The two task groups were at sea again on the afternoon of October 6, forging north in the tail of the typhoon. They would rendezvous with the rest of Task Force 38 at sea, then proceed to the Ryukyuan archipelago between Japan and Formosa, where they would hit targets on Okinawa and adjacent islands. The seventeen-carrier force, totaling one hundred ships with nearly 100,000 seamen, would approach closer to Japan than any other Allied warship (except submarines) had since the Doolittle Raid in April 1942.
