Today in History K G V Returns to Sydney 1945. And other Items of interest..

 re-designated Task Force 57, the British Pacific Fleet was again involved in operations in late March 1945, when it launched attacks on the Sakishimo-Gunto airfields, a task it repeated in early May. On 4 May 1945 King George V led battleships and cruisers in a forty-five minute bombardment of Japanese air facilities in the Ryukyu Islands. As the Allies approached the Japanese homeland, King George V was dispatched in mid-July to join the US battleships in a bombardment of industrial installations at Hitachi. King George V fired 267 rounds from her 14-inch guns during this operation. The task force then moved on to Hamamatsu in southern Honshu, where it carried out a further bombardment of aviation factories.^[22] During the Okinawa campaign, the battleship supported four fast carriers of the British Pacific Fleet. Her last offensive action was a night bombardment of Hamamatsu on 29 and 30 July 1945.^[23]

HMS King George V in Tokyo harbour in 1945. USS Missouri is visible in the background.

With the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the surrender that followed, King George V moved with other units of the British Pacific Fleet into Tokyo Bay to be present at the surrender ceremonies.^[22]

[edit] Post war

After the surrender of Japan to end WW2, H M S King George V, The Flagship of the  Brit/Pacific Fleet and The Non Gold Card carrying war worn British sailors  returned to Sydney. The two week journey due to steering and problems created during the previous twelve months was tedious to say the least. but we were going home eventually?. it took over three months to fix the problems ???? But a slow journey home from Jan 6 1945  to March 13  1945 was painfully boring.
What surprised me was few Brits had a clue what had happened in the Far East, common Question was" what war was that?" Mind you the war in Europe has ceased ten months previously.people had other things on their mind.
>>> http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=23600

This is an actual film made of the surrender ceremony of the Japanese to MacArthur in Tokyo Bay in September 1945.

Actual voice of the General. Never been shown to the general public.

We always saw the "stills" but never the film itself.

Historical Footage:

Japanese Surrender Signing

Aboard Battleship Missouri -

Sunday Sept. 2, 1945.

An important piece of

history.

Click here: Japanese Surrender

Should any link fail, Copy and paste or re-type them into Google, sorry about this. Vest.

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