Battle for the Aleutians
American soldiers fight their way through ice and snow during the Battle of Attu (May 1943)
| date | June 6, 1942 to August 15, 1943 |
|---|---|
| place | Aleutian Islands off the coast of Alaska |
| output | American victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
|
United States Navy Thomas C. Kinkaid Francis W. Rockwell United States Army Albert E. Brown Archibald V. Arnold Simon B. Buckner Jr. Canadian Army George R. Pearkes Harry W. Foster |
|
| Troop strength | |
| about 144,000 soldiers 12,000 seafarers (during the two operations) |
8500 soldiers |
| losses | |
|
around 5300 casualties (1900 dead, 3400 wounded) |
about 2,800 dead |
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The Battle of the Aleutians was a military operation of the Pacific War in World War II , which took place in the extreme northwest of the United States near the Alaskan archipelago of the Aleutians .
Japanese forces occupied the two islands of Kiska and Attu in June 1942 . The invasion coincided with the Battle of Midway , so historians believe it may have been an - unsuccessful - attempt to divert the US Pacific Fleet ; in fact, the Aleutians were of no strategic value to either Japan or the United States. The remoteness of the islands and the difficult weather and terrain conditions meant that almost a year passed before the US was able to strike back. Attu was retaken by the US troops in May 1943, Kiska around two months later.
The battle was overshadowed by the synchronized battle of Guadalcanal and is therefore also called the "Forgotten Battle".
The Japanese attack
On June 3, 1942, Japanese bombers attacked Dutch Harbor on Unalaska . Because of the bad weather, only half of the planes found their target, so the damage was limited. The Japanese landings on Kiska on June 6, 1942 and Attu on June 7, met with little resistance. Most of the islands' native population, the Aleutians , had been forcibly evacuated prior to the invasion and interned in camps in the Alaska Panhandle , where many died of disease and malnutrition. The 42 remaining residents were taken to a prison camp near Otaru on Hokkaidō ; 16 of them died there.
The Allied Response
The capture of Kiska and Attu led the US to believe that the Japanese would use both islands as a base for air raids on the US coast. Japan, however, had neither long-range bombers nor the means to set up and maintain appropriate bases in the Aleutian Islands. Still, it became a question of national self-awareness to drive out the first invaders on American soil since the war of 1812 .
In August 1942, the US set up an air base on Adak and began bombing Japanese positions on Kiska. Naval forces under Rear Admiral Charles McMorris were assigned to interrupt the Japanese supply convoys. After the sea battle at the Komandorski Islands , the Japanese made no further attempts to supply their garrisons on the Aleutians with surplus forces. From then on, only submarines were used for supply.
Battle for Attu
The operation to recapture Attu ( Operation Landcrab ) began on May 11, 1943. The lack of landing craft, unsuitable beaches, and poor equipment made it very difficult to throw troops against the Japanese. Many soldiers suffered from chilblains because important supplies could not be landed or could not be delivered after they arrived because the vehicles did not work on the tundra . The Japanese defenders did not combat the troop landings, but they dug into high ground far from the beaches. The Americans lost 3,929 men: 1,481 casualties (549 fell in battle, 614 succumbed to epidemics and 318 died from various causes, mostly from Japanese booby traps and their own fire), 2,348 wounded (1,148 were wounded in combat, 1,200 suffered severe cold damage) and 100 missing . Overall, about 25% of American forces fell. On May 29, the last Japanese units were deliberately killed in a banzai attack in order not to be captured. American funeral squads counted 2,351 Japanese dead, but it is believed that hundreds more were buried during the fighting.
Landing on Kiska
On August 15, 1943, 34,426 Allied soldiers, including the First Special Service Force and the 7th Infantry Division , including 5300 Canadians, landed in Operation Cottage on Kiska and found it abandoned. The Japanese had successfully withdrawn their troops on July 28th without the Americans noticing. The US Air Force had bombed long-abandoned positions for more than a week.
Nevertheless, the Allies lost 313 men here through their own fire, Japanese booby traps, epidemics or frost damage.
To date, the battle for the Aleutians was the last skirmish between sovereign states that was fought on US soil.
Movies
- 1943: Report from the Aleutians - Documentary by John Huston
literature
- Samuel Eliot Morison : History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. Volume 7: Aleutians, Gilberts and Marshalls. University of Illinois Press, Champaign IL 2002, ISBN 0-252-07037-2 .
- Brian Garfield: Thousand-Mile War. World War II in Alaska and the Aleutians. University of Alaska Press, Fairbanks AK 1996, ISBN 0-912006-83-8 .
- Brian Lee Herder: The Aleutians 1942-43. Struggle for the North Pacific. Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2019, ISBN 978-1-4728-3254-2
Web links
- Logistic problems on Attu by Robert E. Burks
- The Aleut War
Individual evidence
- ^ Rhonda Roy: The Battle for Kiska. Originally Published in "Esprit de Corp Magazine", Volume 9 Issue 4 and Volume 9 Issue 5. In: Canadian Heroes. canadianheroes.org, May 13, 2002, accessed September 22, 2015 .