the battle of the aleutians

8/7/2019 The Battle of the Aleutians

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. /13THE BATTLE OF THE ALEUTIANS

In honor and memory of the men of the North Pacific Theater who diedso that a continent might be free

A chain of urisinkable aircraft carriers now stretchesacross the North Pacific rom the shores of Alaska tothe threshold of Japan. This small book is a partial recordof the men who fought for these Aleutian bases, and themen who built them into impregnable fortresses that historywill remember as the Northern Highway to Victory.


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O F U . S ,

PRODUCED B Y TH E INTELLIGENCE SECTION,FIELD FORCE HEADQUARTERS, ADAK , ALASKA

OCTOBER, 1943MAJOR HENRY W. HALL, Infantry

/nto//igcnce OfficerIllustrations, maps and layout . S G T . H A R R Y F L E T C H K RWritten by ........P L . D A S H I E L L H A M M E T T

CPL. ROBEBT COLODNY

Reproduction by detachment 29th Engineers stationedwith Headquarters Western Defense Command

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J_ H E L O Y A L C O U R A G E , vigorous energy and determined fortitude of ourarmed forcesin Alaska on land, in the air and on the water have turnedback the tide of Japanese invasion, ejected the enemy from our shoresand made a fortress of our last frontier. But this is only the beginning.We have opened the road to Tokyo; the shortest, most direct and mostdevastating to our enemies. May we soon travel that road to victory."

LIEUTENANT GENERAL, USA/


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B f K I

ATTU

KISKA

P A C I F I O C f A


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ENEMY A T T A C K . . . Dutch Harbor bombedW H E N , O N D ECEM B E R 7, 1941 the Japanese first attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor w e had, onall our Alaskan islands, only two small army posts and naval bases. One was on Kodiak Island. Theother w as at Dutch Harbor on Unalaska. In all wide-spread Alaska w e had but six small army posts.ft In June, 1942, the Japanese struck at Dutch Harbor. B ut this time they did not catch us napping.Two secret airfields had been hastily installed just east and west of Dutch Harbor. One was at Cold Bay,near the tip of the Alaska Peninsula. The other was on Umnak Island. The Blair Packing C o. andSaxton & Co . , supposed to be canners of fish, were the disguises these secret airfields wore, -f t On June2, 1942, two Japanese aircraft carriers were reported les s than 400 miles south of Kiska. They weremoving eastward. B ad weather fought against us there. Air reconnaissance was almost impossible. Patrolplanes would find the Japanese, only to lose them again in fog and storm before bombers could bebrought to the spot. B ad weather always played a part in Aleutian warfare, -f t On June 3, and againon June 4, bombers and fighters based on these carriers attacked Dutch Harbor. Bad weather foughtagainst American and Japanese alike. All available planes of the Eleventh Air Force had been rushedto our tw o secret airfields. They w ent up to meet the Japs, w ho had thought our nearest airfield was ondistant Kodiak. Many of the Japanese planes failed to return to their carriers. Bad weather had a lotto dowith that. B ut that same bad weather made it impossible for our planes to destroy the Japanese carriersor their convoying warships, - f t The enemy task force withdrew from Dutch Harbor, and occupiedKiska, some 700 miles to the w est , - f t W ar had come to the Aleutians to a chain of islands where modern armies had never fought before. Modern armies had never fought before on any field that was likethe Aleutians. W e could borrow no knowledge from the past. We would have to learn as w e went along,ho w to Jive and fight and w in in this ne w land, the least known part of our America.


