On the 11th, Edmonds (DE-406), one of the carrier's escorts, detected an apparent submarine and made a number of depth charges attacks without noticeable effect. That afternoon, all doubts about the accuracy of her discovery vanished when lookouts sighted two torpedo wakes rushing toward Edmonds, one of which passed beneath her as it evidently ran too deep, and the other swished by just ahead of her. All three escorts fell back and searched for their prey while "Kitkun Bay" proceeded on a westerly course using evasive tactics. After several hours of fruitless search, the escorts rejoined the ship and they all dropped anchor in Seeadler Harbor on 17 December 1944. Rear Adm. Ofstie returned to "Kitkun Bay" and broke his flag in command of CarDiv 26 as the ship took on stores, ammunition, fuel, and replacement planes for her next battle.