abstract
| - After shakedown in Chesapeake Bay, Nantahala departed Norfolk on 22 July for the Dutch West Indies where, after loading a cargo of oil and gasoline at Aruba, she steamed for fleet tanker duty in the Pacific. Sailing via Pearl Harbor, she reached Kwajalein on 25 August and served there as station tanker until heading for the Marianas on 2 September. She arrived Guam the 10th and during the remainder of the month deployed twice to replenish ships of the 3rd Fleet attacking Japanese positions from the Palaus to the Philippines. Nantahala reached Ulithi, Western Carolines, 1 October to continue station and at sea logistic support for the ships of the Pacific Fleet. When not steaming with a replenishment group in the Western Pacific, she refueled and replenished ships at Ulithi. During the remainder of the war she serviced as many as 16 ships a day at this important forward staging base. While anchored in Ulithi Lagoon, she took part in rescue operations following an enemy midget submarine attack which resulted in the torpedoing and burning of USS Mississinewa (AO-59) on 20 November. Between 21 October and 24 December Nantahala made four deployments in support of ships of the Fast Carrier Task Force. She operated with the replenishment tankers during the Battle of Cape Engano 25–26 October, and during November and December she ranged the Philippine Sea as carrier aircraft pounded enemy targets on Formosa and in the Philippines. During refueling operations in mid-December, she survived the great typhoon of 17–18 December, although winds, which she recorded at , and giant seas caused considerable topside damage.
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