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BERNGSEADUTCH HARBOR

+ATTU

KISKA **lADAKT | APACFCO C [ A N


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COUNTER-ATTACK .. fhe Occupation of AdakIHE N A V Y had a weather station on Kiska. When this station failed to send its usual reports afterJune 7th enemy interference was suspected. But not until June llth did the weather permit air reconnaissance. Then Japanese were seen on Kiska and Attu.-r The next day Eleventh Air Force bombersmade runs over Kiska, hitting and setting fi re to two cruisers and on e destroyer. - & Two days laterthe Japanese bombed a seaplane tender at Atka Island and, a week after that, began to reconnoiterAdak. The battle of the Aleutians was becoming a race for the possession of those islands in the chainwhich were suitable for landbased aviation. & Meanwhile we bombed and strafed Kiska and Attuwhenever the weather permitted, and our surface ships and submarines attacked Japanese shippingin Aleutian waters. On June 18th a transport was sunk inKiska Harbor. On July 4th tw o of our submarines sankthree, and possibly four, enemydestroyers. On August 7thU . S. warships shelled Kiska Harbor. On August 31st w etook our first Japanese prisoners in this theater five survivors of a destroyed Japanese submarine. & And onAugust 30th U . S . forces landed on Adak. & The firstlanding boat hit the beach at daylight, seven o'clock inthe morning. It was quiet. The men had embarked prepared for almost any kind of trouble, but, twelve hoursbefore they landed, news had come that there were noJapanese on the island. They had w on their race. They hadgotten there first. & And then trouble came, a willawaw, '

LANDRUM OF TH E ALEUTIANS


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iring those firs t days onAclak, chow was an informal affair. When therewas time to be spared, efforts were made to builda fir e to warm up suchdelicaciesas Spam and thelike tha t came in cans . . .the Aleutian soldier soonlearned tha t his was no "glamor" assignment. Thebattered ships tha t cameto port carried shells andengines and steel mats .

Voone knew when the Jap s wcome. Very rapidly the men of thecoas tartillery and theAA units prepared to welcome him with roaringmetal. Night and da y the crewsstood by their loaded guns. Theyknew that they guarded no t onlytheir bar ren island, bu t also the

^stepping stones to North America.^_

Landing operations in the Aleutiantheater were invariably carried outin the face of great danger. Seaswould be lashed into mountainouswaves by sudden gu sts of icy winds.The narrow beaches merged withthe treacherous tundra and mud, sodeep th at not even the wide-trackcats could move across it.


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the sudden wild wind of the Aleutians. Nobody knows ho w hard the wind can blow along these islandswhere the Bering meets the Pacific. Later there was a gauge to measure the wind on Adak, but it onlymeasured up to 1 1 0 miles an hour, and that was not always enough. The wind sometimes blew it overthe top. " & That first morning the wind stopped landing operations with only a portion of our forceashore and, by noon, had piled many of the landing boats on the beach. The men ashore had no tents,no shelters of any kind. They dug holes in the ground and crawled into them for protection againstwind and rain and cold. " ? When the wind had quieted enough to let the others come ashore, they toodug holes and lived like that while the cold, wet and backbreaking work of unloading ships by meansof small boats went on . & And they did what they had come to do . They built an airfield. They builtan airfield in twelve days. Engineers, infantrymen, artillerymen alike, they drained and leveled a tidewater flat and a creek bed, and by September 12th planes were taking off. " & On September 20th, anarmy task force occupied the island of Atka, sixty miles east of Adak. There, too, airfields, docks, andmilitary facilities were constructed. Atka became another link in our chain of Aleutian bases. & OnSeptember 14 th Adak bombers scored hits on three large cargo vessels at Kiska, sank tw o mine-sweepers,and straffed three midget submarines and a four-motored flying boat. Hundreds of miles had-beenlopped off our roundtrip distance to Kiska and Attu and back and to Paramushiru, the northernJapanese stronghold. & The Japanese retaliated with token bombings of Adak on October 2nd and3rd. The men on the island called the enemy flier Good Time Charlie because he came over around threeo'clock in the morning. Good Time Charlie did not worry them very much. They had built their airfield.Their job was now to maintain and protect it . They built docks and roads, and they moved from theirholes to tents, and then into quonsets and Pacific huts. They had more fuel now and could cook foodinstead of living on C rations, ^r W e had run our race for an island and won.


