Getting supplies into the woods–the next big problem. In Yukon in June 1942 heavy equipment had made it into the interior and galvanized the progress of the 93rd. But General Hoge’s battle with the folks in Seattle, at the other end of his supply line, raged through June. Hoge had, several weeks earlier, urgently …
Category Archives: Alaska Highway
Down in Yukon
Down in Yukon the action in June 1942 centered on the black soldiers of the 93rd Engineers. Their equipment arrived. Out on the road just one company, Company C, rapidly acquired nine new dozers, three carryalls, a towed rooter plow, a galleon road grader, a gas operated crane shovel… With each dozer came light and …
Colonel Whipple’s Problem
Colonel Whipple, commander of the 97th in early 1942, understood very clearly that his bosses wanted him to keep his black soldiers away from Alaskans. Once he had his men off the Branch, he focused on getting them out of Valdez. Company E had walked through the snow directly off the dock, out to the …
The Demolished Dock
Port of Valdez in 1942 April 30, 1942. The SS David Branch has partially demolished the Valdez Dock; lashed to it anyway; is about to disgorge the black soldiers of the 97th Engineering Regiment. Anything or anybody coming off the David Branch would come to the narrow wooden dock and the warehouse, would traverse …
Valdez Offered a Point of Entry
Valdez offered a point of entry–sort of. Getting into Alaska and Northern Canada proved, over the years to be the biggest struggle for people who came to Alaska and Northern Canada. They found ways; and, in the finding, created a dramatic and fascinating history. Work on our next book has brought us to one of …
June 1942, Yukon
June 1942 in Yukon. What was going on The black soldiers of the 93rd Engineers hit their stride. Moving rapidly east from Tagish, Company A led the three companies of First Battalion on a mad dash through the woods. On June 4 Company A moved to bivouac seven miles east of the Tagish River just …
Seventy Miles of Road
Mid-June 1942, the action in Yukon centered squarely on the seventy miles of road from Carcross to the Teslin River and the men of the 93rd Engineers who fought to build it. Never recorded, long forgotten, the performance of the men of the 93rd—especially the men of Company A—during the first two weeks of June …
The River Route
June brought the War to the North Country—to the Aleutians. Down in Yukon the black men of the 93rd Engineers battled a less vicious but ultimately much tougher enemy—mother nature. The white soldiers of the 340th, though, mostly still battled confusion—battled themselves. General Hoge finally had heavy equipment on the way. It would begin to …
They Soldiered On
When the Japanese attacked, the men on the Alcan soldiered on. The Japanese Bomb Dutch Harbor In spring 1942 seven regiments of the Corps of Engineers had headed into the wilderness of British Columbia, Yukon and Alaska, trailed by mountains of equipment and swarms of support troops. They came to build a land route to …
The Japanese Bomb Dutch Harbor
The Japanese Bomb Dutch Harbor In late May two Japanese task forces had headed for the Aleutians and the United States Navy sent Admiral “Fuzzy” Theobald with a few ships to defend them. Japanese Plans Theobald deployed his ships in an arc facing south and west toward the oncoming Japanese force. He knew the futility …