Now with TG 79.11, "Melvin" sailed on 11 October toward the Philippines in the screen of the landing craft to be used in the assault on Dulag. Soon after midnight on 20 October, she entered Leyte Gulf and took up her assigned screening station between Dinagat and Hibuson Islands, carrying out similar screening patrols for the next 4 days. In the early hours of the 25th, she joined in the torpedo attack by Destroyer Squadron 54 (DesRon 54), which opened the Battle of Surigao Strait. Assigned with and to the Eastern Attack Group, "Melvin" began launching torpedoes soon after 0300, scoring hits on , which reportedly exploded and eventually sank at about 0338. (Other reports, including from a survivor of the Fusō Battle of Surigao Strait, report rolling and sinking in about 40 minutes. Large fires from spilled crude burned on the surface). Following their attack, the destroyers retired up the Dinagat coast to Hibuson, from where they witnessed the deadly barrage from Admiral Jesse B. Oldendorf's battle line.