Gaming

August 15, 1945: USS Concord fires the last shot of WWII – August 15, 2015 marks the 70th anniversary

Other warships claimed to have fired the last shot of WWII, but that distinction goes to the USS. Concord CL-10, a four-stack light cruiser named for the Massachusetts town where the first orderly shot of the American Revolution was fired, “the shot that was heard all over the world.”

“I had no idea I was present for this historic event,” Thaddeus Buczko of Salem, Massachusetts, told me in a recent interview, “until I read about it many years later in a veteran magazine.” At the time, 19-year-old Buczko was serving in the US Navy aboard the USS Bearss (pronounced “barce”). Tea Bearss was one of the destroyers comprised of Task Force 92 serving the North Pacific Ocean, along with light cruisers Concord, Richmond, and Trenton.

On August 15, 1945, Nazi Germany had surrendered to the Allied Forces in Europe (May 8) and atomic bombs had been dropped on Hiroshima (August 6) and Nagasaki, Japan (August 9). Did Buczko and his shipmates feel that the war was ending? “No,” says Buczko. “We heard that the Germans had surrendered, but we were in the Pacific. We were still at war. We learned about the bombs that were dropped in August, but we were not aware of the consequences and we had no idea what was happening. happen next. We were still under orders. “

On August 15, 1945, Task Force 92 bombed maritime and coastal facilities in the Japanese Kuril Islands. Tea Concord was tasked with opening fire on Shasukotan Island, firing “salvo after salvo” from its six-inch “twin guns” and five-inch guns from Task Force destroyers, including the Bearss, according to the account by Fred A. Lumb that Thaddeus Buczko read years later.

Lumb continues: “At last, Captain CA Rumble, in command of the Concord and the small working group gave the order to cease fire. The destroyer guns fell silent. About a minute later, Lieutenant Commander. Daniel Brand, the artillery officer, at the top in forward fire control, saw to it that the bullet fired one more round. Concord.“Because the last shot missed just before the ceasefire went into effect, the ship had to receive special permission from the Task Force Commander to fire one last time instead of recovering the ammunition manually. That was the last shot of the war.

Ensign Robert P. Crossley of the Concord described what happened next: “News of Japan’s acceptance of the terms of the Surrender of Potsdam … was received on board the Concord radio while sailing into the Aleutians after the Navy’s final offensive attack on Japanese territory … the shot heard around the world from the Concord and Lexington Minutemen’s Musket on April 19, 1775 had resonated with fury yet greater and signifying that this proud bearer of the tradition of the minute hand fired the last salvo of naval guns of World War II, a few seconds after 8:06 pm (Japan time). “

Fred Lumb concludes: “In an hour, Ens. Robert Crossley was in the coding room, next to the radio, writing Concord’s they claim to have fired the last American shot of the war. ”The Navy soon verified his claim.

The crew aboard the Bearss He received the news of Japan’s surrender over the loudspeaker, with very few details. Buczko recalls: “Even when we were informed that the Japanese had surrendered, we wondered if the Japanese ships and pilots knew about it. We were always on the lookout. We could still be attacked.”

As for hearing that the war was over? “We were all simple,” says Buczko. We were very tired. There was no jubilation, there was no jubilation, as you hear from everyone in the United States. “In the Aleutian Islands, the Bearss and the Concord repaired the damage to the ships, resupplied, rearmed and prepared to receive orders. They got ready for the boarding parties. “We knew we were going to go in,” Buczko explains, “but we didn’t know when or how.”

On September 2, 1945, the Japanese and Americans signed the official surrender document aboard the USS. Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

In the Aleutian Islands, orders arrived for Bearss and the Hood, another destroyer in the Task Force, to meet a Japanese ship carrying emissaries who would sign US Naval Emergency Occupation Order No. 1. The Order would hand over the Ominato Guard District Area to the United States, specifically: the islands of Honshu and Hokkaido between latitudes forty degrees and thirty minutes and forty-two degrees north and between longitudes 139 degrees and 142 degrees east are declared by the present emergency zone of occupation of the district of the Ominato’s guard “.

Tea Bearss and Hood reunited with the Japanese delegation ship in the Tsugaru Strait, “a fifteen-mile-wide body of water that separates the north coast of Honshu and the island of Hokaido,” wrote Mayor Edwin E. Douglass in his account of the day. .

QM Douglass continues: “The Japanese crew had painted a white cross on the funnel of their ship, the emblem of surrender. As the ships approached, it was a tense moment for all the men on board until the Japanese hoisted the international code. by giving flags we made sure that their intentions were strictly peaceful. ” Still, while one of the Campaign small boats set out to transport the emissaries to the Bearss, tea Bearss and the Hood They surrounded the Japanese ship, the cannons aimed at their potential target. Tea Bearss he also engaged US Marines and media personnel. While everyone boarded the Bearss, Buczko was at the top operating two 36 “search lights, watching it all, but” having no idea what was going on, “he recalls.

