Following shakedown training out of San Pedro, California, and amphibious exercises at San Diego, California, "Botetourt" completed post-shakedown availability at San Pedro and then moved to San Francisco to load troops and equipment. On 8 April, the attack transport got underway for the New Hebrides Islands. She arrived at Espiritu Santo on 22 April. From that time through the end of hostilities in mid-August, the ship transported troops and cargo between many of the islands in the rear areas of the western and southwestern Pacific. She was at Luzon in the Philippine Islands on 15 August 1945 when the Japanese agreed to capitulate.