Fighting Squadron Eighty Seven - VF-87 unit history 4

HISTORY OF FIGHTING SQUADRON EIGHTY SEVEN
From 1 July 1944 to 15 August 1945

COMBAT ACTION

TASK FORCE, on 10 June, the Task Force retired to Leyte Gulf. With the other carriers of Task Force 38 Ticonderoga sailed again on July 1st, headed for Japan, but engine trouble forced a diversion to Guam and it was not until the 21st that she was able to join her sisters off the enemy homeland.

AIR STRIKES

VF-87 participated in the strikes against the surviving Imperial Fleet units at Kure on July 24 and 28, and were credited with sinking Japan's largest remaining battleship, the "Hyuga" and the Japanese cruiser "Tone". The group also bombed factories south-west of Tokyo at month's end. In early August the Task Force moved north and the squadron hit targets at Aomori and Ominato. Back south again towards mid-month, VF-87's final strike was against the Yokohama docks on the 13th.

WAR IS OVER!

Following the surrender, Ticonderoga spent a month in Japanese waters before sailing back to Pearl, where CVG-87 was put ashore for a fortnight at Barber's Point. Re-embarking on 16 October, carrier and air group reached Bremerton on the 22nd. VF-87 was decommissioned at NAS Seattle on 31 October.

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