Emerging Alaska Highway, in June, had finally started rewarding the strenuous efforts of thousands of soldiers and civilians working through subarctic wilderness from Alaska south to Dawson Creek. Now came word of the Japanese in the Aleutians. None of them knew what to make of that. For some, of course, the Japanese assault justified their efforts, made the emerging highway more crucial. Others just wondered what the Japanese would do next.
Link to another story “Mortal Enemies”
In the 18th Regiment, working through Yukon, north of Whitehorse, frightened troops pictured the Japanese marching inland down the Yukon valleys and into the forests. The engineers had rifles, butt and muzzle protected by artic socks, wrapped in mattress covers. But they hadn’t unwrapped and actually fired the rifles in a very long time. Their training had been about road building, not combat, and they knew they couldn’t defend themselves.
Probably the single most important consequence for the soldier engineers on the ground came when the high command stopped mail service. At first blush, the mail interruption may not seem a big deal. But, however tenuously, mail connected the isolated soldiers of the Corps to the outside world that gave their efforts meaning. When it stopped, morale plummeted.
One young officer wrote from the motor pool at Jake’s Corner to his girl back home, telling her about the mail situation. One wonders how long it took her to get the letter.
“Friday June 12, 1942
“Dearest Helen,
“Air mail service has sort of called it quits since the last air raids on the coast of Alaska. Service has been stopped all together. The other day I did get a couple of Saturday Evening Posts from the boat mail, but outside of that I haven’t been getting any at all.”
The Battle of Dutch Harbor scared the soldiers on the road; severed their mental and emotional lifeline to the world; left them nervous, lonely and confused.
But they couldn’t do much about all of that.
Emerging, each morning, from a dank tent into cold rain, churned mud, splintered trees, and scattered equipment, each of them knew his job. The young officer in his motor pool at Jake’s Corner, the 340th in Skagway, the 18th north of Whitehorse, the 97th up in Alaska and four other regiments… They and their fellows up and down the road put their heads down and soldiered on.
Alot of the hyway was built by black troops that had never seem snow before.
That is exactly right. Our books, We Fought the Road and A Different Race tell the story of two of those segregated regiments. Both available on Amazon.
Lets never forget these boys.
Could not agree more.