USS Boston CA-69 in WWII

I’ve started an ambitious project to create a record of information about each sailor on the USS Boston during World War II. I Started with a list that my brother Steve gave me from Frank Studenski’s materials. What I found out was these records were taken as a snapshot in time near the end of the war. This was one of my motivations for my NARA trip to Washington DC. I was able to find a microfiche of USS Boston Personnel records during world war II. I photocopied the commissioning records for enlisted men and I’ve been working through these records by placing them in a database; once I enter a sailor his record is live on the website. Subsequently I received a copy of the microfiche.

So when you click on the link to crew list you can find ‘Frank J Abbatantuono’, when you click his name, you’ll see his record as I’m entering it; next to frank you’ll find ‘ABELL, W.H’ and when you click on this link it will tell you he’s not yet entered into our database, since I only have his name at this time (I hope to be catching up to Seaman Abell, probably transferred at Ulithi).

Currently, since April, I’ve entered over 1/2 of the enlisted sailors on the commissioning day. I’m plugging along slowly. Once the commissioning day is over, I have complete records for discipline, promotions and transfers to and from the Boston as the war proceeded. So right now all you’ll see if the sailor is in the database is that the sailor arrived on June 30, 1943 and is a plank owner. In the future you’ll see disciplinary actions, sick or injury reports, promotions and transfers. I’m hoping to add a picture of the sailor and in the future maybe we could get some biographical info from after they left the navy.

I started with about 1600 names, and currently I have just shy of 1900 names; I expect we’ll have about 2,500 to 3,000 sailor names in our database when we are complete.

Please check out the link to the crew list and let us know what you think.

Bill

Photos courtesy of the family of Augustus Harris, S2c, CA-69

Born: 5/12/25

Enlisted 3/10/43

He was a plank owner of the Boston, serving from 6-30-43 until he separated from the Navy in February 1946.   He died in 1993.

On liberty: Augustus (seated first row left) with some of his pals.

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.

1944: After dispatching the Japanese Combined Fleet on June 21, the ships of TF 58 attacked Iwo Jima again on the 24^th, and on the 26^th 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 5^th, the ships returned to the Marianas, and continued to launch air strikes against Guam day in and day out through the 23^rd, 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 2^nd as she maneuvered out of the naval base and headed west toward Japan.   By the 9^th, 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)

On the morning of June 20, both Japanese and American commanders launched search planes trying to find each other’s whereabouts. Throughout the day, search missions proved fruitless.   Japanese Admiral Ozawa, whose flagship carrier was sunk the day before, still planned to implement A-GO on June 21.   He had been forced to abandon ship and hoist his flag on a cruiser, but by noontime he transferred to another carrier, better equipped for communication.   He soon learned the truth and extent of the destruction.

American search planes finally spotted his fleet at 1615 hours (4:15).   Admiral Mitscher ordered all carriers to unleash their fighters.   The enemy was more than two hundred miles away.

Mitscher knew that it was too late in the day to launch this strike, that the pilots would barely have enough gas to reach the Japanese fleet and return to their carriers. But he also knew that he had a golden opportunity to devastate the enemy fleet — which now had less than 100 planes to protect it.   Not an easy decision — but the right one   –     he knew he would lose planes and pilots in this attack.

The carrier pilots located the enemy fleet just before dark (1845 hrs (6:45)).   They attacked and sank the carrier Hiyo, heavily damaged two other carriers, two cruisers, and several oilers and tankers.

By 2045 hours, the first returning planes were picked up by the picket ships’ radar.   In the pitch darkness of a moonless Pacific night, Admiral Mitscher ordered all ships to turn their spotlights towards the nearest carrier and flip the switches.   Returning planes sputtered out of gas and crashed into the sea.   Others struggled to land on the nearest carrier in the dark   –   only a few of the pilots were trained in night landings   –   and there was chaos as some planes crashed on or near the carriers.   About one hundred planes never made it back that night.

On June 21, the ships continue their pursuit of the Japanese fleet, all the while searching for downed airmen.   By day’s end, about one hundred fifty pilots and crewmen are fished out of the water.

The Battle of the Philippine Sea and the A-GO plan was a complete disaster for the Japanese Navy.   By the time they were able to escape beyond the reach of Task Force 58’s ships on June 21, they had lost one third of their carriers and all but 36 of their aircraft.

The two fleets would tangle again four months later once again in the Philippine Sea.