This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Sgt Ryan Mahana (Alcatraz)
to remember
Marine Maj Benjamin White Norris.
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Contact Info
Home Town Lima
Last Address Frederick, Maryland
MIA Date Jun 04, 1942
Cause KIA-Killed in Action
Reason Air Loss, Crash - Sea
Location Midway Islands
Location of Memorial Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial - Honolulu, Hawaii
Major Norris was born May 15, 1907, in Callao, Peru, where his father was an engineer engaged in the development of the country. He was educated in the United States at St. James School in Maryland, Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, and was graduated from Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in June 1928. After graduation from Princeton University, Major Norris joined the aviation branch of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve as a Private, First Class. Appointed Second Lieutenant and designated student naval aviator in 1929, he had his early aviation training at the Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida. He was subsequently promoted to First Lieutenant, November 28, 1933, and Captain, February 24, 1937. Transferred from the Reserve to the Marine Corps in that rank in February 1941, he was promoted to Major, May 16, 1942. Major Norris was on duty at the Marine Barracks, Quantico, Virginia, from July 1929 until November 1931, when he was transferred to duty at Brooklyn, New York. During this tour of duty, which extended to May 1938, he was commended for his part in the rescue work when the airship AKRON was lost off Barnegat Light, New Jersey Coast, in April 1933. He later had duty at Floyd Bennett Field, Brooklyn, New York, until December 1940 when he returned to Quantico. In April 1942, Major Norris reported for duty in the field. During the Battle of Midway in June 1942, he commanded one formation of 11 planes of Marine Scout Bombing Squadron 241. Reported missing in this action, June 4, 1942, he was awarded the Navy Cross. Major Norris also was entitled to the Presidential Unit Citation awarded Marine Aircraft Group 22, of which Marine Scout Bombing Squadron 241 was a part. His next of kin, his widow, Mrs. Benjamin White (Ruth R.K.) Norris lives at 60 East End Avenue, New York, New York.
A destroyer, the USS NORRIS, has been named in honor of Major Norris, Mrs. Norris, who has been designated as sponsor for the vessel named in honor of her late husband, is unable to attend the launching, and upon her request the Secretary of the Navy has invited Mrs. Charlie Browning of 1138 Glorietta Boulevard, Coronado, California, to christen the vessel as proxy for Mrs. Norris. The USS NORRIS will be launched at the Bethlehem Steel Company, San Pedro, California.
Other Comments:
Navy Cross
The President of the United States of America takes pride in presenting the Navy Cross (Posthumously) to Major Benjamin White Norris (MCSN: 0-4382), United States Marine Corps, for extraordinary heroism and distinguished service in the line of his profession while serving as Division Commander and a Pilot in Marine Scout-Bombing Squadron TWO HUNDRED FORTY-ONE (VMSB-241), Marine Air Group TWENTY-TWO (MAG-22), Naval Air Station, Midway, during operations of the U.S. Naval and Marine Forces against the invading Japanese Fleet during the Battle of Midway on 4 June 1942. Leading a determined attack against an enemy battleship, Major Norris, in the face of tremendous anti-aircraft fire and fierce fighter opposition, contributed to the infliction of severe damage upon the vessel. During the evening of the same day, despite exhaustive fatigue and unfavorable flying conditions, he led eleven planes from his squadron in a search-attack mission against a Japanese aircraft carrier reported burning about two hundred miles off Midway Islands. Since he failed to return with his squadron and is reported as missing in action, there can be no doubt, under conditions attendant to the Battle of Midway, that he gave up his life in the service of his country. His cool courage and inspiring devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service. Action Date: 4-Jun-42
Central Pacific Campaign (1941-43)/Battle of Midway
From Month/Year
June / 1942
To Month/Year
June / 1942
Description The Battle of Midway in the Pacific Theater of Operations was one of the most important naval battles of World War II. Between 4 and 7 June 1942, only six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea, the United States Navy (USN), under Admirals Chester W. Nimitz, Frank Jack Fletcher, and Raymond A. Spruance decisively defeated an attack by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN), under Admirals Isoroku Yamamoto, Chuichi Nagumo, and Nobutake Kondo on Midway Atoll, inflicting irreparable damage on the Japanese fleet. Military historian John Keegan called it "the most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval warfare." It was Japan's first naval defeat since the Battle of Shimonoseki Straits in 1863.
The Japanese operation, like the earlier attack on Pearl Harbor, sought to eliminate the United States as a strategic power in the Pacific, thereby giving Japan a free hand in establishing its Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. The Japanese hoped that another demoralizing defeat would force the U.S. to capitulate in the Pacific War and thus ensure Japanese dominance in the Pacific.
The Japanese plan was to lure the United States' aircraft carriers into a trap. The Japanese also intended to occupy Midway as part of an overall plan to extend their defensive perimeter in response to the Doolittle air raid on Tokyo. This operation was also considered preparatory for further attacks against Fiji, Samoa, and Hawaii itself.
The plan was handicapped by faulty Japanese assumptions of the American reaction and poor initial dispositions. Most significantly, American codebreakers were able to determine the date and location of the attack, enabling the forewarned U.S. Navy to set up an ambush of its own. Four Japanese aircraft carriers—Akagi, Kaga, Soryu and Hiryu, all part of the six-carrier force that had attacked Pearl Harbor six months earlier—and a heavy cruiser were sunk at a cost of one American aircraft carrier and a destroyer. After Midway and the exhausting attrition of the Solomon Islands campaign, Japan's shipbuilding and pilot training programs were unable to keep pace in replacing their losses, while the U.S. steadily increased its output in both areas.