Author: steve

10/10/2014

After spending the entire month of September ranging off the Philippines participating in “Operation King”, the Boston spent the last couple of days anchored in the lagoon at Eniwetok.   On Oct. 1, the ship, a unit of Task Group 38.1, embarked on a continuation of Operation King.   The focus of this phase of the operation was to keep hitting Japanese supply areas such as Okinawa and Iwo Jima and Formosa (Taiwan) from which planes, troop transports and supplies were launched to fight the invading Americans up and down the Philippines.

They immediately were in foul weather, and found themselves in another typhoon between 10/2 and 10/8.

Frank Studenski, writing in his War Diary (October 7, 1944):   We are still in the typhoon, it is rough walking, the ship is rolling 20 to 25 degrees.   We are eating sandwiches and coffee.     I went up in the superstructure and had a good views of the rolling ship and the rough sea.   The waves are about 20 – 25 feet high.   And, (October 8, 1944):   Today the sea is calmer, we made a 32 degree roll yesterday.   We are back to eating regular meals.

The ships were able to refuel on the 9th and continue their mission in the Philippine Sea:   (October 10, 1944):   This morning planes were launched to bomb Jap bases in the Okinawa Islands.   The group of islands are located south of the Jap mainland.   We are about 250 miles from Japan.   This is the farthest the task force has gone.   The China coast is about 250 miles to the north.   There has not been any enemy planes in the air.   This morning we caught them by surprise.   So far one heavy cruiser and one light cruiser, a destroyer and an A.K. were sunk.   There is quite a bit of shipping in the harbor.   About a hundred planes have been destroyed so far.

9-23-14

More from Frank Studenski’s diary:

September 22, 1944:   Early this morning as e were going to dawn general quarters, the other task force was firing at Jap planes.   A couple of planes trying to get away from the other task force, ran into us.   We opened fire but did not get them, a couple of fighters got them later on.   About a half hour later a group of planes sneaked through our fighter screen and then everything started popping, dive bombers started at us and we opened fire and they dropped their bombs, but it was short of the carriers by a couple of hundred feet.   They were pretty lousy pilots.   One plane started to make a run in on us, but never finished it.   We started opening fire and he just turned around and went as fast as he could in the opposite direction.   None of the ships were hit.   One Jap plane started strafing the carrier Hornet and two men were killed and several wounded.   It was pretty quiet for the rest of the day.

We had to leave the area in the afternoon on account of a typhoon that was headed our way.   This is the season for typhoons.   The total damage done to the Japs in one day and a half was 15 ships sunk, 3o damaged, drydocks destroyed, 250 planes destroyed, we lost 15 planes.

September 23, 1944:   Today we refueled and are heading back to the Philippines Island.   Army troops landed on Ulithi Island today.

September 14, 1944:   Planes took off this morning to bomb Leyte, in the central Philippines.   So far it has been pretty quiet, nothing was seen all day.

September 25, 1944:   Planes continued hitting targets on Leyte, it has been quiet all day.

September 26, 1944:   Today we are heading back to Eniwetok, after completing one of the longest operations at sea.

September 27-30, 1944:   We are anchored at Eniwetok atoll to take on provisions and ammo.   We go ashore in LCVP or LSM Landing Crafts.

Sept 13, 2014

While I am tempted to continue the chronology of the last several posts and talk about Occupation duty, I have chosen instead to look at Sept. 1944.

After spending the entire month of August, 1944 anchored in the lagoon at Eniwetok (Marshall Islands)   –   during which time the ship was reprovisioned, their Admiral (Crudiv 10) was changed, and their Task Force was changed from TF 58 to TF 38   –   the ship headed south for the raid on enemy stronghold Palau. By Sept. 8, the ship headed north and would stay involved off the shores of the Philippines for months.

The following are excerpts from Frank Studenski’s diary:

September 12, 1944: We hit targets on Negros Island today.   Tomorrow troops will land on Cebu Island.   Radar picked up some bogies and kept us at general quarters.