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BERNG f A

ADAK

P A C I f I C OCEAN


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COUNTER-ATTACK the Move on Amchitka\JVR A I R F I E L D on Adak w as a little more than 200 miles from the Japanese on Kiska, and nearly twicethat distance from Attu. Planes left Adak to strike at the Japanese every day that the weather let them.But there was another island on which planes could be based only seventy miles from Kiska. This wasAmchitka, on e of the flattest of the Aleutians. - U Scouting parties on Amchitka hid while Japanesereconnaissance planes circled overhead. In December our scouts reported that Japanese patrols had dugtest holes on Amchitka, hunting for suitable airfield sites. Another race for an Aleutian islandwas on .y V O n January 12 , 1943, U . S . forces landed on Amchitka. They came ashore as they had come ashoreat Adak wading through ic y surf. They came ashore from jam-packed freighters and transports and

barges that had sailed and be en towed through long daysand nights of fog and storm, fr Again bad weather hadno favorites. It kept the Japanese planes home at theirbases, and played havoc with our shipping. Not untiltwelve days later were our Amchitka forces attacked fromthe air. And they made good us e of those twelve days. < , -It was the story of Adak over again. M en toiling withoutrest in winter rain and wind, in the bitter cold surf of Con-stantine Harbor, through black Aleutian mud, over hardrock and heavy tundra. Unloading, carrying ashore, storing, protecting arms, ammunition, food, equipment, fueleven to the smallest kindling. For here in the Aleutians

. - . > < * the soldier'sneeds are many and the country can supplyWILD WIND IN TH E ALEUTIANS


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.a y 3rd , at 10:00 am,B-24's came to Amchitka. The crewsate a hot meal tha t was wailing forthem.The planes were serviced andtha t sameafternoon th ey were drop -ping bombs on Kiska!

where ihewindblows wes ton one side and east onthe other. Thera in falls inSiberia,and hits the Aleutians ideways, at sixtymiles an hour! A mancan't survive moreth an thirty minutesin the Bering Sea .

The world now lay somewhere beyond the fog and storm. When thedays work was done, the men tackledsuch "homey"problems as the washing of clothes in icy water. Lumberwas scarce. Packing cases were usedto fashion crude shelves, tables andchairs. But the pioneer instinct is _strong in the American soldier.


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him with literally nothing. No one who has not se en it can have any conception of the tremendousquantity of supplies an d equipment that m us t be moved from ship to shore. And, onc e ashore, allthis vast mountain of material had to be transported by hand. Vehicles were of little us e in those all-important early days of the occupation. And these men did wha t they ha d co me to do. They builttheir airfield. From January 24 th on, Japanese planes scouted an d bom bed Amchitka wheneve r weatherpermitted. But by February 18th a new fig hter strip wa s read y for Warhawks an d Lightnings. TheJapanese bombers came over no more. & The occupation of Amchitka, like the occupation of Adakfive months before, le t us still further increase the pressure on the Japanese at Attu and Kiska. Withintw o months our reconnaissance and bombing missions had fo rced the en em y to give up attempts tobring reinforcements an d supplies to Attu an d Kiska by surface vessels. & Aerial photographstaken on January 19th ha d revealed the beginnings of an en emy fighter strip south of Salmon Lagoon,on Kiska. This strip and another strip begun at about the same tim e an Attu were the targets forconstant attacks throughout the spring. As a result of these constant attacks, and of our success inkeeping supply ships from bringing adequate machinery to the islands, the Japanese failed to finisheither airfield. & W ith the occupation of Amchitka, the stage was set fo r a new pha se in the Aleutiancampaign. We ha d be en racing the Japanese for island bases. Now we were next door to the Japanese-held base of Kiska. Attu, the only other base the Japanese held in the Aleutians, was nearly tw ohundred miles farther away. Either island would have to be taken by force. And Kiska wa s the moreimportant of the two, as well as the more accessible, " fa It was decided to by-pass Kiska and tak e Attufirst. For this there were two reasons: (1) The Japanese were expecting us to attack Kiska, an d (2) withAttu in our hands we would have the Japs on Kiska not surrounded, for with the weather as violentas it is in the Aleutians no island ca n ev er be kept surrounded but pinched be tween our bases.

