 Following her duties with the transport screen off Okinawa, "Tills" was assigned to the screen of Carrier Division 22 which contained escort carriers , , and .As these small carriers steamed toward Sakishima, their planes loaded bombs and prepared to launch.Their target, Sakishima, had been serving as a refueling base for Japanese aircraft shuttling between Kyūshū and Formosa and was thus an important link in the chain of airbases which supplied Japan's dreaded kamikaze offensive with its deadly aircraft.