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Nicole Summers, MMFN
to remember
Bass, Harry Brinkley, LCDR.
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Casualty Info
Home Town Beaumont
Last Address With VF-74 deployed in the Mediterranean on USS Kasaan Bay.
Casualty Date Aug 20, 1944
Cause KIA-Killed in Action
Reason Artillery, Rocket, Mortar
Location France
Conflict World War II
Location of Interment Roselawn Memorial Park - Little Rock, Arkansas
Wall/Plot Coordinates Lot 23 G 6 in Wooddale Section
Description The plan of the Pacific subseries was determined by the geography, strategy, and the military organization of a theater largely oceanic. Two independent, coordinate commands, one in the Southwest Pacific under General of the Army Douglas MacArthur and the other in the Central, South, and North Pacific (Pacific Ocean Areas) under Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, were created early in the war. Except in the South and Southwest Pacific, each conducted its own operations with its own ground, air, and naval forces in widely separated areas. These operations required at first only a relatively small number of troops whose efforts often yielded strategic gains which cannot be measured by the size of the forces involved. Indeed, the nature of the objectivesùsmall islands, coral atolls, and jungle-bound harbors and airstrips, made the employment of large ground forces impossible and highlighted the importance of air and naval operations. Thus, until 1945, the war in the Pacific progressed by a double series of amphibious operations each of which fitted into a strategic pattern developed in Washington.
My Participation in This Battle or Operation
From Month/Year
January / 1942
To Month/Year
December / 1942
Last Updated: Mar 16, 2020
Personal Memories
Memories On 6 March, YORKTOWN rendezvoused with TF 11-formed around Lexington and under the command of Rear Admiral Wilson Brown-and headed towards Rabaul and Gasmata to attack Japanese shipping there in an effort to check the Japanese advance and to cover the landing of Allied troops at Noumea, New Caledonia. However, as the two flattops-screened by a powerful force of eight heavy cruisers (including the Australian HMAS Australia) and 14 destroyers-steamed toward New Guinea, the Japanese continued their advance toward Australia with a landing on 7 March at Huon Gulf, in the Salamaua-Lae area on the eastern end of New Guinea.
Word of the Japanese operation prompted Admiral Brown to change the objective of TF 11's strike from Rabaul to the Salamaua-Lae sector. On the morning of 10 March 1942, American carriers launched aircraft from the Gulf of Papua. Lexington flew off her air group commencing at 0749 and, 21 minutes later, Yorktown followed suit. While the choice of the gulf as the launch point for the strike meant that the planes would have to fly some 125 miles across the Owen Stanley mountains-a range not known for the best flying conditions-that approach provided security for the task force and ensured surprise.
In the attacks that followed, Lexington's SBDs from Scouting Squadron (VS) 2 commenced dive-bombing Japanese ships at Lae at 0922. The carrier's Torpedo Squadron (VT) 2 and Bombing Squadron (VB) 2 attacked shipping at Salamaua at 0938. Her fighters from Fighter Squadron (VF) 2 split up into four-plane attack groups: one strafed Lae and the other, Salamaua. Yorktown's planes followed on the heels of those from "Lady Lex." VB-5 and VT-5 attacked Japanese ships in the Salamaua area at 0950, while VS-5 went after auxiliaries moored close inshore at Lae. The fighters of VF-42 flew over Salamaua on CAP until they determined there was no air opposition and then strafed surface objectives and small boats in the harbor.
After carrying out their missions, the American planes returned to their carriers, and 103 planes of the 104 launched were back safely on board by noon. One SBD3-2 of VS-2 had been downed by Japanese antiaircraft fire. The raid on Salamaua and Lae was the first attack by many pilots of both carriers; and, while the resultant torpedo and bombing accuracy was inferior to that achieved in later actions, the operation gave the fliers invaluable experience which enabled them to do so well in the Battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway.
Task Force 11 retired at 20 knots on a southeasterly course until dark, when the ships steered eastward at 15 knots and made rendezvous with Task Group (TG) 11.7 (four heavy cruisers and four destroyers) under Rear Admiral John G. Crace, Royal Navy-the group that had provided cover for the carriers on their approach to New Guinea.
