Boston (CAG 1) - Naval Cruise Book

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When the BOSTON returned to the Pacific campaign in July, it was to batter the Japanese homeland itself. She participated in the shore bom- bardments of Hamamatsu, Tokyo and Nagoya, and was back with the carriers on August 10th when the first reports of the Japanese surrender came. On the 27th of that month the BCBTON took her rightful place among the first group of ships to sail into Japanese harbors.

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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.

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SOUTH PACIFIC LIBERTY xg CASUALTY She anchored in Tokyo Bay on Sep- tember 3 , 1945 with silent guns pointed at the Japanese shore line. N0 threatening planes roared overhead, On deck ,sailors pointed at misty Fujiyama and boarded liberty boats to go ashore. The war in the Pacific had come to an end. and the BOSTON had earned ten battle stars livingiup to the record set by her predecessors. The next decade was a quiet one for the BOSTON. Nested and moth- balled she waited the call to action and it came in 1955. Singled out to become the world's first guided missile cruiser, she received ex- tensive renovation 'and alteration be- fore leaving the yards at Camden as USS BOSTON QCAG-ll. U.s.,s. HoBsoN UNDER Tow WAR ENDS.