Ships
- USS Topeka (CL-67) Captain from 23 December 1944 · Relieved on 7 November 1945
Thomas Lippitt Wattles commissioned Topeka (CL-67) and had her through the whole of her fighting. NavSource lists him as captain from 23 December 1944 to 7 November 1945 and gives his final rank as rear admiral. DANFS names Capt. Thomas L. Wattles at the commissioning on 23 December 1944 and does not name a relief.
No birth, death, or hometown was in the sources fetched for this ship.
Nothing before the cruiser is in the NavSource line.
She shook down in the West Indies, left Boston on 10 April 1945, and reached the fast carriers in June. Under the dates NavSource gives him she screened the strikes on Kanoya, Okino Daito, and Minami Daito, fired with the screen at Minami Daito on 10 June, and stayed with Task Force 38 for the July and August sweep of Japan, including the night firing on Nojima Zaki. She was in Tokyo Bay until 1 October, embarked 529 veterans at Okinawa, and reached Portland on 19 October. The list relieves him on 7 November 1945, during the overhaul at San Pedro that followed.
The list prints rear admiral as his final rank and names no later ship.