During the Battle of Bougainville, the carrier USS Saratoga patrolled the waters off the island.  When intelligence sources reported the Japanese were assembling a large fleet at nearby Rabaul to counterattack the Allied landing forces, the Navy was ordered to attack the Japanese fleet.  Accordingly, on November 5, 1943, Saratoga send every plane it had into the sky, with orders to cripple as many of the Japanese ships as possible rather than concentrate on sinking a few.  The force consisted of seventy-one aircraft, including sixteen TBF Avenger bombers of Bombing Squadron Twelve.

Aviation ordnanceman Kenneth Bratton was a crew member aboard one of VB-12’s bombers.  Upon reaching Rabaul Harbor the strike force was met with a wall of antiaircraft fire and an estimated fifty-nine Japanese Zeros.  After successfully making their attack the TBF pilots found themselves dodging over or around ships for four or five miles in order to escape from the scene.  Miraculously, all but five fighters and five bombers of the strike force emerged from the wild melee, although almost all of the survivors suffered some damage.  Fortunately, the TBF on which Bratton was a crew member managed to return to Saratoga although it returned with only one wheel, no flaps, no aileron, and no radio.  One crew member aboard the TBF was also dead as he had been struck by several bullets.

During the raid, Bratton also received serious injuries.  He had a kneecap blown off and had shrapnel in his back.  When injured, Bratton grabbed a first aid kit and tied a tourniquet to his leg.  Upon arrival aboard Saratoga, a photographer took a picture showing deck crew members extracting Bratton from the shattered rear cockpit.  Bratton survived the war, the picture received wide dissemination and led to his being sent on a nationwide bond drive.

Although the airstrike on Rabaul sunk no ships, it accomplished its mission and has been recorded as one of the most brilliant air strikes of the war as many of the Japanese ships received heavy damage and some were out of action for many months.

Kenneth Bratton died on April 15, 1982, in New Orleans and is buried at Hollywood Cemetery in McComb, Mississippi.

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