Warren (APA 53) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 19 text:

Ni . It +8-gh - X . - -1 N--,qt ,. r X e s t .,.. ,rs X QF c W S' X it X VX, A X . N .t x X V. ,-N' as 5 y wr A . 5? K at +-ff' . At Cebu, our liberty parties visited the burial monument of the famous Magellan, and later they Watchedla noisy and frivolous victory parade staged by the natives. Our activities suddenly canceled, at Cebu, We re- ported next to lvlanila. Here, from this harbor of dead and sunken ships, We savv for the first time a large city rav- aged and ruined by the destructive forces of battle, in most cases, little of the rubble had yet been cleared avvay, and the tottering Walls of bomb-blasted buildings hung ominously over the streets. On September l3, the Warren reach- ed her War destination, and anchored in Tokyo Bay, just off Yokohama. Here We debarked our troops, marveling at the accuracy of our bombers which had laid Waste the entire city, and yet left untouched the vital docks. All that remains novv of the greater part of Yokohama and Tokyo are the twisted girders and flame-blackened iron safes that mark Where buildings once stood. It is a striking and terrible representation of Japan's total defeat, and of the mighty victory march across the Pacific in Which the U.S.S. War- ren played Such a Worthy part. s EEE A DEPT' V 0 I.,-,Q , I BRARY N VY tx V Nr

Page 18 text:

'Num 1-ra--K Thirty two days after we left the Golden Gate behind, the Warren sailed into the still dangerous waters of Buckner Bay, Okinawa, the front line base only recently wrested fiom the -' N f -fm.: -- -ff-wi - f -. -ff f- .,, ----.ff V---f,i..,. .f-g V. W.n,-.-,,,--. enemy. For the several nights we lay in the bay after debaik ing our SeaBees, we had no peace from the continued Jap air attacks, and we remained at battle stations, breathing with difficulty the air laden with smoke from our screen. For three days, the Wai'ren steamed in circles off Okinawa, riding out the fringes of our first typhoon. Finally, on August 6, we left for Ulithi. lt was in the lagoon of Ulithi atoll that the Warren's crew heard of the first atomic bomb and Russials entry into war with Japan. And here, on the night of August lil, we re- ceived the miraculous news of hlapan's surrender offer. Ours was not a noisy celebration. Immediately we were sent to the Philippines to load the troops who were to partici- pate in the occupation of the enemy homeland.

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