VUtel


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ATTU ISLAND

AANptP ."-''..''-- ''' '' ' ' '^

MASSACJ& BA Y

Fof^cp^ MtTH CR.E AMP 18


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ATTACK ... he Battle of AttuIHE J AP ANE SE had occupied Attu in June, 1942 . In mid-September a Jap infantry battalion moved fromAttu to Kiska. Our air reconnaissance first reported this movement on September 22nd. It is probablethat the Japanese either evacuated Attu completely or withdrew most of their forces at that time. ft Inlate October a reoccupation force from Japan reached Attu. Beach defenses were immediately co nstructed in both arms of Holtz Bay and the Japanese garrison was reinforced from time to time untilMarch 1943. By then there were about 2,200 men in the garrison. ft The most important mission of the Japanese garrison on Attu aside from defense of the island was the construction of an airfieldat the East Armof Holtz Bay. Thanks to Adak and Amchitka, our mastery of the air kept them from

accomplishing that mission, ft Attu is about forty mileslong, twenty wide, and its highest peak rises more than3,000 feet above the se a. ft On May 11 , 1943, after beingdelayed four days by bad weather, U . S. forces landed onthe island, ft From the very beginning the Japanese wereon the defensive, and made the most of the terrain for thatpurpose, ft The occupied portion of Attu w as divided bythe Japanese into two main defense sectors, (1) the HoltzBay sector, and (2) the Chichagof sector, which included

y Massacre Bay and Sarana Bay. ft Although they musthave expected a landing at Massacre Bay, the Japanesehad not organized beach defenses in that area. Insteadtheychose to defend the high ground at the northern end of

HUNTED DOWN IN HIS HOLES

N


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The enemy on Altu wastrapped and he knew it.He discarded ni l hope ofreinforcement or rescue.His one aim wa s lo kill asmany Americans as possible before he was killed.One night, a wild attackbroke through our lines.Then he was hunted downin his holes an d killed.

Tlie battle of Attu was not the turning point of the war. It was. however, the last stand of the invaderon North American soil. He ranaway fromKiska.Perhaps he learnedon Atlu that the American soldierwas more than bis match in battleskill, in courage, in rulhlessnessjor anything else.

Only a few of the Attu ga rrison were taken prisoner.With Kiska outflanked,the next goal of Americanforces was the strategicJapanese base at Paramu-shirn. Now the tables had

turned. Traffic onthe Aleutian chain

ran towards_Japan.


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Massacre Bay, 3,000 or 4,000 yards inland, and the valleys leading to Chichagof Harbor. The beachesof Chichagof Harbor and Holtz B ay were strongly defended against frontal attacks, but no protectionwas given to the area immediately north of Holtz Bay, and some of our forces landed there unopposed.In general, the enemy used the same tactics he had used and is still using in the Southwest Pacific.Though he lacked foliage and tropical growth, he prepared excellent camouflaged positions, and dottedthe terrain with fox holes, two-man caves and light machine gun and mortar positions. ? - ? Enemy riflefire was generally inaccurate, and the sniping, though annoying, was never a serious hindrance to ourprogress. But, in the early stages of the fight, small groups of Japanese with light machine guns andthe so-called "knee mortar" often had our troops hugging the ground, unable to advance. A - The constant use of "small group" tactics forced us to search thoroughly every square foot of area to our rearas well as on our flanks. Japanese would lie motionless for hours at a time. Their rifles and machineguns gave out no flash, no smoke, to betray their positions, The enemy on repeated occasionscounter-attacked against superior numbers in daylight, though it has been said that the Japanese attackonly at night, -fr The much-discussed fanatically reckless fighting spirit was shown by the small numberof prisoners we took, by their killing their wounded rather than letting them fall into our hands, and bysuch desperate kill-or-be-killed assaults as that of M ay 29th, in which every Japanese who could walktook part, some armed only with bayonets tied on the end of sticks, fv A last attempt to aid the Attugarrison by a formation of sixteen Japanese bombers wa s blocked by Eleventh Air Force fighters. Onlyfour of the enemy planes escaped destruction. They fled in the fog. < - , - The annihilation of the Japaneseat Chichagof Harbor wa s completed on Memorial Day, May 3 0, 1 9 4 3 . & An observer at Attu said,"American troops do their best fighting when they can close with the enemy and see what they are shooting at." On July 10th U. S. planes took off from Attu to bomb Paramushiru.


