Author: steve

6-4-16

Too young to retire . . . to old to . . . whatever.   So the writing of books about the Boston, and my participation in this blog, and the other Kellys (Bill and Lisa   –   who put a lot of behind-the-scenes energy into the websites)   –   for us, this is all a labor of love.   For us, as I’m sure for all of our readers, we are engaged in the day-to-day activities of our lives first.   The Boston stuff, while important, is second (or third, or fourth, or . . .)

I have these ideas and plans and projects, which may line up and get done, at some time or other, in some order or other:

Book revisions:   New facts, new pictures, new documents have unfolded to me over the last several years, and basically, each book could have a couple of additions.   My first book, A Bird’s Eye View, was created as a giant MS Word file – my all-time most hated software.   I have never been happy with the formatting – especially the photos –   and someday I hope to redo it.   The book is 99%   accurate, but I did make a couple of assumptions about the ship’s location that proved to be incorrect.

Other books:   Currently back-burnered but part-way finished:   a book about the six months of hell starting with the Battle of the Philippine Sea, and ending with Typhoon Cobra.   CA-69 is portrayed as a unit of Task Force 58   –   one capital ship in a force of 100 battle ships.   Wish list: a fourth Baked Beans just about the ship and crew’s role in Occupation Duty.   The Occupation of Japan was a gigantic bit of legal, structural, economic and military organization carried out immediately after the signing of the surrender documents.   I would have to do a boatload of research to do this book justice.         I want to . . .   but it moves to the furthest burner back on the stove.

Website(s):   Behind the scenes maintenance and security of just this one web/blog site is challenging enough. The Kellys are talking about and kinda planning and kinda starting a website about Task Force 58/38.   At any given time during the Central Pacific War, there were about 100 warships divided into (usually) four task groups.   While there were “core” ships in the TFs (Boston being one of the “constant” heavy cruisers), ships were moved around the Pacific like chess pieces.   Ships drifted in and out of the task groups based on operational needs   –   so there are ‘fluid’ ships in and out throughout the War. Point is – there were more than 100 ships and there were more than 100,000 sailors in the TFs at any given time.   To do such a website, we would have to approach this incrementally and have modest expectations.   The potential is there for this to quickly become too much for the Kellys to manage.

Other Things: There are several other things I’d like to do about the Boston, but if I list them, I’ll just get tired and feel like I should be doing more!   But, Pictures: I always encourage folks to get in touch with us and send pictures.   Every now and then I choke a leprechaun and hit the jackpot.   The most spectacular jackpot was when Bernie Oster’s (ship photographer assigned to the Captain) son, Dirk, reached out to me.   He had this stack of pictures . . . might I be interested in seeing them?   Many of his photos grace the pages of Baked Beans Vol 2 and 3.   Invaluable, to say the least.   So a couple of days ago, one of our Facebook page members (Robin Tougas, son of Roland Tougas, and one of my father’s pals) posted a series of pictures on the Facebook page. I took a quick look and was stunned by one of them. After a couple of emails, Robin sent me a higher resolution scan.   It is a picture of the Japanese Temple Bell, confiscated and salvaged from a giant scrap pile at the Yokosuka Naval Base by the officers of the Boston   –   being lowered into the hold on the back of the ship.   Three things will come of this:   1. I’ll post it to this site soon(ish), 2. I’ll force myself to go to the National Archives (help me, Bill!!!) and retrieve more photos (which will include the official Bell photos, I am sure), 3. I’ll have to revise the Baked Beans Books after all.

 

p.s.   I just re-read this post.   Let me clarify:   there were about one hundred warships in Task Force 58 and Task Force 38 at any given time.   It is not accurate to say there were 100 warships in the Pacific at any given time   –   there were thousands and there were scores of Task Forces and Fleets across the length and breadth of the Pacific.   The most notable:   The Third and Fifth Fleet (Task Force 38 and 58) and The Seventh Fleet (aka as MacArthur’s Navy.)

5-29-16

This National Archives aerial shot, taken Aug 28, 1945, by Lt. G.D. Rodgers, carrier pilot from the USS Shangri-LA, is captioned: American Prisoner of War camp in Japan.   Note: “News?” and “Drop Food” signs painted on roofs.

We salute everyone who has served our country, in war and peace, in combat and in support, at home and abroad.   For those veterans who found that Hell has many dark places, we cannot know what you found out.

steve

5-21-16

May 27-31, 1945:   Today we are tied to the navy yard pier.   We are taking on ammo and provisions.   Liberty is up to 0800 hours, and I am taking advantage of it, returning just before time runs out.   I was A.O.L. on my last liberty and I probably will get extra duty for being late.   After we loaded ship, we pulled away from the pier and anchored inside the breakwater about one mile off shore.   People were jumping ship and stole the whaleboat.   They floated ashore on empty ammo cans.

June 1, 1945:   This morning we weighed anchor pulled out of the breakwater and out to sea.   This is our last look of the California coastline, probably for a long time.   I was looking at the coast line till it was out of sight.   We are on our way to Pearl Harbor.   The ship has a new paint job, blue hull with gray superstructure.   We are minus of over 100 crew members, who are A.O.L.              Frank Studenski

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Excerpted from Samuel Eliot Morison’s Victory in the Pacific 1945 (Vol 14 of his History of United States Naval Operations in World War II):     This attack (the eighth kikusui assault of 27-29 May) coincided with the relief of Admiral Spruance by Admiral Halsey on 27 May, when Fifth Fleet again became Third Fleet, and TF 58, TF 38. Since 17 March Fifth Fleet had been at sea dishing it out and taking the rap, exposed to the threat of deadly air attack day and night.   With a count so far of 90 ships sunk or damaged badly enough to be out of action for more than a month, this Okinawa operation had proved to be the most costly naval campaign of the war, seldom exceeded in any war.

