Boston (CAG 1) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 25 text:

Well blsoded now, BOSTON within Task Force 58 headed for the next Jap stronghold - the Marianas. When the final results were in, a summation of damage inflicted showed that 402 enemy planes were destroyed in the action which will forever be remembered as the Marianas' turkey shoot . The BOSTON celebrated the Fourth of July that year by giving Iwo Jima its first plaste ring by naval guns . For more than an hour she lobbed in eight and five - inch shells, hitting among other install- ations, the southern airfield where al- most seventy aircraft were lined up like lambs for the slaughter. Splendid after- noon's work , radioed the Commander of the Task Unit, smartly carried out by all hands and understood by .the enemy. And the unrelenting pressure of the last year of the war was on. Guam, Roto, Palan, Yap, Ulithi, and theiPhilippines all in turnwere struck by the BOSTON and Task Force 58. In action off Formosa in October, the BOSTON again showed its professional ability and courage. The HOUSTON, badly hit by enemy aircraft, reported her engine and fire rooms flooded and all hands prepared to abandon ship. Then in the black and squally night, the BOS- TON took her under tow and through 36 tense hours inched her away from the threat of the .Taps on Formosa only 75 miles distant. Admiral Halsey mes saged: For skill guts the safe retirement. . . while under heavy attack, will become a Navy tradition. To all hands who con- tributed to the job, Well Done.

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On February 2, the BOSTON joined company with the old SARATOGA, the ill-fated PRINCETON and the LANGLEY and saw her first action against Utirik Atoll in the Marshalls with the famous Task F01-Ce 58. Covering the seizure of the Marshalls, she roamed between Wotje and Eniwetok and left on com. pletion of this job for the New Hebrides and then the Western Carolines. It was here at dusk on March 30th that BOSTON chalked up her first kill, fighting off Japanese torpedo planes that attacked the Task Force. . y Following raids against Wole ai and Yap she joined in support of Gene ral MacArthur 's Southwes t Pacific forces in the seizure and occupation of Hollandia in New Guinea. In an action off the Jap fortress of Truk one week later, the BOSTON brought down another attackeroff her starboard bow, an incident which was captured on film and widely publicized in the technicolortmovie, Fighting Lady. Seconds later her chattering forties and twenties opened up on a smoking enemy plane which was headed for the carri- CIQ YORKTOWN. Accuracy of thefire stopped this Plane short of its goal and all hands cheered as it hit the water, bursting into flames. The BOSTON claimed two of the three planes which had pierced the formation. '

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The beginning of 1945 found 3OSTON engaged in recurring ltrikes against Luzon and For- nosa, and on January 9th She be' gzame the first heavy ship of the 'orce to enter the South China Sea :hrough narrow Bashi Channel. Although the Japs hysterically de- l izlared that no American ships would le ave the China Sea, the BOS - FON made her departure with guns iamme ring away at a twin-engined somber which sought to make good the Japanese boast. His low-level attack on the BOSTONproved to be uis last. When the fleet set sail again in February it was to attack the Japa- iese home islands by carrier task Force and the BOSTON was there is before protecting the carriers. She first participated in the as sault an Iwo J ima. h . I en proceeding to Buckner Bay and Okinawa, she rounded out her sixteenth Q. th on HWS-Y from home and her fourteenth month of continuous operation. I h ' . C Ship had earned some relief and she got it. Streaming a 700 foot home - ard bound pennant, she left on March 3rd for Pearl Harbor and the West oast.