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B f SEA

KISKA

PACFCOCEAN


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RETREAT. . . Flight from KiskaWlTH A T T U in our hands the Japanese occupation of Kiska was doomed. And the Japanese knew it aswell as we did. < Kiska was first occupied on June 5, 19 42 , by a special landing party of 500 Japanesemarines. At the same time some twenty Japanese ships, including four transports, moved into KiskaHarbor. > In September the Kiska garrison wa s reinforced by about 2,000 additional personnel, and.at about this time, wa s placed under the command of Rear Admiral Akiyama. Shortly afterwards aninfantry battalion was moved to Kiska from Attu. In December 1 9 4 2 and January 1 9 4 3 additionalanti-aircraft units, engineers and infantry arrived at Kiska, and in the spring of 1 9 4 3 the tactical co mmand was transferred from the Imperial Navy to Ll . General Higuchi, commanding general of theNorthern Army, Japanese fighter and reconnaissanceplane replenishments, boxed and crated, came to the islandon the decks of small plane transports carrying seven tonine planes each trip. - .' B y air combat and by strafingplanes on the ground, the Eleventh Air Force whittled theJapanese air strength down as fast as new planes could bebrought in . At no time during the enemy occupation ofKiska did he have more than fourteen effective planes onhand. March and April 1 9 4 3 saw increasingly severebombing attacks on Kiska. O n March 26th, a light U. S.naval force engaged a heavier enemy fleet and foiled aneffort to run supply ships into Attu or Kiska. This wasprobably the last known Japanese attempt to supply either

THEY WORKED AROUND THE CLOCK


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During the first six months of 1943,elements of the llth Air Force released 3,000,000 pounds of bombson Kiska and Altu. In July, 900,000pounds of bombs hit Kiska alone.Liberators, Mitchells, Dauntlessdivebombers, Lightnings and War-hawks took part in the attacks.Island was l< > be made untenable.

During the early stages ofthe Aleutian campaign,reconnaissance planeswere used as bombers.Ground crews, workingaround the clork.fastenedtorpedo racks under thewings of the clumsy, slowmoving flying boats. Nowtin- besl planes that American technology can produce arc ready to take offfrom secure bases for theinn In Tokyo.

As this publication goes to press,the enemy's North Pacilic front ishack where it was on December 7,1941. TheTokyo war lords whooneedreamed of dictating peace in theWhile House are now franticallydiverting men and machines to pro-led their northern flank in theKurile Islands.


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island by large surface vessels. Enemy submarine activity in the waters around Kiska increased in latespring and early summer but was unsuccessful. A number of them were sunk by our naval forces. iB ad weather and our concentration on Attu gave Kiska some rest in May. Hu t after Attu fell we wentto work on Kiska in earnest. Throughout June and July the intensity of our attack increased almostdaily, During the first six months of 1943 the Eleventh Air Force dropped more than 3.00(1,000pounds of bombs on the enemy installations. After the fall of Attu this deadly power was concentratedon Kiska. Nearly 900,000 pounds of bombs were dropped on that island in July. Demolition, generalpurpose, incendiary and parachute fragmentation bombs were released from high level, medium level.deck level and dive approaches. Fuzes ranged from instantaneous to long delay. Liberators. Milchells.Dauntless dive bombers, Lightnings and Warhawks swooped over Kiska in coordinated and dclcnnmedattacks. Kiska Island was to be made untenable. The first indication of a possible Japanese attemptat evacuation came on July 10th, when a navy I'BY spotted four small cargo vessels between Kiska andJapan. Mitchells and Liberators sank one, left one sinking, and damaged the other two. " w " In aerialphotographs taken over Kiska from June 22nd on, other evidence of what might be preparations forevacuation were seen. This evidence included the destruction of some barracks, the removal of someguns, and unusual activity among barges in Kiska Harbor. On July 2


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the battle of the aleutians

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