| Show NEWS FROM OUR BOYS AND GIRLS IN THE U S SERVICE RECEIVED FROM MARIC S NORRIS GM ac ozark 2 1 september 1945 pear dear morn mom I 1 am now in tokyo bay where the mighty ozark is anchored off tokyo taking aboard american prisoners of war we steamed into the bay the morning of the and landed abo about ua a thousand marines and naval base all hands enjoyed making this invasion t when the only thing we had to worry about was denting the hows bows of our our landing boats on the concrete seaplane ramps where we beached things began to happen when we left guam on august where incidentally the ozark was anchored next to the british battleship duke of york during the ceremony in which fleet admiral nimitz was awarded the british order of bat we embarked brigadier general william clemente of the ath th marines who is now commanding general of the Yoko suka area and set a northerly course off the bonin islands we saw the B pass overhead on their last hostile run to japan and an d soon after received word that hirohito had accepted unconditional surrender we were naturally happy to hear it but also a little restrained since hav ing previously heard several false reports at any rate all tendency to relax our degree of readiness was abruptly spiked the next day when a torpedo crossed our path just head ef the bow right eight then we decided d that while the japs may have accepted surrender terms there are always the 10 per cent who hever never get th word we maintained our usual sharp lookout the tha next thing I 1 knew new we v e were joining the third fleet about niada order norderto to prepare to transfer at sea a thousand marines and sailors to the ozark the third fleet as you probably know is admiral bull halseys Hal outfit which includes the battleships battle hips cruisers carriers etc that had been bombing and bombarding japan these major units of at the fleet each carry a group of fleet marines who man anti air batteries and they p plus us the landing force sailors from the same ships were the ones we took aboard the first ship to come alongside was the bon homme richard one of the navys big carriers As she came alongside our portside line throwing guns fired lines across and breeches buoys were rigged fore and aft in a few iring minutes tes men were pouring across the 75 foot gap between ships as fast as the chair buoys could be hauled over and back at the same time the wisconsin came alongside our starboard side and as she got in position the ships band on the bon homme richard played dont fence me in dedicating it to the ozark As transfers were completed by each ship another moved up to take its place until 1016 officers and men inen had been received from over 20 ships including the battleships rth 10 carolina arolina and south dakota the carriers carliers shangrila Shang rila ence rc cowpens coppens Cow pens yorktown randolph ticonderoga and bataan the bisers rs springfield monterey pasadena as and wilkes barre the destroyers st taylor woodward smalley hale buchanan and several others the operation with each ship was timed and we think we set a record when en 19 men were brought over froni om the south dakota in 38 minutes the whole maneuver is certainly record as such a mass transfer at sea had never before beer en attempted continued on last PM page |
