Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans

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Harry Baxter

WWII | Torpedo Squadron 8, USS Bunker Hill

As a TBF Avenger turret gunner stationed on the USS Bunker Hill, Harry Baxter describes making torpedo runs on enemy ships in the Pacific. (2:58)
Harry Baxter recalls one particular bombing mission where his TBF Avenger aircraft flew too closely to its bomb target and became damaged by the blast. (1:17)
Harry Baxter describes watching dogfights in the air above his ship, and how some Japanese aircraft would try to land on the USS Bunker Hill out of desperation. (1:47)
Harry Beeman

WWII | USS Ellet (DD-398)

Harry Beeman was excited to be leaving home and heading out to fight the Japanese in the Navy, but that excitement was nearly crushed by boring home front duty. He nagged the Chiefs every day until it paid off with an assignment aboard a combat ship. (6:52)
Harry Beeman had pushed for a real combat assignment and he sure got one. His destroyer was part of the task force that launched the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo. Not bad for a first mission. (3:13)
During the battle of Midway, Harry Beeman was part of a crack swim team aboard the USS Ellet that pulled survivors from sinking warships out of the water. They did this while dodging torpedoes from a Japanese submarine. (2:54)
The main job on Harry Beeman's ship, the destroyer USS Ellet, was to protect the carrier USS Enterprise, but they also got a workout bombarding occupied islands as they were taken back from the Japanese, one by one. (5:35)
On his destroyer, Harry Beeman's nickname was Little Deadeye because of his prowess shooting down Japanese planes. He attributes his anti-aircraft gun skills to a childhood filled with BB gun adventures. One particular plane gave him a little trouble, though. (4:33)
Harry Beeman should have a Purple Heart. His wounds were serious but he didn't want to get sent to a hospital ship, so he hid in the tiny sick bay until he recovered. Now he wishes he had played it straight. He also survived the routine medical care on a US Navy destroyer, some of which rivaled enemy torture. (7:00)
The maintenance on the destroyer's five inch guns was unending, explains gunner Harry Beeman. That kept him busy when he and his crew mates weren't busy playing the same trick, over and over, on the Japanese occupiers of the many tiny atolls they had claimed. (3:07)