Throughout the day on 19 June 1944, TF 58 repelled Japanese air attacks and slaughtered their aircraft in what Navy pilots dubbed the "Great Marianas Turkey Shoot." "Kitkun Bay" operated with her cohorts to the eastward of Saipan when American radar detected multiple Japanese strike groups about ten miles out and heading toward the fleet early that morning, and at 0624, "Kitkun Bay" launched a pair of Wildcats for CAP, joined a minute later by the first of five from Gambier Bay. The enemy closed the range rapidly and within five minutes a trio of dive bombers attacked the formation from an altitude of about 5,000 feet. The Japanese planes dropped two bombs that splashed close aboard Gambier Bay and then winged off, but a minute later two torpedo bombers approached the ships from the east. The vessels of the formation shot a heavy concentration of antiaircraft fire at the pair and they broke off and withdrew without making their runs.