With the Marshall Islands operation scheduled for the next month, "Chauncey"s force was assigned a strike at Kwajalein, center of Japanese air power in the Marshalls, and the shipping in its harbor. Air strikes were launched 4 December 1943 at Kwajalein and Wotje, but Japanese retaliation came in the evening, and "Chauncey" joined in the fire which splashed many enemy planes and drove them away just after midnight. Her task force sailed on to replenish and repair at Pearl Harbor. Bound for action once more, "Chauncey" sailed to Funafuti, where she made rendezvous with a seaplane tender whom she and another destroyer escorted up to Tarawa. After brief patrol duty there, she returned to Funafuti to prepare for the next operation, Majuro.