Guernic, Raymond, QMCS

Other Memories
Toledo returned to Long Beach on 12 June 1950, less than two weeks before North Korean forces invaded the Republic of Korea (ROK). Ten days later, Toledo pointed her bow west once more and embarked upon her fourth cruise to the Orient and her first tour of combat duty.
Korean War

1950
Toledo made a brief stop at Pearl Harbor en route and continued on to Sasebo, where Rear Admiral J. M. Higgins, Commander, Cruiser Division 5, broke his flag in her on 18 July 1950. Eight days later, the cruiser took up station off the eastern coast of Korea a few miles north of Pohang, near Yongdok. She teamed up with Destroyer Division 91 to form one of the two alternating East Coast Support Elements of Task Group 95.5. From 27 July to 30 July, Toledo, Mansfield (DD-728), and Collett (DD-730) bombarded North Korean communication arteries which started at Yongdok and ran north between the mountains and the sea to the 38th parallel north. On 4 August, the task element joined Air Force fighters in a combined air-sea strike on an enemy-held village near Yongdok. The following day, her 8 inch guns, directed by airborne controllers, rendered call-fire for the front-line troops. Toledo then moved some 70 miles north to the area around Samchok where she cruised along a 25-mile stretch of coastline and shelled a number of targets. During that interdiction run, she demolished a bridge, chewed up highway intersections, and generally wreaked havoc on communist supply lines. On the 6th, Helena relieved Toledo, enabling her to return to Sasebo for upkeep.

The warship resumed station off the Korean coast on 15 August and operated with Rochester (CA-124), Mansfield, Collett, and Lyman K. Swenson (DD-729)along a 40-mile length of coast from Songjin south to Riwon. After a number of bombardment missions, she returned to Sasebo again on the 26th and remained there until 31 August when she headed for a week of duty off Pohang Dong.

Toledo's next important mission was the landing at Inchon in mid-September. The heavily armed and fortified island of Wolmi-do ? located in the harbor ? threatened the success of the operation. Therefore, Toledo and her previous consorts ? augmented by Gurke (DD-783), De Haven (DD-727), and Royal Navy light cruisers, Jamaica (44) and Kenya (14) ? entered the harbor to silence the island's guns on 13 September. The destroyers led the way through the mine-infested channel and moved in close to draw enemy fire while the cruisers stood off waiting for the North Koreans to betray their positions. By early afternoon, the artillery duel had begun; and the enemy suffered most. That evening, the cruisers and destroyers retired for the night. They returned the next day to finish the job. Then, after two days of preparatory bombardment, marines of the 3rd Battalion Landing Team, 5th Marines, stormed Wolmi-do's defenses. Meanwhile, Toledo redirected her fire to support the 1st Marines who were about to land on "Blue Beach" just south of Inchon proper. After reportedly destroying three gun emplacements and a number of machine gun nests, closing two tunnels, hitting trenches and mortar positions, Toledo retired for the night at 1525.

Toledo continued fire-support missions until early October. However, after the 18th, the marines had advanced beyond the range of her 8 inch guns; and Toledo shifted to support troops mopping up bypassed pockets of enemy resistance. On 5 October, she departed the area and steamed for Sasebo.

The cruiser returned to the Korean coast at Chaho Han on 13 October, conducted shore bombardments in preparation for the amphibious operation at Wonsan, and reentered Sasebo the following day. The warship got underway again a little before midnight on the 18th and arrived off Wonsan early the next morning. For the next three days, she supported the marines during their advance inland from Wonsan.

On 22 October, Toledo departed Korea and, after stops at Sasebo and Yokosuka, headed for the United States on the 27th. Steaming via Pearl Harbor, she arrived in Long Beach on 8 November and remained there until the 13th when she headed for San Francisco. The following day, she entered the Hunter's Point Naval Shipyard and began a three-month overhaul.

1951
Refurbishment completed, Toledo left the yard on 24 February 1951 and returned to Long Beach the next evening. Following a round-trip voyage to San Diego, the warship weighed anchor on 2 April to return to the western Pacific. She stopped over at Pearl Harbor from the 7th to the 9th and then continued on to Sasebo, where she arrived on the 18th.

