HP112 Battle of the Aleutian Islands

My name is Jason Watts, I am the host of history podcast, the podcast that covers various topics in our human history. You can find out much more on the often updated historyonair.com website.

This episode is a request from Andrew Turnier via email. Andrew would like to know more about the Battle of the Aleutian Islands. Bare with me as I try to pronounce native Alaskan and Japanese names.

First off lets get a handle on where this place is. The Aleutian Islands are a chain of about 300 islands arcing west away from Alaska in the Pacific ocean. Before 1867 they were know as the Catherine Archipelago.

Russian explorers, traders, colonist and missionaries first came to the islands in 1741. Since the Russians discovered the islands they owned them until they transferred them and all their possessions in North America to the United States in 1867.

On June 3, 1942 a Japanese air-raid, evidently by carrier-borne aircraft, was made on the United States base of Dutch Harbor in the Island of Unalaska. Yes, that really is the name of the island and major town. This attack was a trivial affair and obviously intended as a diversion while landings were made at Attu, the westernmost of the Aleutians, and Kiska, not far from it on June 6 & 7, where there is a good harbor. Most of the native population of these two islands had already been forcibly evacuated and placed in internment camps. These islands were undefended.

In August 1942, the United States 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 attack the Japanese supply convoys. The naval battle on March 27, 1943, known as the "Battle of the Komandorski Islands," in which the U.S. fleet consisted of the heavy cruiser Salt Lake City, the old light cruiser Richmond and the destroyers Coghlan, Bailey, Dale and Monaghan, made the Japanese abandon attempts to resupply the Aleutian garrisons with surface vessels. From then on, only submarines were used for Japanese resupply runs.

The whole of these Aleutian operations, however, were in the nature of a diversion, for they preceded the main Japanese operation against Midway. The armada destined for Midway was located by American air reconnaissance and attacked from the air two days before it would have arrived off its objective. It comprised of warships of all classes together with transports carrying troops. The result of the American attacks, which continued for three days, were that four Japanese aircraft carriers, Kaga, Akagi, Soryn and Hiryn were sunk. Three battleships were damaged, one severely; two heavy cruisers were sunk, Mogaini and Mikuma, and three others were damaged; one light cruiser was damaged; three, and possibly four, destroyers were sunk. Four transports or cargo ships were hit by bombs or torpedoes, one or more most likely sunk. The casualties were estimated at about 4,800 men, including troops carried in transports. The four carriers had a total of 275 aircraft, all lost.

The Yorktown, a U. S. carrier was hit by both bombs and torpedoes and disabled, though 14 out of 18 Japanese bombers and all the 15 torpedo aircraft which attacked her were shot down. The Yorktown later sank. Land-based aircraft from the island struck the first blow and made the Japanese turn back. But carrier-based craft, launched as the Japanese returned, did even greater damage. The carrier planes, plus Army Flying Fortresses drove the Japanese back into the shelter of the mandates and the cover of thick weather with only the remnants of their mighty invasion fleet. The victory was the result of superb teamwork among Army, Navy, and Marine Corps flyers under the centralized command of Admiral Chester W. Nimitz. American casualties included 92 officers and 215 enlisted men.

On May 11, 1943, the operation to recapture Attu began. Included with the invasion force was a group of native Alaskan scouts known as Castner's Cutthroats. A shortage of landing craft, unsuitable beaches, and equipment that failed to operate in the appalling weather made it very difficult to bring any force to bear 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 Yasuyo Yamasaki did not contest the landings, but rather dug in on high ground away from the shore. This caused bloody fighting: there were 3,929 U.S. casualties: 549 were killed, 1,148 were injured, 1,200 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 June 27, U. S. Army bombers delivered a devastating attack on Wake Island, claiming to have leveled everything on its surface. They returned to base without loss of a plane.

On August 7, 1943, an invasion force of 34,426 Allied troops landed on Kiska. Castner's Cutthroats were part of the force, but the invasion force was made up of units primarily from the United States 7th Infantry Division. This invasion is also called Operation Cottage. The invasion force also included about 5,300 Canadians. The Canadians primarily came from the 13th Canadian Infantry Brigade of the 6th Canadian Infantry Division. The Canadian forces also included the Canadian component of the First Special Service Force, also known as the "Devil's Brigade").

The invasion force landed only to find the island abandoned. Under the cover of fog, the Japanese had successfully removed their troops on July 28 without the Allies noticing. The Army Air Force had been bombing abandoned positions for more than a week. On the day before the withdrawal, vessels of the United States Navy fought the inconclusive and possibly meaningless Battle of the Pips 80 miles to the west.

While the Japanese were gone before the invasion of Kiska was launched, Allied casualties during the operation nevertheless numbered 313. All of these casualties were the result of friendly fire, booby traps set out by the Japanese, disease, or frostbite. As was the case with Attu, Kiska offered an extremely hostile environment.

On August 17, a United States naval force landed marines on Makin Island, northernmost of the Gilbert group. Here they destroyed Japanese seaplane installations and withdrew.

Although plans were drawn up for attacking northern Japan, they were not executed. Over 1,500 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 2008, the Battle of the Aleutian Islands was the last military engagement between sovereign nations to be fought on U.S. soil.

The battle also marked the first time Canadian conscripts were sent to a combat zone in the Second World War. While the government had pledged not to send draftees overseas, the fact that the Aleutians were North American soil enabled the government to deploy them. There were cases of desertion before the brigade sailed for the Aleutians. In late 1944, the government changed its policy on draftees and sent 16,000 conscripts to Europe to take part in the fighting.

The battle also marked the first combat deployment of the First Special Service Force, though they also did not see any action.

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.

Random fact: Charlton Heston was stationed in the Aleutian Islands for the Army Air Force as a B-25 radio operator/gunner.

There is a three part video on Youtube about the Aleutian Island Battles. I will have links to them at historyonair.com.

YouTube Videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6vskWxorvo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P992l3TWRg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-L5cIoL1gw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vz5pu9kUGvE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJF3jT9Mgho

As much as I don't like using Wikipedia for source material it was a primary source in this article because of a lack of articles online.

However there are some books on this subject. If you want to learn more you can find a list of them on historyonair.com.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Cottage

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Aleutian_Islands