KILLED  IN  SEA  BATTLE  AT  GUADALCANAL

Harry Frederick Bauer was born IN 1904 at Camp Thomas in Lytle, Georgia, the son of a US Army First Sergeant.  He graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1927 and began his career as an Ensign aboard the USS ARKANSAS.  By 1931 he had been promoted to Lieutenant Junior Grade and continued his service on the ARKANSAS.  During his service on the ARKANSAS he was awarded a Letter of Commendation by the Secretary of the Navy.  He subsequently served on the USS BABBITT and on the USS ELLIOTT.   In June 1934 he was reassigned to the Naval Academy for post graduate work and as an instructor.  In 1936 he was assigned as Aide and Flag Lieutenant to the Commander Cruisers, Scouting Force, and from there he went to the USS TRACY as Executive Officer.  In 1927 the Naval Academy did not award academic degrees to their graduates.  Instead, graduates were commissioned in the Armed Forces as Officers. This was changed by an Act of Congress in 1937 when officers who were graduates of the Naval Academy were allowed to apply for a Bachelor of Science degree.  In 1937, while assigned to the TRACY, then Lieutenant Bauer applied for his degree which was granted.  In February 1939 he was assigned to the Office of the Detail Officer at the Bureau of Navigation, Department of the Navy, in Washington D.C.  On July 1, 1941, he was promoted to Lieutenant Commander and he remained in Washington until he assumed command on January 1, 1942, of the USS GREGORY, which had been converted from a WWI 4-stack destroyer to a APD fast transport ship.

After transporting marines during the night of September 4-5, 1942, GREGORY and a companion APD were returning to their anchorage at Tulagi after transferring a Marine Raider Battalion to Savo Island.  The night was inky-black with a low haze obscuring all landmarks and the ships decided to remain on patrol rather than risk threading their way through the dangerous channel.  As they steamed between Guadalcanal and Savo Island at ten knots, three Japanese destroyers entered the Slot to bombard American shore positions.  At 0056 the two American ships saw flashes of gunfire which they assumed came from a Japanese submarine until radar showed four targets, as apparently a cruiser had joined the three DD's. While the two outgunned but gallant ships were debating whether to close for action or depart quietly and undetected, the decision was taken out of their hands.

A US Navy pilot had also seen the gunfire and assuming it came from a Japanese submarine, dropped a string of five flares almost on top of the two APD's.  Unfortunately they were silhouetted against the blackness, were spotted immediately by the Japanese, who opened fire at 0100.  GREGORY brought all her guns to bear but was desperately overmatched and less than 3 minutes after the fatal flares had been dropped, she was dead in the water and beginning to sink. Two boilers had burst and her decks were a mass of flames. Lieutenant Commander Bauer, himself seriously wounded, gave the word to abandon ship, and GREGORY's crew reluctantly took to the water.  As the crew began going overboard and Bauer was being assisted by two crewmen, he made the ultimate sacrifice as he ordered his two companions to aid another crewman yelling for help.  Bauer was never seen again.  For his brave and gallant conduct he posthumously received the Silver Star, the Purple Heart, and promotion to Commander.  His memorial marker is in Arlington National Cemetery.  The destroyer USS HARRY F. BAUER (DM-26), which earned a Presidential Unit Citation in 1945 for action in the Okinawa Campaign, was named for him.

SILVER STAR CITATION

The President of the United States of America takes pride in presenting the Silver Star (Posthumously) to Commander Harry Frederick Bauer, United States Navy, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity while serving as Commanding Officer of the USS GREGORY (APD-3) during action against enemy Japanese forces off Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, on 5 September 1942.  When hostile vessels moved in under the misty haze of night and bombarded our shore positions, Lieutenant Commander Bauer, although seriously handicapped by limitation of fire power and reduction of armament, unhesitatingly steamed forward to challenge the attacking foe.  Suddenly spotlighted under a flood of illumination, he fought his ship with courageous determination and grim defiance, well aware that she was unequipped to engage an outnumbering force in battle.  Scoring several hits on the enemy while attempting to withdraw before a vigorous curtain of fire, he kept his guns blazing away until the GREGORY was eventually struck and set aflame.  His brilliant leadership and relentless fighting spirit, maintained with utter disregard of personal safety, were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.

Submitted by CDR Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Ret)