Midway —screaming fighters, torpedo bombers, dying sailors and pilots, changed the course of WWII in the Pacific. But the great battle in the central Pacific had moving parts far to the north on the boundary between the North Pacific and the Bering Sea—Alaska’s Aleutian Island Chain. Even as a Japanese fleet tried to trap the …
Tag Archives: Dutch Harbor
Mike Gay’s Dad and Kiska in August
Mike Gay’s dad landed on Kiska at night. His First Special Service Force unit found plenty of misery—but no Japanese soldiers. Link to another story “Retaking the Islands” In response to their disaster on Attu, the Japanese had abandoned Kiska. Americans had even intercepted and decrypted the evacuation order, but one man on the ground …
Retaking the Islands
Retaking Kiska and Attu presented a daunting challenge, but America couldn’t leave the islands to the Japanese. In May 1943 the US Army’s 17th Infantry, sailed north from California, and on May 11, supported by Castner’s Cutthroats, Canadian recon units and the Canadian Air Force, they stormed ashore into a frigid hell. The Japanese had …
Lieutenants
Lieutenants? Where would the army be without them? In June 1942 Lt. Darrel M. Schumacher of the 340th Engineering Regiment cooled his heels in Skagway. He and his men would walk to the Teslin River as soon as the 93rd built them a trail. In the meantime, they waited. Then the Japanese bombed the American …
Emerging Alaska Highway
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 …
What Next?
What next? After attacking Dutch Harbor and occupying two islands, where would the Japanese War machine turn up next? The men who went north to build the Alaska Highway in 1942, left the rolling catastrophe of War with Japan behind. struggled to keep up with news of the war. But everyone understood one thing. The …
Admiral Yamamoto’s Plan
Admiral Yamamoto’s plan for June 1942 had more moving parts and more targets than just the Aleutians. Even as his two task forces sailed through the North Pacific to attack Dutch Harbor and occupy Kiska and Adak—to establish a toe hold on the American continent, the Admiral sent his main carrier force to Midway Island …
Icy Fog Defended Dutch Harbor
Icy fog, on June 3, had defended Dutch Harbor more effectively than the American Navy’s pilots and sailors. Half of the Japanese pilots couldn’t find the base. And if icy fog helped the Americans, luck helped even more. Knowing little about the layout of the base, Japanese pilots engaged targets at random. Flames and billowing …
Marauding Japanese Forces
Marauding Japanese hatched a plan that would do precisely what the men who ordered the Alaska Highway feared. They would attack North America through the Aleutians and Alaska. The simultaneous battle at Midway They dispatched two battle groups. Planes from the carrier group would assault the American naval base at Dutch Harbor. Soldiers from the …
Akutan Zero
Akutan lies just a few miles from Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands. In June 1942, flying away from the assault on the American naval base there, Petty Officer Koga’s luck ran out. Ground fire penetrated an oil line in the engine of Koga’s Zero. The Japanese Bomb Dutch Harbor Knowing his engine on the …