Between The Battle of the Philippine Sea on 19 and 20 June 1944 and The Battle of Leyte Gulf from 23 to 26 October 1944 the Japanese attempted to reinforce their forces which were occupying the Philippines. For divers, Coron's history started on 24 September 1944 when a US Navy strike force of fighters and dive bombers attacked a Japanese supply fleet of up to 24 ships at anchor in Coron Bay and around Busuanga Island.

Whether the Japanese fleet was spotted by aerial photo reconnaissance interpreters who noticed that some camouflaged ships had moved, or whether Japanese radio transmissions were intercepted is still debated. Photos taken from the air during the attack do not show any signs of camouflage netting on the ships. The consequence of detection was a surprise aerial attack by US Navy carrier based aircraft that sank the fleet at anchor.

The US Third Fleet was under the command of Admiral William F. "Bull" Halsey aboard the battleship USS New Jersey. Bull Halsey missed the battle of Midway sitting in a Pearl Harbor naval hospital with a skin rash. He had his chance to catch the Japanese navy by surprise at Coron.

Tactical control of the Third Fleet rested with the air combat genius of the Pacific Fleet, Vice Admiral Marc A. Mitscher, who was in command of Task Force 38 from the aircraft carrier USS Lexington.

Task Force 38 was engaged in the mission of naval air strikes against Japanese forces in the Philippines from 21 to 24 Sept 1944. Heavy air strikes against Japanese shipping in Manila Bay resulted in sinking 15 ships which forced the Japanese to move their remaining ships to other anchorages which they thought were out of range of US naval aircraft and land-based bombers. One of these secure anchorages was Coron Bay, only 12 to 16 hours steaming time from Manila. Many of the ships arrived in Coron Bay on the 23rd. On the morning of 24 September 1944 at 0550 a total of 96 Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter escorts and 24 Curtiss SB2C Helldiver dive bombers took off on a flight to their targets 340 miles away. The raid on Coron was a long distance carrier based air strike and would only allow the aircraft a brief time over the Japanese fleet.