Torpedo Squadron Eighty Seven- VT-87 unit history

HISTORY OF TORPEDO SQUADRON EIGHTY SEVEN
From 1 July 1944 to 29 October 1945

COMBAT (continued)

Big "T" planes joined those of other carriers on July 1, attacking ships in the Inland Sea and airfields at Nagoya, Osaka, and Miko. During the raids, pilots found what remained of the once mighty Japanese Fleet and bagged battleships Ise, Hyuga, and Haruna as well as an escort carrier, Kaiyo, and 2 heavy cruisers.

On 28 July, her aircraft directed efforts toward Kure Naval Base, where they pounded ships and AA installations. She shifted her attention to the industrial area of central Honshu on the 30th, then to northern Honshu and Hokkaido on 9 - 10 August. The latter attacks thoroughly destroyed the marshaling area for a planned airborne suicide raid on B-29 bases in the Marianas. On the 13th and 14th, her planes returned to the Tokyo area and subjected the Japanese capital to another severe drubbing.

On the morning of 16 August, Ticonderoga launched another strike against Tokyo. During or just after that attack, word reached TF 38 to the effect that Japan had capitulated. Ticonderoga continued patrols over Japanese territory and sent reconnaissance flights in search of camps containing Allied prisoners of war so that air-dropped supplies could be rushed to them. On 6 September - four days after the formal surrender ceremony on board Missouri (BB-63) - Ticonderoga entered Tokyo Bay.

HOME AGAIN

On 20 September, 1945, Ticonderoga sailed from Sagami Wan, Japan, stopping briefly at Pearl Harbor, then heading home to Bremerton, Washington. The squadron was disestablished on 29 October, 1945 NAS Alameda.

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