After recovering aircraft that afternoon, the carriers and their escorts steamed to positions astern of some of the transports and dock landing ships, and the combined group then came about for Ulithi Atoll in the Carolines. The Army's 81st Infantry Division later reinforced the marines and the final Japanese on Peleliu only surrendered on 1 February 1945. Stopping briefly at Ulithi, the escort carriers and their escorts stood down the channel on the afternoon of 25 September 1944, for the three-day trip to New Guinea, and then continued on to Seeadler Harbor on Manus in the Admiralty Islands. "Kitkun Bay" loaded fuel, ammunition, and stores while at the anchorage (1–11 October), and prepared to take part in the invasion of Leyte in the Philippines.