Topeka (CL 67) - Naval Cruise Book

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ing south, the unit swept through the outer reaches of Tokyo Bay searching in vain for Japanese shipping. Although il was obvious that the unit had been picked up by Japanese radar, neither enemy planes nor ships ventured out to give battle. At 0135 on 19 Jul.y, having completed the sweep the unit turned east to rendezvous with the rest of the Task Force. En route, the radars picked up a single unidentified plane which closed and was taken under fire. The plane quickly withdrew and was not again detected. lnsignificant as it may have been tactically, the sweep made history in a small way for the Topeka, and provided another tip-off that the Japanese were about at the end of their rope. It might have been a dangerous mission, but the Japanese were unable, or unwilling, to make it so. Foul weather prevented further strikes until 211- July. On that day and the next the planes from the Task Force car- riers struck at enemy shipping in the vicinity of Kure and reported successful completion of their missions. Un the early evening of the 25th several -enemy planes followed the carrier planes back to the Task Force and were shot down by the combat air patrol without inflicting any dam- age to our forces. The force again retired for fueling, and struck once more at Kobe and Kure on the 28th and 29th of July. By this time the Japanese were suffering from a bad case of jitters because they were unable to keep up with the movements of the Third Fleet and never knew where it was going to strike next. Further, any one strike might have been the prelude to invasion at that point. With their fleet a negligible fac- tor, their air force shot to pieces and their major cities in ruins, the Japanese were looking at a black present and an even blacker future. On the afternoon of 29 July the Task Force shifted its position again. and on the 30th and 31st struck at the Tokyo-Nagoya area once more with devastating effects, then retired for fueling. For seven days no operations against the empire were undertaken while the Task Force fueled and engaged in anti-aircraft firing practice, moving gradually north to a position east of Honshu. Again on 9 and 10 August Task Force 38 struck savagely at the Japs, this time hitting northern Honshu with indus- trial centers and airfields, as well as aircraft, the principal targets. And on the 9th the Topeka, by the daring of one of its officers, stood momentarily in the limelight. On that day the Topeka had the routine air-sea rescue assignment. Purpose of the assignment is to recover from the water pilots of downed carrier aircraft. 1n the middle of the morning the Topeka was ordered to send a plane to the rescue of a downed British pilot from a British carrier operating with Task Force 38. Ensign Harry Poindexter, USNB, who is equally at home in a stud poker session, took off in his SC-1 Seahawk, a one- seater seaplane with space in the fuselage aft of the pilot to stuff a passenger, and flew to the point where the pilot had been reported downed, less than a mile from the Jap- anese beach and within range of shore batteries. Setting his plane down in the water, Ensign Poindexter picked up the British aviator, and was about to return to the ship when he was informed by radio that another British pilot had been downed about live miles away and was in the water. With some difhculty, Poindexter took off in the choppy water with his passenger and flew to the second pilot. While he knew that he could jam another passenger into the fuselage with only some slight discomfort to the passen- gers, Poidexter also knew that his light plane would be heavily over-balanced and might very well not be capable of taking off from the somewhat heavy seas. However, rather than leave the aviator to the mercy of the sea and the ma- chine-gunning Jap pilots, Poindexter set his plane down again and took the second pilot aboard. With friendly fighter planes circling overhead as protec- tion against Jap planes, Poindexter gunned his tail-heavy plane over the water and forced it into the air more by will power than anything else. When he radioed that he was bringing in two passengers, one of them badly injured, in his one-seater plane, half the shipis company was on the fantail to receive him and the Task Force Commander sent a message to the Topeka asking for complete details of the rescue. For his daring and courageous achievement in the D . 23 face of great odds, Ensign Poindexter was awarded the Dis- tinguished Flying Cross. On the evening of 10 August the ships retired again for fueling, but by this time there was but one item of conver- sation throughout the Topeka. A stateside radio news broadcast had told first of the Russian entry into the war, then of the devastating atomic bomb, and finally of the re- ported Japanese offer to surrender, which was supposed to have been transmitted to the U. S. and British governments through a neutral. Shortly after that, another report made the first official. Then there was no further news for a couple of days. But the ship was bright with jubilation for the long days of darkness seemed nearly at an end. With ine contempt for the Japanese efforts to extricate themselves short of unconditional surrender, Task Force 38 struck furiously at Tokyo again on 13 August, rested on 14 August, and that night moved back into position for another attack on 15 August. Meanwhile, newsbroadcasts from the states crackled with facts, rumors, speculation and hope. The Allied govern- ments had answered Tokyois plea for peace with a defiant reiteration that only unconditional surrender-specifically, an Allied Supreme Commander to whom the Emperor would be subservient-could bring an end to the holocaust which was crushing Japan. The world was awaiting the Japanese response, and in the little part of the world aboard the Topeka all the emotions that had been released by the earlier announcements were being held in check amid the deafening quietness which fell over the ship. At dawn on the-15th, the first wave of planes was launched, and the second. Before they reached their targets, the great news broke over the Task force like a tropical storm and the planes were recalled. Aboard the Topeka, men were going wild, singing, yelling, whistling and danc- ing. On the battle stations and living compartments, on the forecastle and in the wardroom, the word was the same: 26 ll J

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