Attacks On Japan
On 10 February, Mertz steamed from Ulithi for 3 months at sea with the Fast Carrier Task Force. During this time, she played a role in the airstrikes on the Tokyo area 16 February, the landings on Iwo Jima 19 February, and the raids on Okinawa 1 March. While screening the flattops off Kyūshū, Japan, in March, she downed two more enemy planes. While operating off Okinawa Mertz helped sink Japanese submarine I-56 on 18 April. The destroyer retired to Ulithi 14 May, before returning to Okinawa the 24th. She next steamed to Okino Daito Jima which she bombarded 9 June. The next day, she got underway for Leyte Gulf, anchoring at San Pedro Bay 13 June.
As part of Adm. Willam F. Halsey’s 3rd Fleet she cleared San Pedro 1 July, and 9 days later arrived at the launching area off the southeast coast of Tokyo for strike on the Japanese home islands. Beginning with the attacks on Tokyo 10 July, Mertz ranged up and down the coasts of Japan until she joined an antishipping sweep in the Kuriles while en route to the Aleutians. The destroyer arrived at Adak 14 August, the day of Japan’s capitulation.
Read more about this topic: USS Mertz (DD-691)
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—Anthony Burgess (b. 1917)
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—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)