England arrived at Espiritu Santo on 12 March 1944 from San Francisco, Pearl Harbor, Funafuti, and Guadalcanal.

Fleet Radio Unit Pacific (FRUPAC) intercepted and decoded a 13 May 1944 message from I-16 including a scheduled delivery of rice for Japanese troops at Buin on the southern tip of Bougainville Island.

The fifth Hedgehog attack at 14:33 resulted in four to six detonations and was followed by a large underwater explosion which lifted England's fantail and knocked men off their feet.

Debris began floating to the surface twenty minutes later and the following day there was a 3-by-6-nautical-mile (3.5 by 6.9 mi; 5.6 by 11.1 km) oil slick.

[2] A 20 May 1944 message was decoded revealing Japanese plans for a submarine trap north of the Admiralty Islands to intercept an anticipated movement of United States aircraft carriers.

A large underwater explosion was detected as England prepared to conduct a third attack, and a heavy oil slick with debris was evident after sunrise.

George and Raby joined Hazelwood and made a total of sixteen Hedgehog and depth charge attacks over a period of 25 hours.

[9] This anti-submarine warfare performance was never matched in World War II and won for England a Presidential Unit Citation and the assurance from the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral E. J.

Through the summer of 1944, England sailed throughout the northern Solomons, providing the escort services necessary for the building up of bases, preparations for the renewed assaults on Japanese territories to the north, and provision of supplies to garrison forces on the islands of the southwest Pacific.

From 2 January 1945, England escorted convoys between Manus and Ulithi, the major base for operations of the carrier task forces, and later to be the staging point for the assaults on Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

The escort vessel sailed to Kossol Roads in February, bringing in a convoy later routed on to the Philippines, then resumed her duty on the Manus-Ulithi sea lanes.

When the plane's bomb exploded just after the crash, England's men began a dangerous race against time to quench the fires and save their ship, while the combat air patrol shot down the two other aircraft.

England sailed on to Leyte, where she received temporary repairs to put her in shape for the long voyage home.