Early in the new year, "Oberon" transited the Panama Canal; and, while sailing for the South Pacific, was reclassified AKA–14. She discharged her cargo at New Caledonia and the New Hebrides before returning to Norfolk, on 12 March 1943. Completing overhaul "Oberon" again crossed the Atlantic to the Mediterranean and took station, 10 July, off Gela for the landings on Sicily. Two months later her anti-aircraft batteries again blazed during unloading operations in the difficult invasion of Salerno Bay, Italy. Withdrawn to sail the Oran to Bizerte supply run, "Oberon" departed the area in December with 120 Army paratroopers and supplies bound for Belfast, Northern Ireland. Later that month an Atlantic storm caused more damage than had enemy actions.