Author: steve

07-22-12

Bernard was aboard on Commissioning Day and was a plankowner.

Bernard’s son, Dirk, got in touch with me a while back and told me his dad was the ship’s photographer.   Everywhere the Captain went, he took Bernie along with him.   Dirk told me he had a stack of photos.   Would I be interested in scanning them?   Guess what I said.

I have received the photos and am in the process of scanning them.   I recognize many of the shots — some are in the Cruise Book, and some are part of the collection of Boston photos in the National Archives.   As I published Vol 1 of my new Boston book at just about the same time as I received the pictures, I recognized some of the shots. They are in the book!

There are also many pictures of the end of the War and Occupation Duty.   There are many pictures of the destruction at Hiroshima and Nagasaki: both places visited by the Boston shortly after the war ended.   They are amazing!   Expect some of them to appear here on the website, and in Vol. 3 of Baked Beans, in the future.

I couldn’t resist including this remarkable survivor   –   the initiation into the realm of Neptunus Rex, March 9, 1944   membership card:

steve

 

 

 

July 4, 2012

We celebrated the   4^th of July with quite a bang with the Japs paying for all expenses. Three or four cruiser divisions including ComCruDiv 10 in the Boston left the task group to bombard Iwo Jima. We blew the hell out of them with our five inch.   Took care of bombers + fighters.   Our big eight inchers blew up the shore installations.   We came in close enough to see the planes on the island.   One of the cruisers lost her observation plane due to a Zero.

– from the War Journal of George Pitts

Fires and explosions on Iwo Jima Air field, Bonin Is. Caused by heavy bombardment from U. S. heavy cruisers of Cru. Div.10.   –   4 July 1944

This morning at 0500 hours our planes were launched to bomb the bases and air strips of Iwo Jima.   At 1530 hours the Boston, Canberra, San Juan, Santa Fe, Mobile and about 15 destroyers went in to bombard the island. We fired our 8” and 5” guns.   We got in close to the island to fire 5” shells. We launched one of our catapult planes for spotting duty over the target. We were hitting the southern airfield where almost seventy aircrafts were lined up.   We also hit gas storage tanks. We were hitting all our assigned targets.   Looking through the binoculars, I could see a lot of planes on the field blowing up.   There was a lot of large fires and explosions.   The smoke was thousands of feet into the air.   A ship was sighted leaving the harbor, so we immediately opened fire on her, a destroyer went in to finish her off.   One of the planes from the Santa Fe was spotting for us was shot down by three Jap fighters. The crew was picked up by one of our submarines. All together this day 116 Jap planes were destroyed and five ships were sunk and severely damaged.   This was a great way to celebrate the Fourth of July, killing Japs.

– from the War Diary of Frank Studenski

6-16-12

CA-69 arrived in Pearl Harbor in early December 1943. She was a brand-new ship with a brand-new crew.   While she was in Pearl, lots of other brand-new ships slipped into the Pacific Naval Base harbor. By the time CA-69 left Pearl Harbor in late January, almost 100 other warships left with her. This mighty fleet was dubbed Task Force 58, and as they assembled off Oahu on their first mission — the capture of strategic lagoons and enemy strongholds in the Marshall Islands — a new chapter in naval history began.

By the time June 6, 1944 rolled around, TF 58   had already wreaked havoc in the Pacific. When the ships rolled out of the anchorage in Majuro lagoon, Boston assembled with Task Group 58.1.   They were heading for the Marianas, and less than two weeks later the fleet would engage the Imperial Japanese Navy in the Battle of the Philippine Sea.

TG58.1 looked like this: Carrier Division 5 (CarDiv5);   two heavy carriers — Hornet and Yorktown and two light carriers — Belleau Wood and Bataan. Cruiser Division 10 (CruDiv10 {commanded by Admiral Thebaud aboard the Boston}): three heavy cruisers — Boston, Baltimore and Canberra and three light cruisers: Oakland, Denver and Santa Fe. Fourteen destroyers from Destroyer Divisons (DesDiv11, 91, and 92): Helm, Maury, Craven, Gridley, McCall, Izard, Conner, Bell, Charrette, Burns, Boyd, Bradford, Brown, and Cowell.

 That was some serious hardware!

Steve

ps. Volume 1 of the new books is finished. I have a printed copy in hand, and I’m working on edits, formatting changes, etc.   It will be available ASAP.   I’m going as fast as I can – – –   (it’s easier to write than it is to revise . . . .   )

 

5-12-12

                                                  Commanding Officer, Marine Detachment, USS Boston (CA-69)

Norm came to the Boston in an unconventional way.   He was one of the heroic survivors of the Battle for Guadalcanal.   If the horrors of that struggle weren’t enough, he contracted malaria that was so severe they prepared his body to be shipped back from New Zealand for burial in the States.   He survived that, and the Marine Corps, loathe to lose a good man, shipped him off to join the Boston, (as he wryly puts it, “because there are no mosquitoes on the ocean . . .) in the fall of 1944.   He replaced the Marine Commanding Officer.  (We’re trying to ascertain the exact date.)   He was aboard for Typhoon Cobra — and, like the other original crewmembers I have interviewed, has some amazing memories of that storm.

Norm straightened me out on the role of the Marine Detachment aboard the Boston.   I knew they guarded the captain, and that they patrolled the ship with rifles — on the lookout for sharks whenever the men had the rare chance to swim off the side of the ship. The primary role for the marines was: they manned the 20mm anti-aircraft guns, which were the last line of defense against enemy planes closing in at close range to polish off the Boston.   And they shot down planes!

Norm, having distinguished himself in battle in the Solomons, was asked to carry out two very special missions onto Japanese soil late in the War; one by himself, and one leading the Marine Detachment from the Boston.   Sorry, those stories are way too complex to get into here.   You’re going to have to wait until I finish the second or third volume of my next book(s) on the Boston and read all about it there. (Volume 1 is wrapping up.)

Did I mention that Norm is 95 years young?   And still sharp as a razor?

Steve

3-19-12

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bob is a plankowner, reporting to the ship on Commissioning Day (6-30-43)

He was a Radio Technician in CR Division

He left the ship on 1-19-46

Bob is an active member of the Boston Shipmates, and serves on the Reunion Committee. I had the pleasure of spending an afternoon recently with Bob as he reminisced about his time aboard the ship.