And . . . .   Thus, as the war against Japan drew to its close, Okinawa became a giant air and naval base which was destined to play a major role in the cold war that followed the war with Japan. For it we paid a heavy price.   Thirty-two naval ships and craft had been sunk, mostly by kamikaze attack, and 368 ships and craft had been damaged.   The fleet lost 763 aircraft.   Over 4900 sailors were killed or went missing in action, and an additional 4824 were wounded.   This was by far the heaviest loss in any naval campaign in the war.

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June 7-July 1, 1945:     This afternoon we pulled into Pearl Harbor.   We will be here for about three weeks.   The anchorage and piers are crowded with ships.   We are tied up to a pier at the navy yard.   Every time we pull in or out of Pearl we have to shift into whites.   While in pearl, we had a change of command, we also had an Admiral’s Inspection.   The ship is still Flagship of Cruiser Division Ten.

Our sister ship, the St. Paul, pulled into Pearl and tied up alongside of us.   I ran into an school buddy, who is stationed aboard the St. Paul.   We pull out of Pearl early in the week and are back by the weekend.   We have anti-aircraft practice, and day and night eight inch and five inch firing.   On liberty I went shopping for non-perishable groceries.   I think of those mid-watches, when these snacks will really taste good.   We will be pulling out of Pearl on July 2nd.   Some of the A.O.L. men were picked up and returned to the ship.

Frank Studenski.   RIP.   I’m really glad you decided to keep a diary, Frank.

 

5-14-16

A couple of bits from Frank Studenski:

May 8-19, 1945:       Today is VE Day with the war over in Europe.   This does not mean very much to us, because we still have to go back to a war in the Pacific.   I don’t know how long this war will go on, another year or two.   Right now it seems like it will never end.

May 20-25, 1945:       This morning we put out to sea off Long Beach, we will be out here for about a week testing out and training on the new equipment.   Some of the people jumped ship yesterday, I guess they know what is ahead of us and will not go through this experience again.   The new radar for the 40mm guns are very interesting.   My battle station is now located below Quad 5 in the Control Room.   I man the radar scope and the only target I see is on the radar screen.   Civilian yard workers went out with us to check for bugs in the system.

As I’ve mentioned many times, Frank was one of the original shipmates that I was so fortunate to have met.   In addition to his amazing diary, Frank was a skilled and gifted model maker.   His scale models of ships that he donated to the Boston Shipmates are fantastic!   Here is his model of Quad 4, the 40mm quad in which he was a fire director.

Amazing, right?     Below is a picture that his friend, Laurie Wasilewski, daughter of plankowner of Frank Wasilewski, sent me after Frank passed away:

steve

4-30-16

On April 6, 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy launched the first of ten massive air attacks   –   featuring kamikaze planes   –   against Allied ships (yes, the British Navy did have a small task group of their ships as part of Task Force 58 and 38 at the very end of the War) off the coast of Okinawa. 524 planes attacked. Sixteen ships were heavily damaged; Destroyers Bush and Colhoun were sunk.

April 12 saw the second kikusui: 478 planes attacked and damaged the carrier Enterprise, and battleship Missouri.   Destroyer Mannert L. Abele was split in half and sunk by a kamikaze piloted V2 rocket (“Ohka”) that hurtled in on the ship at speeds exceeding 500 miles per hour.

Kikusui 3 on April 16 unleashed 507 planes against our ships, damaging the carrier Intrepid, the battleship Missouri (again) and sinking destroyer Pringle.

From April 21 to 29, Operation Kikusui 4, consisting of 856 planes, damaged many ships: minelayers, destroyers, and the clearly marked hospital ship USS Comfort.

On May 3, Operation Kikusi 5 began, unleashing 449 planes. In the mayhem that followed, many minelayers, minesweepers, destroyer escorts and LSM’s were attacked and damaged or sunk. Destroyers Little and Morrison were sunk, Ingraham was badly damaged.   On May 4, the light cruiser Birmingham, previously damaged in the Battle for Leyte Gulf, took a kamikaze hit in the forward gun turrets. Losses: 50+ sailors killed, more than 80 injured. The escort carrier Sagamon was hit: 11 dead and more than 30 injured.   British carriers HMS Indomitable and HMS Formidable were both hit; Formidable losing 8 men and another 47 injured.

Kikusui 6, (345 planes),   began on May 11.   On that day, the carrier Bunker Hill, fleet commander Admiral Marc Mitscher’s flagship was hit:

The plane crashed into the flight deck, which was loaded with gassed-up planes ready to take off. Seconds later, another kamikaze slammed into the flight deck next to the island, releasing its bomb below decks.   Massive fires took the lives of 389 men and seriously wounded another 264.   The Admiral was not wounded, but he lost fourteen staff members. He was forced to move his flag to the carrier Enterprise.   She was so heavily damaged she was towed off to Bremerton WA for repairs and never made it back to the War.   On May 14, Admiral Mitscher’s new flagship, the Enterprise, was slammed into by a kamikaze at the forward elevator. A spectacular explosion blew the elevator several hundred feet into the air, killing 14 men and wounding 67 more. Mitscher’s second home in three days was also towed off to Bremerton for repairs.   He was forced to move his flag to yet another carrier, the USS Franklin, just recently repaired from a kamikaze attack while she lay at anchor in Ulthi two months earlier on March 11th.

Sources: Wikipedia, A Bird’s Eye View of Heavy Cruiser USS Boston and Task Force 58 in Combat Operations Against the Empire of Japan   (S Kelly)

The amazing photo was among the amazing photos in the CA-69 folders at the National Archives, retrieved by Bill Kelly and with the help of Rivka Kelly.         steve