Battle of the Aleutian Islands

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Aleutian Islands campaign
Attu – Komandorski

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.^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}

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. Much of the native population of the islands — the Aleuts — 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 were taken to a prison camp near Otaru, Hokkaido. There, sixteen of them died.

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.

See also

• Attacks on United States territory in North America during World War II
• Organization of the Imperial Japanese Navy Alaskan Strike Group

External links

• [The Aleutian Campaign]
• [Logistics Problems on Attu] by Robert E. Burks.
• [Aleutian Islands Chronology]
• [Aleutian Islands War]
• [Aleutian Islands The U.S. Army Campaigns of World War II]
• [Red White Black & Blue - feature documentary about The Battle of Attu in the Aleutians during World War II]

References

• Garfield, Brian The Thousand Mile War, Aurum Press, 1995 ISBN1845130197

 

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