following a summer of amphibious rehearsals, "jupiter", under comdr. j. m. bristol, departed guadalcanal 8 september to support the invasion of the palau islands. she unloaded her cargo without incident and returned to manus to prepare for the important philippine invasion. departing hollandia 16 october, she arrived at leyte and commenced unloading cargo 22 october. as other units of the fleet were engaging the japanese in the famed "battle of leyte gulf", "jupiter" returned to the marianas to pick up additional material. she continued reinforcing units in the philippines until she steamed into ulithi 23 january 1945 to prepare for the next campaign.