 There, it entered combat and attacked enemy installations, airfields, and shipping in the Marshall Islands in preparation for the invasion by US forces.After February 1944, the squadron staged through captured fields on Eniwetok to attack shipping in the Caroline Islands.In April, the squadron moved to Makin Airfield, Makin, Gilbert Islands, where its operations were primarily attacks on enemy shipping and on Japanese installations on islands that had been bypassed as American forces moved westward through the Pacific.