Bitter cold could kill a man–softly, even kindly, but very, very quickly. Most of the soldiers who wintered on the Alaska Highway in 1942/43 survived, but the survivors would never forget the miserable experience. Reading their memories today still produces involuntary shudders. A soldier named Boos spent evenings with his four tent mates huddled next …
Category Archives: Extreme Cold
Bishop Coudert’s Frozen Dinner
Bishop Coudert grabbed a plate of hot food in the kitchen tent. By the time he got it to the mess tent, 120 feet away, it had frozen solid. William Griggs spilled gasoline on his clothing, it evaporated so fast that when he hurriedly peeled it off, skin came with it. No mere thermometer …
Uniforms
Uniforms presented the soldiers of the 97th their single worst problem during the awful Alaska winter of 1942/43. Senior commanders, the men ultimately responsible for providing adequate clothing and equipment apparently had other things on their minds—until the Washburn Report landed on their desks and the desks of their superior officers back in Washington. H. …
Send Food or Send Coffins
Send food or send coffins. Regimental Supply received that message from Company F’s commander at the beginning of January. A joke? Probably. But the 97th Engineers had endured a truly horrific winter and January threatened to take horrific to a whole new level. In November, thinking they had a brand-new land route to Alaska, Headquarters …
Stoves in Tents
Stoves, homemade stoves, in tents? Subarctic weather demanded that each tent have one. Green Wood and Chester’s Solution The heat, of course, thawed the dirt floor into slimy mud. Soldiers festooned their tents with strings, ropes and rigging from which hung clothing, rifles, photos–anything the soldier did not want on the ground. Less valuable gear …
Green Wood and Chester’s Solution
Green wood does not want to burn. Chester Russell and the soldiers of the 35th found no shortage of firewood as they gouged Alaska Highway out of the woods and over the mountains of British Columbia. But their rush north left no time to cut and stack wood, let alone let it dry and season. …
Subarctic Cold
Subarctic cold should have stopped the men building the Alaska Highway in 1942 dead in their tracks. To be sure, endless problems confronted them every step along their way and finding solutions and driving on rendered their achievement epic. But none of the endless list of obstacles—mountains, mud, muskeg, permafrost, mosquitoes and all the …
Chappie
Chappie, actually Chaplain William J. Brown, drove as many as two thousand miles a month up and down the Alaska Highway in 1943. He brought spiritual guidance to the men working to straighten and improve the Highway, and they nicknamed him Chappie. During that first year of its existence, the Alaska Highway offered only a …
Ice Posed the Biggest Problem in the Winter
Subarctic Cold and Vehicles Ice posed a much bigger problem than snow to the soldiers working on the Alaska Highway into the winter of 1942. When snow came, bulldozers and graders could remove it relatively easily. Ice was a different matter. At more than 250 places between Watson Lake and the Alaska border frequent icing …
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Subarctic Cold and Vehicles
Subarctic cold threatened vehicles then the vehicles threatened the men who drove them. Treacherous winter roads caused wrecks that killed and maimed. Relatively good traction, in severe cold, disappeared when temperatures warmed toward freezing. Griffith in his Trucking the Tote Road to Alaska remembered, “I have seen tools, chains, men and even trucks sliding down …