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Additional Photographs of the USS Topeka
CL 67
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USS Topeka CL 67
Photo from the Baka Hachi |
CL 67
Reunion Information Click Here
USS Topeka (CL 67) was laid down on 21 April 1943 by the
Bethlehem Steel Co. Yard located at Quincy, Mass., launched on 19 August
1944, sponsored by Mrs. Frank J. Warren and commissioned at the Boston
Navy Yard on 23 December 1944, Capt. Thomas L. Wattles in command.
Shake Down -- 1945
After shakedown cruse in the West Indies and post-shake-down repairs,
Topeka departed Boston on 10 April 1945 for duty with the Pacific Fleet.
The following day, she joined Oklahoma City (CL 91); and the two ships
steamed by way of Culebra Island and Guantanamo Bay to the Panama Canal.
They transited the canal on 19 April and reported for duty with the
Pacific Fleet on the 20th. The next day, Topeka and her steaming mate
headed for Pearl Harbor, where they arrived on 2 May. Following almost
three weeks of gunnery exercises in the Hawaiian Islands, the cruiser
sailed west from Pearl Harbor as the flagship of Cruiser Division (CruDiv)
18. She entered Ulithi Atoll in the Western Caroline's on 1 June and,
after three days in the anchorage, put to sea with Bon Homme Richard
(CV 31), Oklahoma City, Moale (DD 693), and Ringgold (DD 500) to
rendezvous with Task Force (TF) 38.
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CL67 on Shakedown Cruise as seen from the USS Oklahoma City.
Submitted by Mike Consalvo (
son of a CL-91 plank owner ) |
Fast Carriers -- 1945
On her first cruise with the fast carriers, she screened them against
enemy air attack while their planes made three raids against targets in
the enemy’s home islands and the Ryukyus. On 8 June, Task Force 38
aircraft hit Kanoya on Kyushu — the home of Japanese naval aviation. The
next day, they struck the Ryukyu Islands — specifically Okino Daito,
located a little over 200 miles west of Okinawa. The third and final
strike of her first combat cruise came on 10 June and provided the cruiser
with her initial opportunity to join the fray. While Task Group 38.1
aircraft bombed and strafed the airfield on Minami Daito, the ships in the
screen — Topeka among them moved in and took the other installations under
fire. At the conclusion of that action, Topeka moved off with the rest of
TG 38.1 bound for San Pedro Bay, Leyte.
Task Force 38
Sweep of the Japanese Home Islands 1945
After spending the latter half of June at Leyte for relaxation and
replenishment, the light cruiser returned to sea on 1 July with TF-38 for
the final six-week carrier sweep of the Japanese home islands. The task
force made a fueling rendezvous on the 8th and then began a run-in toward
Tokyo that the American planes bombed on 10 July. Next, the ships moved
north to Honshu and Hokkaido for a two-day anti shipping sweep of the area
around Hokadate and Muroran. They retired from the area for another
fueling rendezvous on the 16th, but returned to the vicinity of southern
Honshu and resumed the aerial blitz of Tokyo on the 17th and 18th. On the
night of the latter date, Topeka had another opportunity to strike the
enemy directly when she joined Atlanta (CL 104), Duluth (CL 87), Oklahoma
City, and the destroyers of DesRon 62 in an anti shipping sweep of the
entrance to Sagami Nada near the sea approaches to Tokyo. During that
sweep, she fired her guns at Japanese installations located on Nojima
Zaki, the point of land that marks the eastern terminus of the entrance
into Sagami Nada. Completing another replenishment retirement between 19
and 23 July, the task force resumed its air raids on central Japan with
two extensive forays against shipping in the Inland Sea on the 24th and
the 28th, respectively.
Northern Honshu Raids - 1945
A typhoon at the end of July forced the task force to take evasive action
and postpone further air operations until the second week in August. At
that time, Topeka steamed north with TF-38 while the carriers moved into
position to send sortie after sortie against heavy concentrations of enemy
aircraft on northern Honshu. Those raids — launched on 9 and 10 August —
proved eminently successful, wiping out what was later learned to be the
transportation for 2,000 shock troops being assembled for a one-way,
suicide mission to destroy the B29 bases on Tinian. The carrier planes
paid return visits to Tokyo on the 12th and 13th and were taking off to
repeat those attacks when a message arrived on the 15th, telling of
Japan's capitulation.
Occupation Support -- 1945-46
Topeka patrolled Japanese waters until mid-September, at which time she
entered Tokyo Bay. She remained there until 1 October when she began her
homeward voyage to the United States. The cruiser stopped briefly at
Okinawa on the 4th to embark 529 veterans and resumed her eastern progress
on the 5th. On 19 October, she arrived in Portland, OR, and disembarked
her passengers. Ten days later, she steamed south to San Pedro, Calif.,
for overhaul. On 3 January 1946, the warship put to sea to return to the
Far East. She reached Yokosuka, Japan, on the 24th and began duty
supporting American occupation forces in Japan, China, and in the Central
Pacific islands. During that tour of duty, which lasted until the
following fall, she called at Sasebo, Japan; Tsingtao and Shanghai in
China; Manila in the Philippines; and Guam in the Marianas. The cruiser
returned to San Pedro, Calif., on 20 November.
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I came across your website of the USS Topeka CL 67 and realized
that we were moored behind
Topeka in Shanghai September and then in December 1947.
I was on HMS SUSSEX--heavy cruiser. I took this picture all those years ago.
It thought it might be some interest to your members.
Don Swanson-ex Royal Navy
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Decommissioned -- 1949
Following an overhaul and operations along the west coast, she headed back
to the Orient on 22 September 1947. Upon her arrival at Yokosuka, Japan,
on 10 October, she became a unit of T 71. Operating from bases at
Shanghai and Tsingtao, the warship patrolled the north China coast while
civil war raged on shore between Nationalist and communist factions. She
concluded that duty early in March and entered Nagasaki, Japan, on the
8th. Following visits to Sasebo and Kure, Topeka sailed for the United
States on 25 April and arrived in Long Beach on 7 May. Later that month,
she moved to Pearl Harbor for a four-month overhaul at the completion of
which she returned to the west coast. Late in October, the warship resumed
local operations out of Long Beach and out of San Diego. She remained so
occupied until February 1949. On 25 February, she arrived in San Francisco
to prepare for inactivation. Topeka was decommissioned there on 18 June
1949 and berthed with the local group of the Pacific Reserve Fleet.
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USS Topeka CL 67 -- Time and Location Unknown |
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