Figure 1: USS Boston (CA-69) in Boston Harbor, Boston, Massachusetts, 30 June 1943. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 2: USS Boston (CA-69) on a full power run, 22 October 1943. Official US Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 3: USS Boston (CA-69) steaming at high speed, probably during a full power trial in October 1943. Note that the ship is carrying Curtiss SO3C "Seamew" floatplanes. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 4: Carrier
raids on western New Guinea, April 1944.
A USS Boston (CA-69) OS2U "Kingfisher" floatplane returns to
the cruiser after rescuing a crewman of a downed TBF bomber during raids on
Japanese targets in the Hollandia area, 21 April 1944. ARM2c W.R. Kesey is on
the wing. AOM3c B.A. Kanitcer is in the rear cockpit. The OS2U's pilot is not
identified. Official US Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the
National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 5: USS Boston
(CA-69) in Sagami Wan,
outside of Tokyo Bay, Japan, circa late August 1945, at the time Third Fleet
ships initially entered Japanese waters. Official US Navy Photograph, now in
the collections of the National Archives. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 6: USS Boston (CAG-1) underway at sea, March 1956.This picture was taken after the ship was converted into the US Navy’s first guided missile cruiser. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 7:
USS Boston (CAG-1) fires a "Terrier" guided missile from
her after launcher during a training cruise in August 1956. Official US Navy
Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on
photograph for larger image.
Figure 8:
USS Boston (CAG-1) steaming off Beirut, Lebanon, while serving
with the Sixth Fleet, 18 July 1958. Official US Navy Photograph, from the
collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger
image.
Figure 9: View of the USS Boston’s (CAG-1) after portion, as she prepares for underway refueling, 15 July 1959. The photograph shows both of her launchers for "Terrier" guided missiles, with a pair of Mark 25 Mod 7 guidance radars just ahead of them. An antenna for an SPS-12 radar is atop the pedestal at the right side of the image, with Boston's after starboard 5-inch twin gun mount below. Note the refueling boom rigged alongside the forward missile launcher, and the destroyer USS Blandy in the left center background. This print features the large "NAVY" block frequently used in official public release photographs during the later 1950s. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 10: USS Boston (CAG-1) underway off the Boston Navy Yard, Charlestown, Massachusetts, after overhaul, 26 July 1960. Note the new electronics antennas received during this overhaul, among them a Tactical Air Navigation (TACAN) "pot" atop the mainmast, antenna for SPS-29 air search radar (replacing a SPS-12) atop the pedestal aft of the mainmast, and two SPQ-5 guided-missile guidance radars (replacing the ship's original pair of Mark 25 Mod 7 types) just forward of the "Terrier" missile launchers. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 11: USS Boston (CAG-1) moored at Genoa, Italy, 27 January 1962. Note the large antenna for a SPS-37A air search radar (replacing the SPS-29 first fitted in 1960), located atop the pedestal just aft of her mainmast. This antenna was later moved to a new location, atop Boston's mainmast. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 12: USS Boston (CAG-1) at anchor in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, 10 September 1963. Official US Navy Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 13: USS Boston’s (CAG-1) after port 5-inch gun mount firing during gunnery practice, 21 November 1964. Photographed by PHCS G.R. Phelps. Official US Navy Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 14: USS Boston (CAG-1) underway, circa 1965. This photograph was received from Commander Cruiser-Destroyer Force, Atlantic Fleet, in June 1965. Note that the large antenna for a SPS-37A (or SPS-43A) air search radar is now located atop Boston's mainmast, replaced on the pedestal aft of that mast by a SPS-30 height finding radar. Her TACAN (Tactical Air Navigation) "pot" has been moved from the mainmast to the foremast. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 15: USS Boston (CAG-1) underway in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, 10 January 1967. Official US Navy Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 16: USS Boston (CAG-1) underway in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, 10 January 1967. Official US Navy Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 17: The right and left guns of USS Boston’s (CA-69) forward 8-inch triple gun turret fire on North Vietnamese targets, during an Operation "Sea Dragon" bombardment in September 1968. Photographed by PHC Al Smith. Official US Navy Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 18: USS Boston’s (CA-69) forward 8-inch triple turrets fire a six-gun salvo at enemy positions below the Demilitarized Zone in the Republic of Vietnam during her 1969 deployment to the western Pacific. This photograph was received by All Hands magazine on 12 November 1969. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 19: USS Boston (CA-69) fires a salvo of 8-inch shells at enemy positions while operating off the coast of the Republic of Vietnam during her 1969 deployment to the western Pacific. Photographed from a helicopter flying nearby. This photograph was received by All Hands magazine on 12 November 1969. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 20: "The heavy cruiser Boston steaming home after spending six months deployed to Southeast Asia," 1969. Quoted information is from the original caption, received with this photograph on 12 November 1969. Official US Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Named after
the capital of Massachusetts, the 13,600-ton USS Boston (CA-69) was a Baltimore
class heavy cruiser that was built by the Bethlehem Steel Company at Fore
River, Massachusetts, and was commissioned on 30 June 1943. The ship was
approximately 673 feet long and 70 feet wide, had a top speed of 33 knots, and
had a crew of 1,142 officers and men. Boston
was initially armed with nine 8-inch guns, 12 5-inch guns, 48 40-mm guns, and
24 20-mm guns, but this armament changed dramatically during the ship’s career.
