Topeka (CL 67) - Naval Cruise Book

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classes, others went to Philadelphia, Little Creek, Norfolk and New London. By 20 December they were all back in Newport, however, ready to leave for the commissioning on the morning of the 23rd. Meanwhile, in Quincy, another group of engineers, tech- nicians and hull department men had been working aboard, the ship for several months. They were the first of the crew lo see the Topeka. What they saw was a Cleveland class cruiser, carrying 12 6 f41-7 cal. guns in four turrets, 12 5738 cal. guns in six mounts, 10 40MM mounts and 10 ZOMM mounts, with an overall length of 610 feet, and a beam of 61 feet, displacement of 10,000 tons and a top speed of 32 knots. Although work on the ship was far from completed, she was ready to be commissioned on 23 December 19441. For this ceremony the entire crew was to be brought together aboard the ship, and was to live aboard her thereafter. The pre-commissioning training was over, and those who thought that training had been rugged, obviously did not know what the future held. On the afternoon of Saturday, 23 December 1944, the Topeka became a part of the vast United States Fleet when she was put in commission at the South Boston Navy Yard with traditional pomp and ceremony. During the morning, the pre-commissioning detail ar- rived from Newport and was embarked along with a draft of men from the Fargo Barracks in Boston. For the ma- jority of the men, this was the first time they had ever been on board a U.S. Navy warship, and for a good many of them, it was the first timethey had ever been aboard any- thing more imposing than a flat-bottomed skiff. Due to a rigid time schedule, it was necessary for the men to be- come acquainted in very short order with the location of their living compartments, bunks, lockers, and the mess halls, and for a short time, a mild chaos was more or less the order of the day. Shortly after noon, the stage was set for the commission- ing. Under dull leaden skies, with a hint of snow in the air, the ofhcers and crew assembled by divisions on the main deck aft of turret four, where the long, graceful barrels of the after six-inch guns formed an ominous backdrop for the ceremony. The crack ,Marine color guard and the Navy band from the Boston Receiving Station completed the picture. Promptly at 1400, Bear Admiral Felix X. Gygax, U'.S.N., Commandant First Naval District, read the order of the Navy Department to commission the ship. Upon comple- tion, the band struck up the national anthem, and the Na- tional Ensign, the lack, and the Commission Pennant were hoisted, followed by the hoisting of the Commandant's per- sonal flag. Captain Wattles accepted command of the ship from Rear Admiral Gygax, and ordered the watch set. The Topeka was ofiicially in commission. Brief speeches by the Honorable Leverett Saltonstall, Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the Honorable Frank J. W'arren, Mayor of the City of Topeka. Kansas, followed. ln behalf of the people of Topeka, Mr. Warren presented the ship with a loud speaker system and an album of records. The final ceremony was the presenta- tion to the Captain by Rear Admiral Gygax of the Bronze Star Medal for an uimportant contribution to the war effort made when Captain Wattles was pre-commissioning officer for all types of vessels on the staff of the Commander, Operational Training Command, U.S. Atlantic Fleet. By 1600 all guests had left the ship and 15 minutes later the first of what was to be a long succession of general drills was held. The commissioning ceremonies had been impressive to the utmost, and the minds of officers and men had been opened to the full significance of what lay ahead. But it was the beginning of the Christmas weekend, and no one knew where the next Christmas would be spent. When lib- erty call sounded at 1700, the commissioning became a thing of the past, the most important matter of the moment was-HWhat kind of a liberty town is Boston?'l if- GC- -76 -P? W Life aboard the new ship began in earnest after the Christmas weekend. There was still a great deal of work to be done before the Topeka could be taken out to sea, and every day three shifts of workmen came aboard. It was vir- tually impossible to hold a real field day, but cleaning de- tails were busy every day trying to keep some semblance of order and cleanliness on the ship. Long days were spent loading equipment, stores, and ammunition. General drills were held nearly every day. And underscoring every activ- ity was thefcacophony of riveting, welding, drilling, and chipping, punctuated by the bells from the giant cranes and the hoarse whistles of ships in the harbor. lt wasn't all work, however. Liberty was on a two-out- of-three basis, and deaf as they might be to other calls, there was not a S2fc on the ship who couldn,t recognize liberty call when it was sounded at 1630. Boston was a good liberty town, and in some quarters Topeka men will not soon be forgotten. e The big event of the pre-shakedown period in Boston was the Topeka dance at the Hotel Statler on 8 January. ln the ballroom which was banked with huge floral decorations instead of the customary flags, more than 600 Topeka offi- cers and men danced until the small