The Japanese ship guided the Bearss and the Hood through the heavily mined Tsugaru Strait in Matsu Bay for occupation duty. “When we arrived,” Buczko recalls, “I remember watching the Japanese rush out of the city into the mountains, carrying their belongings, or using anything on wheels. I think they were afraid of the occupying forces.”

The United States and Japan signed Emergency Occupation Order No. 1 on September 9, 1945 aboard the USS Panamint, the flagship of Vice Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher, Commander, North Pacific Force and Area. Among the Order’s instructions, the Japanese would provide:

  • Lists of all “Japanese ground, air and antiaircraft units, showing the location and number of soldiers and officers”
  • Lists of all aircraft (military, naval and civil), warships and merchant ships, their type, condition and locations
  • Detailed information, including maps, of “all mines, minefields and other obstacles to movement by land, sea or air”
  • “Location and description of all military installations and establishments … together with plans and drawings of all such fortifications, installations and establishments”
  • “Location of all camps and other places of detention of all United Nations prisoners of war”

Other stipulations concerned the clearance of mines and the provision of transportation, labor, materials and facilities as instructed by Admiral Fletcher.

In his introductory remarks to the Occupation Order, Admiral Fletcher expressed his hope that the occupation will continue without “any incident that only increases the suffering of the Japanese people.”

Concluding his personal account of the firm, QM Douglass wrote: “Another drastic and futile war had ended, another lesson had been learned testifying that man wraps himself in a cloak of ideals and luxuries, then with a match he sets the world on fire, finding himself was also destroying himself with the pursuit of leadership and fame. “

The officers and crew of the Bearss held a flag-raising ceremony at Base Ominato. QM Douglass observed: “The ancient empire today stands under the flags of the United Nations. A destroyer and his crew received a ‘well done’ when the stars and stripes rose over Ominato, showing that the combined nations will oppress everyone. those who seek to destroy the human race. “

Headline home and conclusions

After a period of occupation service, the USS Concord it sailed to Boston to participate in Navy Day on October 27, 1945. According to the Navy, it was the first Navy cruiser named after a Massachusetts city or town to visit the Commonwealth since the surrender of Japan. Some 18,000 people lined up in Boston to board the ship and see the turret of the “six twins” that fired the last shot of the war. (The pistol and mount are now on display at the Naval Museum in Washington, DC) Visitors also saw a bronze replica of Concord’s famous Minuteman statue, a memento of the first “shot heard around the world” by the Revolutionary War and the “mascot” of the ship.

Tea Concord received a Battle Star for his service in Operation Kuril Islands. After visiting Boston, it returned to its home port, Philadelphia, where it was dismantled on December 12, 1945 and sold on January 21, 1947.

After its occupation duty, the USS Bearss it sailed to Hakodate, Hokkaido, to Yokosuka in Tokyo Bay, and then returned to the United States via the destroyer base in Hawaii to San Diego, California. From there, the Bearss it passed through the Panama Canal and arrived in Charleston, South Carolina, on December 23, 1945. It had participated in eight casualty-less maritime attacks. Tea Bearss It was put back into service in 1951, dismantled in 1963 and eventually sold for scrap.

After a 30-day leave, which allowed him to return home to Salem for Christmas 1945, Thaddeus Buczko (today, 89 years old) was assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Halfway until he retired from active duty.

He then received a BA from Norwich University (with honors) and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the US Army. While pursuing his law studies at Boston University, in June 1949 the US Army. He commissioned Buczko to serve as a reserve officer in the 304 Calvary Armored Regiment. He was called to active duty in 1952, during the Korean War, where he served as the Unit’s Tank Commander with the 3rd Armored Division and as the Division’s Assistant Judge Lawyer. After the war, Buczko served in the Civil Affairs (military government) units. He was in command of the 357th Headquarters of Area B of Civil Affairs. He also served as Chief of Staff of the 94th Army Reserve Command, which was comprised of more than 12,000 reserve citizen-soldiers in more than 100 reserve units in New England. In 1979, Buczko retired with the rank of Colonel after 30 years of service in the Army. For his service he received the Legion of Merit medal.

Thaddeus Buczko has served as Salem City Councilor, Massachusetts State Representative, Post Master of Salem (appointed by President John F. Kennedy), Massachusetts State Auditor, and First Judge of the County Probate and Family Court. from Essex. He is credited with bringing Pope John Paul II to Boston in 1979. He continues to reside in Salem.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *