After arrival at Ulithi, "Anzio" and her escorts were designated as Task Group (TG) 30.7 of the Third Fleet, and on 4 November departed to serve as a hunter-killer group in the Philippine Sea. They were diverted later that day to assist the light cruiser , torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. The task group protected the light cruiser while she was towed back to Ulithi until 8 November, when it was tasked with screening the oilers of TG 30.8. "Lawrence C. Taylor" and "Melvin R. Nawman" sank a Japanese submarine on 18 November, and the task group returned to Ulithi ten days later. The commander of CortDiv72 transferred his pennant to "Oliver Mitchell" on 3 December, before TG 30.7 departed Ulithi on 10 December for an anti-submarine sweep around TG 30.8. Three days later, TG 30.7 left TG 30.8 for an anti-submarine sweep north of the Fast Carrier Task Force (TF 38) as the aircraft of the latter supported the Mindoro landings with strikes against Japanese airfields on Luzon. "Oliver Mitchell" depth charged a false contact on 14 December and rescued the crew of a crashed "Anzio" Avenger on 17 December. When TG 30.7 and the rest of the Third Fleet ran into Typhoon Cobra on 18 December, she became separated from "Anzio" for several hours while weathering the storm. On 21 December, "Anzio", "Oliver Mitchell", "Robert F. Keller", and "Lawrence C. Taylor" were sent to search for survivors of destroyers sunk in the typhoon, but "Oliver Mitchell" only recovered three corpses. TG 30.7 returned to Ulithi on Christmas morning, and departed on 29 December for an anti-submarine sweep ahead of TG 30.8, with the destroyer "" replacing "Tabberer" and "Melvin R. Nawman", damaged in the typhoon.