World War II Pacific Theatre Operations
Tills was assigned to Escort Division (CortDiv) 53 and conducted trials and shakedown off San Diego, California, before post-shakedown availability at Terminal Island. On 16 October, the ship departed the west coast in the screen for Task Group (TG) 19.5, which included escort carriers Makin Island (CVE-93), Lunga Point (CVE-94), Salamaua (CVE-96), and Bismarck Sea (CVE-95). She reached Pearl Harbor on the 23rd and took part in anti-submarine operations in Hawaiian waters for the remainder of 1944.
On 2 January 1945, Tills departed Pearl Harbor for exercises with TG 12.3, before the hunter-killer group headed for the Marshalls. Arriving at Eniwetok on 15 January, the destroyer escort remained there a fortnight before beginning exercises on the 29th.
Tills weighed anchor on 5 February for a hunter-killer mission. In this, like the other operations staged from the Marshalls, the ship sailed easterly by day and westerly by night to a distance some 400 miles (640 km) east of Eniwetok. Her patrolling of this stretch of the Pacific between the Hawaiian Islands and the Marshalls continued for 10 days before Tills returned to Pearl Harbor for availability alongside tender Alcor (AD-34).
The ship conducted post-availability exercises off Oahu before screening for Sangamon (CVE-26) in late February, while the escort carrier's planes carried out night flight training operations. Returning to Pearl Harbor on 2 March, the ship two days later joined TG 19.3, formed around Kasaan Bay (CVE-69). Two five-day training cruises followed, before Tills was briefly reassigned to TG 19.2, whose nucleus was Tripoli (CVE-64).
After routine training and availability at Pearl Harbor, the destroyer escort embarked 2 Navy officers and 23 Navy and Marine enlisted men for transportation to the Marshalls. On 29 March, she rendezvoused with destroyer escorts Gilligan (DE-508) and Whitman (DE-24) which helped her to screen a 17-ship convoy, PD-355T, to Eniwetok. After making port on 6 April, Tills rejoined TG 12.3, which conducted hunter-killer operations between the Hawaiian Islands and the Marshalls.
Read more about this topic: USS Tills (DE-748)
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