She cleared the Golden Gate on 8 March, bound for the South Pacific and, a month and a day later, arrived in Samoan waters, en route to Australia.

However, modifying existing LSTs in stateside yards required time, a critical commodity in the fairly steady pace of the amphibious island-hopping campaigns, that the forces fighting at the front did not have.

[3] On 4 September 1943, Vice Admiral Daniel E. Barbey's 7th Fleet Amphibious Forces put Australian troops ashore on the Huon Peninsula, near Lae, New Guinea.

LST-455 moved up to support these operations from Morobe Bay and lay anchored there among the Allied ships, presenting a tempting target by virtue of the nest of LCIs alongside.

Nine Japanese dive bombers, escorted by nine "Zero" fighters, attacked the shipping in Morobe Bay and singled out LST-455 for attention, scoring a direct hit aft.

A large bomb hit the stern, passed through the galley, and exploded in the crew's quarters, aft, starting fires and trapping men in the after steering room.

For her work on two flotillas of LCI's, the ship received commendation from Vice Admiral Barbey, commanding the Seventh Fleet's Amphibious Forces.

After the deafening explosion that wiped out the repair party, orange-red flames (caused by gasoline from the burning aircraft) swept across the weather deck, while parts of the "Zero" tumbled through the air, some landing 250 yards (230 m) astern.

Yet, as the ship's chronicler wrote later: "The bravery and coolness of the men battling the fires and helping the wounded makes one proud of the Achilles' crew .

[3] In the latter half of February 1945, and early March, Achilles returned via Biak to Leyte, but quickly proceeded to Subic Bay and Mindoro, spending a week in each place, tending LSMs and carrying out her vital support work.

During the latter part of April, Achilles moved down to Morotai, in the Netherlands East Indies, for further tender duty, readying landing craft for the impending invasion of Borneo.

The repair ship remained at Borneo until she returned to the Philippines late in July to join the forces marshalling there for the projected invasion of the Japanese homeland.

[3] After five days at that Pacific base, which had provided "the first glimpse of civilization in over two years" to veteran sailors of Achilles, the repair ship departed Hawaiian waters, bound for California, and passed through the Golden Gate on 28 November 1945.

Anchoring in San Francisco Bay and disembarking 165 passengers brought from Pearl Harbor, Achilles proceeded thence to Stockton, California, for repairs to her generators and heating system.

Commander Lin Zu’s flagship was escort ship Hui An (ex-Japanese vessel Shisaka) but he decided to avoid opening gunfire against the departing warships but attempted to call them back.

The communists salvaged her, refitted her, and renamed her Dagu Shan (U891) and commissioned into the East Sea Fleet once it was established and Equipment and Technology Department.