Dedicated to all who served aboard the USS Harry Lee
This website is dedicated to the officers and enlisted men
who served aboard the USS Harry Lee, APA-10,
an Assault Tranport during the Second World War.
The USS Harry Lee participated in seven (7) initial invasions:
- the first on July 10, 1943, in the landing at Scoglitti, Sicily.
She returned to the States with German prisoners, who were units of "The Desert Fox" Rommel's
famed "Afrika Korps", which boarded in Mers El Kabir, North Africa. Soon after her arrival in the
States, the Lee was assigned to the Pacific theater, where she participated in six more invasions:
- Tarawa, Gilbert Islands, 20 November 1943,
- Kwajelein, Marshall Islands, 31 January 1944,
- Aitape,New Guinea, 19 April 1944, Guam,
- Marianas Islands, 21 July 1944,
- Lingayen Gulf, Philippines, 7 January 1945, and
- Iwo Jima, 19 February 1945.
After months of transferring and training, the Lee moved from islandto island in the months that followed. Then on 20 July 1945, she got underway for San Francisco, CA, proceeding independently, arriving 8 August 1945 - a great day - V.J. Day!
On 29 September, the long-awaited destination: Tokyo, Japan.
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I would like to express thanks to Patrick Smith of Saxton, PA, Eugene McAndrews, Walter Ward,
Colby Hinton, Don Tracy, Bob McCarty, Jim Vannest, and to all others who have contributed to locating
and bringing together shipmates,and remembering those who have passed on.
Thank you, Pat, for that phone call I received from you that evening in 1992, initiating the reunionof those of us
who shared a great comradery onboard the USS Harry Lee. Your newsletters that we receive are a great
comfort for those of us who cannot physically get to meet each other in person.
Your friend and shipmate, Vince Saldutti, PhM/2C
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