Battle of the Aleutian Islands

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American troops hauling supplies on Attu in May 1943. Their vehicles did not work in the severe cold.

Date	June 6 1942 – August 15 1943
Location	Aleutian Islands, off Alaska
Result	Allied victory.

Combatants

Image:US flag 48 stars.svg United States
Image:Canadian Red Ensign.svg Canada

Image:Naval Ensign of Japan.svg Empire of Japan

Commanders

Thomas C. Kinkaid (navy),
Francis W. Rockwell (landings),
Albert E. Brown (army),
Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr. (army)

Boshiro Hosogaya,
Yasuyo Yamasaki

Strength

144,000 (all personnel, May 1943)

8,500

Casualties

1,481 dead,
2,500 wounded,sick, or frostbitten

2,351 dead

Aleutian Islands campaign
Attu – Komandorski – Dutch Harbor – Kiska

Pacific Ocean campaign
Pearl Harbor – Wake Island – Doolittle Raid – Midway – Aleutian Islands – Guadalcanal – Solomon Islands – Gilbert and Marshall Islands – Marianas and Palau – Volcano and Ryūkyū Islands

The Battle of the Aleutian Islands was a struggle over the Aleutian Islands, part of Alaska, in the Pacific campaign of World War II. A small Japanese force occupied the islands of Attu and Kiska but the remoteness of the islands and the difficulties of weather and terrain meant that it took nearly a year for a large U.S. force to eject them. The islands had very little strategic value for either side, but control of the Aleutians would prevent a possible U.S. attack across the Northern Pacific. Similarly, the U.S. feared that the islands would be used as bases from which to launch aerial assaults against the West Coast, and it became a matter of national pride to expel the first invaders to set foot on American soil since the War of 1812. But Japan lacked both a long-range bomber and the resources to establish and operate an air base in the Aleutians.

The battle, overshadowed by the simultaneous Battle of Guadalcanal, is known as the "Forgotten Battle." It is described in mainstream histories as a diversionary attack during the Battle of Midway and was in fact launched simultaneously under the same overall commander, Isoroku Yamamoto. Historians Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully made strong arguments in their 2005 book, Shattered Sword, against the theory that Operation AL was merely a diversion.^{[citation needed]}

1 The Japanese attack
2 The Allied response
3 Veterans
4 See also
5 References
6 Books
- 6.1 Web
- 6.2 Notes

[edit] The Japanese attack

On June 3 1942 Japanese bombers attacked Dutch Harbor on Unalaska Island. In bad weather, only half the planes found the target and little damage was done.

The Japanese invasions of Kiska on June 6, 1942 and Attu on June 7 initially met little resistance from the local Aleuts. Much of the native population of the islands had been forcibly evacuated before the invasion and interned in camps in the Alaska Panhandle, where many died of chronic disease. The 42 inhabitants who remained on Attu were taken to a prison camp near Otaru, Hokkaido. There, sixteen of them died.

[edit] The Allied response

In August 1942, the U.S. established an air base on Adak Island and began bombing Japanese positions on Kiska.

A naval force under Rear Admiral Charles McMorris was assigned to interdict the Japanese supply convoys. After the Battle of the Komandorski Islands, Japan abandoned its attempts to resupply its Aleutian garrisons by the surface. From then on, only submarines were used for the resupply runs.

On May 11, 1943, the operation to recapture Attu began. A shortage of landing craft, unsuitable beaches, and equipment that failed to operate in the appalling weather caused great difficulties in projecting any force against the Japanese. Many soldiers suffered from frostbite because essential supplies could not be landed, or having been landed, could not be moved to where they were needed, because vehicles would not work on the tundra. The Japanese defenders under Colonel Yamasaki did not contest the landings but rather dug in on high ground away from the shore. This battle produced some of the bloodiest fighting in the Pacific theatre, similar to the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. There were 3,929 U.S. casualties: 549 were killed, 1148 were injured, 1200 had severe cold injuries, 614 succumbed to disease, and 318 died of miscellaneous causes, largely Japanese booby traps and friendly fire.

On May 29, the last of the Japanese forces suddenly attacked near Massacre Bay in one of the largest banzai charges of the Pacific campaign. The charge, led by Colonel Yamasaki, penetrated U.S. lines far enough to encounter shocked rear-echelon units of the American force. After furious, brutal, close-quarter, and often hand-to-hand combat the Japanese force was killed almost to the last man: only 28 prisoners were taken, none of them an officer. U.S. burial teams counted 2,351 Japanese dead, but it was presumed that hundreds more had been buried by bombardments over the course of the battle.

On August 7, 1943, an invasion force of 34,426 Allied troops, including 5,300 Canadians, landed on Kiska, only to find the island completely abandoned. Under the cover of severe fogs, the Japanese had successfully removed their troops on July 28 without the Allied forces noticing. The Army Air Force had been bombing abandoned positions for more than a week. Allied casualties during the invasion nevertheless numbered 313, all from friendly fire, booby traps set out by the Japanese, disease, or frostbite.

Although plans were drawn up for attacking Northern Japan, these were not executed. Over 1500 sorties were flown against the Kuriles before the end of the war, including the Japanese base of Paramushiro, diverting 500 Japanese planes and 41,000 ground troops.

As of 2006, the Battle of the Aleutian Islands was the last military engagement between sovereign nations to be fought on U.S. soil.

Image:AttuSnow.jpg

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Aleutian Islands campaign

[edit] Veterans

The 2006 documentary film Red White Black & Blue features two veterans of the Attu Island campaign, Bill Jones and Andy Petrus. It is directed by Tom Putnam, and debuted at the 2006 Locarno International Film Festival in Locarno, Switzerland on August 4th, 2006.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] Books

Feinberg, Leonard (1992). Where the Williwaw Blows: The Aleutian Islands-World War II. Pilgrims' Process, Inc.. ISBN 0971060983.
Garfield, Brian The Thousand Mile War, Aurum Press, 1995 ISBN 1-84513-019-7
Goldstein, Donald M., Katherine V. Dillon (1992). The Williwaw War: The Arkansas National Guard in the Aleutians in World War. Fayettville, Arkansas, USA: University of Arkansas Press. ISBN 1557282420.
Morison, Samuel Eliot (1951 (Reprint 2001)). Aleutians, Gilberts and Marshalls, June 1942-April 1944, vol. 7 of History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. Champaign, Illinois, USA: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-316-58305-7.