Changes

In mid-September, the two light carriers rendezvoused with Lexington and conducted air strikes against Japanese gunboats and air defense positions in the Gilbert Islands on the 18th and 19th. Belleau Wood's CAP was also busy, shooting down a patrolling Mitsubishi G4M1 "Betty" bomber that had ventured south from the Marshall Islands. After returning to Pearl Harbor on the 23d to refuel and rearm, the light carrier set out on the 29th for an air raid on [[Wake Island]]. This operation, like the earlier raid on Tarawa and Makin, was designed to train pilots and soften up the Japanese defenses in the central Pacific.

In mid-September, the two light carriers rendezvoused with Lexington and conducted air strikes against Japanese gunboats and air defense positions in the Gilbert Islands on the 18th and 19th. Belleau Wood's CAP was also busy, shooting down a patrolling [[Mitsubishi G4M|Mitsubishi G4M1 "Betty"]] bomber that had ventured south from the Marshall Islands. After returning to Pearl Harbor on the 23d to refuel and rearm, the light carrier set out on the 29th for an air raid on [[Wake Island]]. This operation, like the earlier raid on Tarawa and Makin, was designed to train pilots and soften up the Japanese defenses in the central Pacific.