On liberty in late 1944, Pasco “Pat” (de) Fedele. (Right) Pat at home Aug. 2010
Photos courtesy of Mr and Mrs Pat Fedele
Pat Fedele (second from right) with shipmate pals enjoying rare liberty break
SEPTEMBER
1943: The “Mighty B” is preparing for final departure to the Pacific. The ship steams south along the Eastern Seaboard to the Caribbean in extensive combat-readiness exercises; along with other new warships (the battleship New Jersey, most notably). Boston reaches Trinidad off the north coast of South America. The men have their first taste of “liberty in an exotic place.” The ship returns to Boston by month’s end.
1944: After a month in anchorage, the ships depart Eniwetok and organize into Task Groups for the commencement of Operation King — a complex plan to liberate the large and heavily fortified Philippine Archipelago from the Japanese invaders. The defensive importance of the Philippines to the Empire of Japan cannot be overstated.
In the final hours of August, Task Force 58 was reorganized and renamed TF38. There were personnel shifts up and down the line; most notably the change of Top Commanders. The Navy’s answer to General George Patton, Admiral William Halsey, relieved Admiral Raymond Spruance as overall fleet commander. Eventually, Slew McCain, grandfather of the Senator from Arizona, became his right hand man, commanding the Task Force groups.
September begins for the men aboard the Boston en-route to raid the enemy defensive fortress (Caroline islands) Palau. This was the opening act of nearly six months of endless, relentless combat duty that did not abate until after the assault on Iwo Jima and Boston’s return to the US for radar and mechanical upgrades prior to the scheduled Invasion of Japan.
1945: The War is over! Unfortunately for the crew of the Boston, it was not time to go home. A Task Force of American ships, with Boston in command, was organized to patrol the waters off the eastern Home Islands and demilitarize and de-weaponize the vanquished enemy.
Augustus Harris
AUGUST
By the beginning of August 1943, the men (a hundred or more, according to plank-owner Pasquale (Pat) Fedele) stationed in Boston and barracked at the Fargo Building, were doing “able-bodied” labor aboard the not-quite finished heavy cruiser Boston. She was nearly complete, and had been moved from the Navy shipbuilding facility in Quincy, MA (the Fore River Shipbuilding Yard) just south of the city to the Boston Harbor. New men arrived almost daily, and by mid-month, she was out in coastal waters on preliminary trial runs and a shakedown cruise.
A year later, the crew found themselves at anchorage in the Marshall Islands lagoon in the Eniwetok Atoll. After many months of gruelling combat, including the capture (by naval and amphibious combat forces) of the Marshall Islands and the Mariana Islands, the men finally had some respite – a month in anchorage (along with hundreds of other ships and their crews). Oh, and did I mention the Battle of the Philippine Sea? To say those guys were worn and frazzled by the time they dropped anchor would be an understatement.
Readers of A Bird’s Eye View will notice that I placed the Boston on a run north to attack Iwo Jima for the first few days of August. When I wrote the book, I struggled with what seemed to me a possible discrepancy between the terrific diary written by crewmember Frank Studenski, and the information available to me at the time. In the Notes section at the back of the book, I explain how I reluctantly decided that maybe Frank had just missed this one small detail.
In June, my brother Bill, who is working diligently on making an accurate Crew List (a very large task) for this website (and likely for the next book) travelled to Washington DC to research the crew list first-hand. I won’t get into the minutia here about his project. The bonus for me was that Bill spent a great deal of time researching the whereabouts of the ship (and came back with a ton of stuff – including pictures). I asked him for the Deck Logs from August 1, 1944 to August 4, 1944 because I was unsure I made the “right call” about the ship’s whereabouts . . . .
I am happy to report that Frank Studenski was 100% correct. The Boston was in fact anchored in Eniwetok on those days. Another group of Task Force ships had slipped north for the raid on Iwo Jima. The Boston was not one of them. My apologies to Frank.
August of 1945 was a happy one for the guys. On August 9, the Boston formed a bombardment group with the cruisers Quincy, Chicago and St. Paul and shelled industrial targets on Japan (Honshu). On August 15, the seas off the coast of Japan got a message from Admiral Halsey to Cease Fire. The war was over.
JULY
1944: After dispatching the Japanese Combined Fleet on June 21, the ships of TF 58 attacked Iwo Jima again on the 24th, and on the 26th they dropped anchor in the lagoon at Eniwetok (the westernmost atoll in the Marshall Islands.) After reprovisioning the ships supply of food and armaments, the ships of Task Groups 58.1 and 58.2 left the lagoon on July 1 for the continuation of Operation Forager. Before returning to the Marianas, the two groups headed north and on the Fourth of July, the Boston formed a cruiser bombardment group with the Canberra, the San Juan, the Santa Fe and the Mobile. Screened by 15 destroyers, the cruisers pounded Iwo Jima with their 5” and 8” guns.
On the 5th, the ships returned to the Marianas, and continued to launch air strikes against Guam day in and day out through the 23rd, two days after the Marines and the Army Infantry invaded Guam.
1945: After spending three weeks in Pearl Harbor, the men lined up on the decks of the Boston on July 2nd as she maneuvered out of the naval base and headed west toward Japan. By the 9th, the Big B made it to the anchorage at Eniwetok. On July 12, they left the lagoon in the company of the new cruiser St. Paul and four other ships. As they steam west, they meet up with a large service group of tankers and oilers and together they steam toward Japan. On July 20, they finally meet up with the Task Force again (now Task Force 38 under Halsey’s command)