Assigned to the United Kingdom under lend lease 23 June 1943, Perdido was taken over by the Royal Navy at Portland, 31 January 1944. During the remainder of World War II, she served the Royal Navy as Ruler-class escort carrier HMS Trouncer (D85) and took part in convoy escort and ASW patrol operations. Petard was kept busy with the aftermath of war; she led the cruiser Cleopatra and the Royal Indian Navy Bathurst-class corvette, Bengal, through a narrow swept channel in the Malacca Strait, which had been marked by three Indian Navy minesweeper flotillas, towards Singapore. The Chief of Naval Operations (the highest ranking officer in the Navy and part of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) is below the secretary. Australians. This foresight helped immeasurably when he was ordered to salvage the deteriorating situation at Buna in 1943. Subsequently named to command the Eighth Army, Eichelberger completed the seizure of Leyte in 1944, executed a series of amphibious operations in the Philippines, and defeated the Japanese on Mindanao.
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