After escorting the battleship Texas on training exercises, Harding sailed 18 April with a convoy for Europe, and began her first great combat operation — the invasion of Normandy.

Shifting her operations to the Mediterranean, Harding sailed on 1 August for Oran, Algeria, and from there proceeded to the southern France assault area, as a screening ship.

On the night of 17 August, she detected a downed German plane, and after recovering bodies, proceeded to investigate an unidentified contact.

As Harding's signalman sought to illuminate the stranger, a burst of machine-gun fire extinguished the light and revealed the presence of four E-boats.

Sailing on 10 February via Pearl Harbor, Harding arrived at Ulithi on 9 March to prepare for the invasion of Okinawa, the last and largest of the giant Pacific amphibious assaults.

During the initial landings on 1 April 1945 Harding served as an outer screening ship, and continued this dangerous duty during the savage air attacks which followed.

As gunfire ripped into her, the aircraft splashed close aboard to starboard, tearing a huge gash in Harding's side from keel to main deck when her bomb exploded.