hours of the morning. Highlight of the affair was the Grand March led by Captain Wattles, at the conclusion of which Captain Wattles danced with Mrs. Mumford, pretty wife of the Topeka,s junior sea- man, William Mumford, and Commander Dodson danced with Mrs. Barba, the charming wife of Alex Barba, second junior man aboard. Presentation of the Battle Flag, purchased with the pen- nies of the school children of Topeka and presented to the ship by the City of Topeka, was another high spot of the evening. This flag will be returned to the city to be pre- served in its memorial library. ln the middle of the evening, the lights were dimmed, the music stopped, and a huge cake, adorned with a model of the ship was wheeled to the center of the floor. The three Y I I I l I 4 1 1 1 1 l r l I 1 - l r v i 4 l V l l l l lr ri 1 is 14 ls' ...al

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Bracken, Lt. tjgj Murray, Thomas, BMlfc, Keenan, BMlfc, and Crider, BMlfc, with an assist to Miss Bradley, dance director of the USO, and George Carens, newspaper writer, for their help. The days were running by almost too fast, for there was much to be done. On 18 January, the Topeka shoved off to sea for the first time with her own crew to make a high speed run north of Cape Cod. The first, unpleasant cases of seasickness made their appearance, but the run itself was a success, all things considered. On 21 January the ship left port again, this time for a week of intensive drills in Massachusetts Bay. These readi- ness for sea exercises included general drills, gunnery drills, magnetic compass calibration and radio direction Hnder calibration. The weather was raw and biting, and night watches on deck were even more bitterly cold than they had been in port. On 25 January the ship returned to south Boston for final loading of provisions and ammunition before leaving on the shakedown. It was the last liberty in Boston for nearly six weeks. At 0004 on 27 January the Topeka was under way for Chesapeake Bay, Virginia, on the first leg of the shakedown cruise, with the destroyer Mayrant as screen. The trip to Norfolk will long belremembered by most of the oHicers and men as one of the roughest junkets they ever took. High seas broke over the Topeka's bow in great bursts of green water, and the long sickening swells took a high toll of white-faced boots and salty sailors alike. During the day the ship changed course to answer a merchant's ship's distress call, but other ships were able to reach the mer- chantman before the Topeka and her services were not needed. Some of the men found relief from seasickness only in their sacks, despite admonitions that fresh air was the best cure, and others, of a more playful nature, carried buckets with them as they went to watch. It was little con- solation to the enlisted man to know that in the Junior OHicer's Bunkroom very unhappy and unsalty Ensigns had crawled to what they hoped would be their final resting place. During the two-day run, 5 and 6 structural firing tests were conducted, and on the evening of 28 January the ship anchored in Hampton Roads. The next week was spent in Chesapeake Bay conducting general drills and gunnery drills. By this time nearly ev- eryone aboard recognized the bugle calls for fire drill, fire the rescue drill, prepare to abandon ship, and even more noteworthy, knew what to do when they heard the call over the squawk-box. Gunnery exercises included surface firing at towed sleds and anti-aircraft firing at towed sleeves and at drones, remarkable little miniature, radio-controlled aircraft which can do everything a Jap Betty can do and a lot more besides. On the afternoon of 4 February the ship got underway from Norfolk for the Naval Operating Base at Trinidad, British West Indies, one of the bases which the United States obtained in the famed M50 old destroyersn deal with Great Britain. The ship was scarcely out of Chesapeake Bay before the sea began to act up again and as the Topeka swung south off Cape Hatteras in company with a sister ship, the Oklahoma City, CL9l, and the destroyers Gainard and Purdy, there were men aboard who felt that their des- tiny would have been served much better had they joined the Army and been lying in a dirty foxhole, which, despite its obvious faults, would at least have been immovable. They all survived, however, and within two days a tropi- cal sun was beating down on the ship and the calm blue waters around her. En route to Trinidad, general drills and tactical exercises were conducted daily, sunbathing was per- mitted during the middle of the day, and Joe Doakes, S2fc, was beginning to see where they had gotten the beautiful pictures he had seen in the recruiting station. On 9 Febru- ary the ship arrived in the Gulf of Paria, where she was to spend the next 18 days on as rugged a daily schedule as her crew had ever experienced. Trinidad was by no stretch of the imagination a tropical paradise. The barren, sun-dried hills rose out of the sea to form a dull yellow-and-gray wall around the gulf. Perched on the northern rim of the South American continent, the island itself was a little more than 600 miles north of the equator. The sun hammered down on the ship relentlessly, and there was little relief from the heat below-decks or topside.