On the morning of 21 October, Abbot retired from Leyte to escort a group of transports to Hollandia. She arrived at that New Guinea port on 26 October and remained there until 2 November when she returned to sea with a group of transports bound for Morotai in the northern Molucca Islands of the Netherlands East Indies (now part of Indonesia). She arrived at Morotai three days later and remained there for five days. During her stay at Morotai, the enemy staged frequent night air raids on the Morotai airfield but left the ships in the anchorage unmolested. However, this pattern changed after she departed the island with a Leyte-bound task group. As the group approached the Philippines, Japanese land-based air began intermittent day and night attacks. On 13 November, a Nakajima B6N "Jill" launched a torpedo in the midst of Abbot's formation but failed to score a hit. repaid this impertinence by splashing the enemy plane some ahead of Abbot. After several days at anchor off Dulag – during which time she claimed to have damaged a Yokosuka D4Y "Judy" with her 5-inch battery — Abbot got underway for Hollandia on 24 November. She arrived at that New Guinea port on 29 November and remained there almost one month. On 23 December, the destroyer weighed anchor for the Philippines in company with a small cargoman and remained at Leyte through the end of the year and into 1945.