Toledo began her second tour of duty in the Korean combat zone on 26 April. For the next month, she cruised off the coast near Inchon where she provided gunfire support for the front-line troops of the US I Corps, guarding the Han River line during the communist spring offensive of 1951. Throughout that month, however, the enemy generally remained well beyond the river, out of range of the cruiser's 8 inch battery.

On 26 May, she steamed north to Kansong and joined Task Element 95.28 to conduct an interdiction bombardment of the area. Then, between 28 May and 30 May, the enemy did venture close enough to the Han to allow Toledo to bring her main battery to bear, but only at extreme range. The cruiser spent the first 10 days of June at Yokosuka; then returned to the Korean coast on the 12th. On 18 June, she teamed up with Duncan (DD-874) and Everett (PF-8) to pummel the important enemy logistics junction located at Songjin.

The warship made a brief visit to Sasebo before heading back to Wonsan where, on the 27th, she joined Bradford (DD-545) in shelling the enemy ashore. The following evening, she endured her first hostile fire when shore batteries opened up on the cruiser and came dangerously close on several occasions.

Toledo's tour of duty along the eastern coast of Korea lasted until late November. She bombarded Wonsan, Songjin, and Chongjin and rescued several downed pilots ? one, from Boxer (CV-21), twice. Late in October, her guns supported the 1st Marine Division in operations near Kansong. While conducting a shore bombardment on 11 November, she again came under fire from an enemy shore battery which scored some close near misses.

On 24 November, Toledo completed her deployment to the western Pacific and stood out of Yokosuka to return to the United States. After a pause at Pearl Harbor from 1 to 3 December, she continued on to Long Beach, where she arrived on the 8th.

1952
In January 1952, after a month of leave and upkeep, Toledo began seven months of duty operating out of Long Beach, conducting drills and training exercises along the west coast of the United States until mid-August. On 16 August, the cruiser stood out of Long Beach to return to the western Pacific. After the customary stop at Pearl Harbor, she arrived in Yokosuka on 8 September.

Toledo embarked upon her third combat tour along the coast of Korea on 12 September when she stood out of Yokosuka. During the latter part of the month, her 8 inch guns aided the American X Corps and the ROK I Corps. She supported the United Nations forces' limited offensives and holding actions while armistice talks dragged on. Periodically, she cleared that area to participate in gun strikes near Wonsan and in coastal patrols. On 24 September, she was called upon to provide continuous illumination fire and to silence an enemy 120 millimeter howitzer while United Nations forces recaptured positions recently lost to the communists.

She made an overnight port call at Sasebo on the 29th and 30th, visited the Bonin Islands from 2 through 4 October, and stopped at Yokosuka on the 5th and 6th, before taking up station on the bombline once more on the 8th. On 11 October, she joined the carriers of TF 77 and, for the next three months, alternated frequently between that duty and shore bombardment assignments. On 12 October, an enemy 75 millimeter gun managed to straddle her with eight rounds before 48 rounds from her 5 inch battery silenced it. Just before 0200 on the 14th, a gun opened fire from the same spot, scoring three near misses but no hits. Other than those instances and some long-range snooping by MiG 15's, little action came Toledo's way during her third and final Korean War deployment.

1953
In mid-January 1953, she visited Hong Kong for rest and relaxation before resuming patrols off Wonsan and Songjin and fire support duties for the American X and ROK I Corps. On 28 February 1953, Toledo departed Yokosuka and shaped a course for the United States. Following an overnight stop at Oahu on the night of 10 March and 11 March, the cruiser moored at Long Beach on St. Patrick's Day, 1953. She departed Long Beach on 13 April and, after a two-day call at San Diego, arrived in San Francisco on the 16th. There, she entered the Hunter's Point Naval Shipyard for a five-month overhaul.

Toledo was still undergoing repairs when hostilities in Korea ended with the armistice of 27 July 1953. She departed San Francisco on 10 September and, after operations along the coast, headed for Pearl Harbor on 20 October. The cruiser reached Yokosuka on 7 November and began her seventh deployment to the Far East. Though the Korean War had ended the previous summer, American forces continued to patrol the waters along the Korean peninsula; and Toledo joined them in the endeavor. In fact, she spent the next six months operating out of Sasebo and Yokosuka in the waters between Japan and Korea and in the East China Sea. She visited Pusan, Inchon, and Pohang as well as Okinawa and Hong Kong. In addition to patrolling the neutral waters off the Korean coast, she periodically conducted exercises with the carriers of TF 77.