September 13, 1944:   Today we headed south to assist in the landing on Cebu Island 300 miles south of the Philippines.

September 14, 1944:   Planes continued to hit Cebu Island.   Troops also landed on Palau Island today.   Carrier planes are supporting the troops.

September 15, 1944:   Today we refueled from tankers and received some mail from home.   Army troops also landed on the Island of Morotai and the Marines landed on Peleliu Island.

September 16, 1944:   Today we hit targets on Zomboanga   Island.   This is the rainy season and it rains everyday, as we pass through the rain squalls.

September 17, 1944:   This morning   Army troops landed on Anguar Island.   The weather is wet and rainy.

September 18, 1944:   This morning while at general quarters, bogies were in the area.   Task Force 38.2, which is on the horizon, opened fire. None of the planes came in close enough for us to fire at.

September 19, 1944:   Today bogies are in the area, the planes stayed out of range which kept us at general quarters all day.

September 20, 1944:   Today we are heading for Luzon and tomorrow morning planes will hit Manila.

September 21, 1944:   This morning at 0800 hours planes took off to bomb Manila Harbor.   The task force is about 80 miles from Luzon. The Japs did not discover our ship so far.   Our Task Force 38.1 was assigned to Manila Bay, while the other two groups were assigned to Clark and Nickels fields.   We had two air attacks this morning, but they did not do any damage to the ships.   The rest of the day was pretty quiet, except for bogies all around us.   We were at general quarters all day.   A lot of ships were hit and sinking.   The rest of the day and night were quiet with no bogies around.

Aug 31, 2014

The documents of Surrender were signed aboard the USS Missouri, anchored in Tokyo Bay, to much fanfare on September 2, 1945.   Given the finite size of the Bay, not every ship afloat in the Pacific was going to be able to squeeze in and be present during the ceremony.   A little more than 250 Allied ships of all types and sizes were there – from battleships to sloops.

War and Politics, Politics and War   –   as the old song says – go together like a horse and carriage.   A British Task Force arrived in the Pacific late in the Okinawa campaign – at Churchill’s insistence and agreed to by Roosevelt before his death.   The Brits, who still had vast colonial stakes in Asia, did not want the US to single-handedly win the War in the Pacific (despite the fact that we actually had done so).

(Page 333, Victory in the Pacific, 1945   by Samuel Eliot Morison:)

On that day (Aug. 11) Admiral Halsey invited Admiral Rawlings to a conference and suggested the the British flagship fuel from the same tanker as his. While HMS King George V and USS Missouri were fueling, the two admirals and their staffs conferred. Later that day, Admiral Rawlings received word from Admiral Fraser, C. in C. British Pacific Force, that Admiral Nimitz had agreed to incorporate a number of his ships in Task Force 38, for the naval occupation of Japan.   Accordingly, HMS King George V, Indefatigable, Gambia and Newfoundland, with ten destroyers, under Admiral Rawlings, became TG 38.5 (Boston was in TG 38.4) on August 12 and passed under the command of Vice Admiral McCain, CTF 38.   The rest of the British force, excepting Admiral Fraser’s Duke of York, then headed for Manus.

30 British (which included Australian and New Zealander) ships were present in Tokyo Bay for the signing of the Surrender, including the battleship King George V, three cruisers, 10 destroyers and sixteen other vessels.   The crew of the USS Boston, veterans of each Fast Carrier Task Force 58 and Fast Carrier Task Force 38 battles and operations in the Pacific (except Okinawa); survivors of the unparalleled perilous salvage of the Crippled Cruisers after the Battle of Formosa, did not get to experience the Surrender and the closure it brought first-hand.

There was no room for them and their amazing ship in the Tokyo Bay that day.

August 15, 2014

From Frank Studenski’s Diary:

August 15, 1945:       This morning we returned to the Tokyo area and the carriers had launched their planes for the first strike when we heard the final news of the Japanese surrender.   So the war ended for the U.S.S. Boston, 21 months after we left home port.

The next day, the ship celebrated:

 

And, the menu:

Compliments of Bob Knight