USS Boston CA-69 in WWII

The A-GO plan for defeating America in a decisive naval battle required a combination of successful attacks on US ships from carrier planes launched from the west and from land-based planes in Guam and Truk and the Bonins hitting the ships from the east.   Unfortunately for Japan, Task Force 58 raids throughout May and early June had reduced available enemy aircraft to a fraction of their strength.   Task Group 58.1 (Boston) and 58.4 had just destroyed 100 planes on the Bonins two days before   –   planes to be used in A-Go.   When the Japanese Carrier forces launched their attacks on June 19, they expected 500 fighter planes to hit the Americans from the backside while their planes attacked from the West.   Unknown to them, less than 100 total planes were left on the Marianas.   American fighter groups reduced what was left all day long in constant sweeps over airfields on Guam, Tinian and Saipan.

The Japanese carriers were too far away from the Americans (more than 350 miles) for their pilots to attack and return to refuel, so the plan was for planes to bomb American ships, land on Guam, refuel, and drop more bombs on their return.   Throughout the morning, wave after wave of Japanese Zeroes approached the Americans.   They were met with experienced and organized carrier pilot Combat Patrol groups that engaged them in spectacular dogfights.   All day long, the men aboard the Task Force ships watched planes and pieces of planes drop, twist and burn into the sea around them.   Most Zeroes never got near the ships, but those that did evade the dogfights were met with curtains of steel thrown up by the ships.   The few lucky ones to make it past the ships were out of gas and headed for Guam   –   only to encounter fighter groups sweeping the airfields.

By the time the sun set, the Japanese Navy had lost   265 planes and pilots. The day quickly came to be known as the Marianas Turkey Shoot.   US losses were 27 pilots and crewmembers.   An additional 50 or so land-based planes were destroyed on the ground on Guam.

Other losses for the day: 27 sailors and 4 officers died or were wounded on American ships.   3,000 Japanese sailors and two aircraft carriers perished after being torpedoed by American submarines that had detected the movement of the Japanese Fleet earlier that morning.

After four   days of steaming west toward the Mariana Islands, the ships of Task Force 58 finally came into carrier plane range of Guam. On June 11 and 12, they launched wave after wave of fighter and bomber planes, hitting targets up and down the island.   Attacks against enemy bases on Saipan and Tinian on June 13 triggered the implementation by the Japanese of their defensive strategy A-GO, the unleashing of the bulk of their warships in an all-out attack on the American Fleet.

On June 14, while the Boston and the ships of task groups 58.1 and 58.4 steamed north to raid the airbases on Iwo and Chichi Jima,   The Japanese Combined Fleet began steaming north and east into the Philippines en route to engage the Americans off the Marianas.

After attacking the Jimas in bad weather on the 15^th and 16^th, the Americans were ordered to meet up with the rest of the fleet east of Saipan and Tinian. On the morning of June 18, all four task groups, and an additional “Battle Line” group of battleships and cruisers, formed up into a large Battle Formation. The Japanese Fleet was headed their way!

On June 19, at first light began the three-day naval battle known as the Battle of the Philippine Sea.   When the sun set on the 21^st, the balance of power in the Pacific had flipped from Japanese Supremacy to American Naval Superiority.

I will spend a little time ASAP talking about the action of June 19-21.   It is an incredible story, and it includes the Marianas Turkey Shoot and the reduction of one third of the Japanese Fleet.

1943: More men arrive daily as the construction of the ship nears completion.   The men are barracked in the Fargo Building in South Boston and work as able hands on the ship as her commissioning day approaches.

1944: After two weeks anchored in Majuro, the ships of Task Force 58 begin to leave the lagoon at first light on June 6, for the beginning of Operation Forager –   the invasion of strategic islands in the Marianas — and the retaking of Guam from the enemy. The Japanese had strategic airfields on Tinian and Saipan, and had captured the fine airstrip at Orote Field when they invaded Guam on Dec. 8, 1941.

The Boston formed up with Jocko Clark’s Task Group 58.1.   The group consisted of   four aircraft carriers of Carrier Division 5 and the cruisers of Cruiser Division 10 (Boston was the flagship). The four carriers and six cruisers were flanked and screened by fourteen destroyers (DesRon6 and DesRon46).   This impressive flotilla began steaming west towards the Marianas, accompanying three other task groups similarly equipped.

1945: The Boston raises anchor on June 1^st and departs California.   She steams to Hawaii to Pearl Harbor, which she enters on June 7, and remains there until July 2^nd, preparing to re-enter the fray in the lead-up to the planned Invasion of Japan.

1944: On May 5, the ships pull into Majuro, the southernmost deep lagoon anchorage in the Marshall Islands.   The fleet is regrouping and preparing for the upcoming campaign to capture the Mariana Islands.   On May 19, the Boston regroups outside of the lagoon into a new Task Group, 58.6, with the heavy carriers Wasp, Hornet, Essex and Franklin and the light carrier San Jacinto.   The Boston is joined by two sister cruisers of the Baltimore class; Baltimore and Canberra, as well as light cruisers Reno and San Diego. This formidable Task Group, screened by 14 destroyers, steams north for Operation Persecution — a quick and deadly raid on the Japanese stronghold islands of Wake and Marcus. By midday on May 24, the raiders are back in Majuro.   The men on the Boston stay in the lagoon until June 6 – the beginning of Operation Forager –   the opening act of the heaviest 6 months of naval combat action of the Pacific War.

1945: The Boston is moored in San Pedro still; undergoing upgrades and repairs in preparation for the final push against Japan and the planned massive invasions of the Home Islands.   The second half of crewmembers have returned from leave and are onboard by May 7. May 8 is V.E. Day   –   great news for the soldiers and sailors fighting in the Atlantic Theatre, but a grim reminder for the men on the Boston who are preparing to re-embark and sail to Japanese waters.   The news from Okinawa is gut-wrenching; wave after wave of massive kamikaze attacks are reducing American ships to melting fireballs and twisted wreckage.   The sailors know this: the folks back home do not.   Military censors kept a very tight wrap on this horrific story.

The Boston remains in San Pedro until June 1, when she heads west and sails to Pearl Harbor.