th. The carrier groups were hit repeatedly by desperate air attacks, with Helm and the other destroyers accounting for many suicide and torpedo planes. When escort carrier Bismarck Sea was sunk in a suicide attack on 21 February, Helm rescued survivors and brought them to the transport anchorage next day. The veteran destroyer continued screening operations off Iwo Jima until 7 March when she steamed toward Leyte for repairs. She was soon underway again, however, for the last and largest of the Pacific amphibious operations, the invasion of Okinawa. Sailing on 27 March, she joined escort carrier groups off the island for pre-invasion strikes; and, after the historic assault on 1 April, for ground support operations. During her stay off Okinawa the destroyer shot down many suicide planes which menaced the carriers during fanatical, last-ditch efforts by the Japanese to repel the invasion. Helm steamed to Leyte on 19 June with Okinawa secured. Post-war Following the Okinawa operation Helm served as an escort and patrol ship out of Ulithi and Leyte, and helped to search for survivors of ill-fated Indianapolis from 3 to 6 August 1945. The ship was steaming toward Ulithi from Okinawa when the war ended on 15 August. She returned to Okinawa and finally to Iwo Jima to join the Bonins patrol, for air-sea rescue work until 8 September. The destroyer then sailed to Sasebo, Japan, where she served as shipping guide and patrol vessel until returning to Okinawa on 26 September. After another stay in Japan, the ship departed for Pearl Harbor