May was a welcome interlude devoted to training exercises in the Marshalls enlivened by a diversionary raid on Wake Island 24 May to draw attention away from the Marianas. "Hunt" put to sea with the "Bunker Hill" carrier task group 6 June for the invasion of the Marianas. The first air strikes of the operation against the Island Group were launched on 11 June and continued until 15 June when the marines hit the beaches, and attention shifted to providing close support for troops ashore. On that day, Admiral Raymond A. Spruance receivedj a warning from submarine "Flying Fish" (SS-229) that an enemy carrier force was approaching from San Bernardino Strait. In the early hours of 19 June it arrived within striking distance of the fast carrier force which guarded the amphibious forces off Saipan. The Battle of the Philippine Sea began in a series of dog fights over Guam, where American planes were neutralizing Japanese land-based air forces. About an hour and a half later, the major phase of the battle, nicknamed "The Marianas Turkey Shoot", opened when the American flattops launched their fighters to intercept the first of four raids from the Japanese carriers. During the ensuing 8 hours of fierce, continuous fighting in the air, Japan lost 346 planes and 2 carriers while only 30 U.S. planes splashed and 1 American battleship suffered a bomb hit but was not put out of action. "Hunt" then steamed westward with the carriers in pursuit of the fleeing remnants of the enemy fleet. The following afternoon planes from the carriers caught up with their quarry and accounted for carrier "Hiyō" and two oilers while damaging several other Japanese ships. This carrier battle, the greatest of the war, virtually wiped out the emperor's naval air power which would be sorely missed in the impending battle for Leyte Gulf.