"Phoenix" then patrolled the mouth of Leyte Gulf to protect Allied positions on shore. On the morning of 1 November 1944, ten enemy torpedo-bombers attacked her and accompanying ships. At 0945, "Phoenix" opened fire and five minutes later, was hit by a "kamikaze". Almost at the same instant, hits from "Phoenix"s guns set another plane afire but could not prevent it from diving into the starboard bow of . At 0957, a plane making a torpedo run on "Phoenix" was shot down by the ship's machine-gun fire, but in a few minutes a bomber hit .