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 …
Tag Archives: Alaska Highway in WWII
Mild-mannered Hero
Mild-mannered hero, Staff Sergeant Charles Davis, turned up in a story in the Pittsburgh Courier in early 1944. The reporter actually described him as a “slight and mild-mannered” black soldier and then went on to relate not one, but two incredible stories about mild mannered Sergeant Davis. Link to another story “Rough Draft of …
Big Devil Swamp Ate a Dozer
Big Devil Swamp swallowed a Company B bulldozer whole in June 1942 and immortalized the Company’s commander, Captain Pollock. Commanding General Hoge had assigned the Black soldiers of the 93rd Engineers to create a path from Carcross to the Teslin River. The white soldiers of the 340th Engineers would use it to get to their …
Motor Pool
Motor Pool–the soldiers of the 93rd Engineers needed one desperately. And locating one and getting heavy equipment to it presented a problem. In May 1942 the black soldiers of the 93rd Engineers plunged through Yukon’s forbidding wilderness working with a couple of borrowed bulldozers and hand tools. But Ships carrying their heavy equipment steamed out …
Cairns along the Highway
Cairns near Nisutlin Bay mark the final resting places for two men who came to the Highway and never left. Link to another story “Bonner and Bess and the Memorial Cairns” James Miller, who drove a tractor trailer truck up and down the Alaska Highway back when it was still dirt and gravel commented on …
Christmas 1942
Christmas 1942 found the black soldiers and the white officers of the 93rd Engineers deep in Yukon. In our book, We Fought the Road, we shared two memories from that day. For December 25, 2020 my Christmas present to all of you is to share those memories here. Link to another story “Dear Pop” For …
Vivid Memories and Christmas on the Highway
Vivid memories of his time as a civilian surveyor on the Alaska Highway stayed with Joseph Hutlas for the rest of his life. Dances and a Christmas Eve service may have been the most vivid of all. Link to another story “Burwash Bounce” He told his stories to Donna Blazor Bernhardt and she included some …
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All Hell Broke Loose
All hell broke loose when the US Army invaded little Skagway, Alaska in the spring of 1942. Endless ships of every description came up the Lynn Canal, tied up in Skagway’s harbor and disgorged soldiers—thousands of soldiers—then turned and went back for more. For old timers the sudden arrival of the Corps brought memories of …
Lunging Dozers
Link to another story “Dumb Going Up There” Lunging dozers tried hard to solve a big problem for the soldiers of the 35th Engineers at Muncho Lake, four hundred sixty miles out from Dawson Creek. The Lunging dozers failed. But one very creative and damned courageous soldier, Lt. Miletech, succeeded. Tall mountain cliffs bordered Muncho …
Colonel Hoge
Colonel Hoge, William Hoge, of the United States Army Corps of Engineers stepped onto the platform of the Dawson Creek railroad station seventy-eight years ago this past February. In early 1942, his country, suddenly at war with the Empire of Japan found its Alaska outpost in dire danger. Its Army needed a land route from …