As built, Boston also carried four
floatplanes.
After
completing her shakedown cruise, Boston
transited the Panama Canal and joined the US Pacific Fleet. The ship arrived at
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, late in 1943 and in January and February 1944
participated in the campaign to seize the Marshall Islands. Although primarily
assigned to escort aircraft carriers, as she generally was throughout the rest
of the war, Boston also used her 8-inch
guns in the Eniwetok Island pre-invasion bombardment. Over the next several
months, Boston took part in raids
throughout the central Pacific and supported amphibious landings in northwestern
New Guinea.
Boston continued escorting aircraft carriers
during the last half of 1944 and into 1945. As the Pacific war moved westward, Boston was part of the American assault
on the Marianas and Palau Islands, as well as the battle to re-take the
Philippines. The heavy cruiser also used her guns to bombard enemy targets on
the Ryukyus Islands and Formosa, and on the Japanese home islands. Boston participated in the two major
naval battles which took place in 1944, the Battle of the Philippine Sea in
June and the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October. Also in October, as a member of
Task Force 38, Boston was part of the
major naval raid on Formosa and she assisted in towing the crippled light
cruiser USS Houston (CL-81) after
that ship was torpedoed during the battle.
After
completing an overhaul in California during the spring of 1945, Boston returned to the fighting in the
Pacific just in time to take part in the final attacks on the Japanese home
islands. In addition to her usual duty of escorting aircraft carriers, on 9
August 1945 Boston shelled Kaimaishi
on the Japanese main island of Honshu. After Japan surrendered, Boston remained in the western Pacific,
supporting Allied occupation efforts until late February 1946. The ship was
made inactive after her return to the United States, formally decommissioning
at Bremerton, Washington, in late October 1946. Early in January 1952,
following more than five years in the Pacific Reserve Fleet, Boston was re-classified as a guided-missile
heavy cruiser, receiving the new designation CAG-1. In February, Boston began a long tow from America’s
west coast to Camden, New Jersey, on America’s east coast, where she underwent
more than three years of modernization work.
Once her
modernization was completed, Boston
became the first guided-missile cruiser in the US Navy. The major changes to
the ship included removing her after triple 8-inch gun turret and its support
structure, extensive modifications to her superstructure, and installation of
two twin launchers for “Terrier” anti-aircraft guided missiles and their associated
radars and electronic equipment. Boston
was re-commissioned at the beginning of November 1955 and during the rest of
that year and most of 1956 the ship operated
in the western Atlantic and the Caribbean, testing her new weapons and training
for their use.
Boston was assigned to the Sixth Fleet in
the Mediterranean Sea in November 1956, returning to the United States in March
1957. After completing a midshipmen’s cruise to South America, taking part in
NATO exercises in the north Atlantic, and receiving an overhaul, Boston embarked on her second Sixth
Fleet tour of duty, which lasted from June to September 1958. While operating
with the Sixth Fleet, Boston participated
in the tense Lebanon crisis which took place in July of that same year. During
the next eight years, Boston
frequently operated in the Mediterranean, often in the role of flagship, and also
participated in exercises off northern Europe, in the Caribbean, and off the
east coast of the United States.
In April
1967, Boston returned to the Pacific
for the first time in fifteen years, transiting the Panama Canal to begin a
tour of combat service with the US Seventh Fleet. Primarily stationed off the
coast of Vietnam during this time, the heavy cruiser fired thousands of rounds
of 8- and 5-inch shells against communist targets in North and South Vietnam. Although
she was technically based on America’s east coast, Boston made two more Vietnam War deployments, one from April to
October 1968, and the other from May to November 1969.
In May 1968,
soon after beginning her second deployment to Vietnam, Boston was re-classified from guided-missile heavy cruiser to heavy
cruiser, reverting back to her original hull number of CA-69. Although she
retained her “Terrier” missiles, the rapid advance of technology made these pioneering
weapons obsolete a little more than twelve years after they entered service. Boston’s main armament was, once again,
her 8-inch guns, of which six remained in her forward turrets. USS Boston was de-activated soon after
completing her final tour of duty off the coast of Vietnam. Decommissioned at
Boston, Massachusetts, in May 1970, the ship was stricken from the Naval Vessel
Register in January 1975 and was sold for scrapping in late March of that same
year.
