For the next few weeks Helm remained in the dangerous waters near Guadalcanal, escorting transports and patrolling. She sailed to Brisbane on 7 September and departed the next day to provide escort protection for transports between Australia and New Guinea. 1943 The veteran destroyer remained on this duty for some months. On 15 May 1943, Helm assisted in the search for survivors from the Australian hospital ship Centaur that had been torpedoed and sunk by Japanese submarine I-177, south east of Cape Moreton, near Brisbane. Later it escorted LST's to Woodlark Island for an unopposed landing in June 1943 and protected the important base at Milne Bay. As MacArthur's army prepared to move into New Britain under naval cover, Helm bombarded Gasmata on 29 November 1943 and sortied from Milne Bay again on 14 December under Admiral Crutchley for the capture of Cape Gloucester. Helm helped in the pre-invasion bombardment, fired close-support missions after the initial landings, and performed screening duties as transports unloaded. The operation by Admiral Barbey's VII Amphibious Corps was a smooth and successful one and, as soon as the position was secured, Helm and the rest of Admiral Crutchley's fleet moved to Saidor, where Admiral Barbey performed one of his famous amphibious "hops." The destroyer screened the cruiser force as it prevented attack by surface and air forces from seaward. 1944 Helm continued her escort duty in the Guadalcanal and Milne Bay areas until departing on 19 February 1944 for Pearl Harbor. The ship proceeded thence to Mare Island Navy Yard escorting the battleship Maryland, and arrived on 4 March. Helm departed San Francisco on 5 May 1944. After arrival in Pearl Harbor five days later she engaged in refresher training in Hawaiian waters. She arrived Majuro on 4 June and Kwajalein on 7 June to join the naval force assembling for the next step in America's amphibious sweep across the Pacific, the invasion of the Marianas. She joined Vice Admiral Mitscher's famed Task Force 58 and sailed with it from Kwajalein on 7 June. The fast carrier group guarded the western approaches to the islands from 11 to 13 June and provided air support for the landings, which were carried out by Admiral Kelly Turner's amphibian group 1,000 miles from the nearest advance base at Eniwetok. The carrier task forces returned from a strike on the Bonin Islands on 18 June and deployed to repel