USS Boston CA-69 in WWII

6-17-11

Happy Hour on the Fantail.  April 9, 1944.  The Boston is anchored in the Majuro Lagoon in the southern Marshall Islands.

They are anchored there for a few days for replenishment and resupply, just prior to the start of the Hollandia Invasion, Gen. MacArthur’s attacks on strategic enemy strongholds in New Guinea.

This photo will be the last of the Men at Work and Men at Play pictures for a while.  We have more, and will revisit them later.  In upcoming posts, I plan to talk about Lagoons visited by the ship and other topics that strike my fancy.

I also plan to spend more time working on a book-in-progress (about CA-69). Actually, there are two books in progress . . .   Bill and I are winding down on major repairs to my domicile.  When we first tackled this project a year and a half ago, we were optimistically thinking about six months, maybe.  Well, seven days a week a year and a half later, we’re almost done.  I will soon able able to reconvene all my stuff in one location and plan to be “re-organized” enough to actually start writing again.

Thanks for all the emails and encouragement.  Thanks for sharing your bits and pieces and threads of info from your dads, uncles, grandfathers who served their nation on this great ship.

Happy birthday, Steve.

6-11-11

Same day, same beach as the last shot.  I like this wider view, because you can see more of the ship.

Several readers have told me they remember their dads telling them that the ship’s Marines stood guard on deck, rifles in hand, on the lookout for sharks whenever the men got a chance to swim.  My father never told me that. However, he did tell me that under no circumstance could they dive off the ship  -  and if they were caught, they would be court martialed. As you can see in this picture, the boys did not always behave.

6-4-11

This photo (from the Archives), dated May 13, 1944 was taken while the men had short liberty while anchored in the southern Marshall Islands lagoon at Majuro. I have reason to believe this shot was taken from ill-fated sister ship USS Canberra which was to be on the receiving end of an enemy torpedo five months later during the Battle of Formosa.