The Aleutian Island Campaign

[bashfulbrother]

My Father fought in the Aleutian Island Campaign in WW2.
He was a mess sergeant and was present at Dutch Harbor on June 3rd. This was the start of the Midway Battle Campaign by the Japanese. He said that they came in on June 2 at night and in the morning "they had bombs for breatkfast".
The Japanese had gone up the chain of islands during the early part of 1942 knowing that they would soon begin the Midway battles. They placed snipers on the islands, gave them food (basket of dried fish, basket of rice), then told them to find a hole and when the action started they were to go to work.
My dad said that he would always feed his men before daylight so that the bombers wouldn't be able to take out a lot of the guys.
As the Campaign moved on the snipers had run out of food and were starving. He said that every so often they would catch one of these snipers going through to chow lines as they couldn't take the smell of the food.

He told us that on Attu, the Japanese earlier in 42 had built a sub bay and a landing strip for bombers. When the US finally landed on the island it was quite bloody. He told me how they had surrounded a group of Japanese soldiers, 27 of them, and rather than surrender they all committed suicide.

Most people don't know about the Aleutian Islands Campaign. But the Japs at one time were very close to American Mainland.

 

[Stearmen]

Kuril Islands

Most people don't know about the Aleutian Islands Campaign. But the Japs at one time were very close to American Mainland.

I have posted on this sight a couple of times on the Aleutian war. Mainly about the Navy Aviators that flew the Lockheed PV1 Ventura on the long flights to attack the Kuril islands. Very fascinating, unfortunately, even with the members of this sight, few care!

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

My uncle was there. I did not even realize how intense the battle was until I read about it, and my mother told me he never talked about it.
It really does get overlooked in the shadow of the other more well known theaters of the war. Thus the importance of it is not realized. If the Japanese navy had not suffered the setback of Midway, they may well have island hopped their way into the continental U.S., just as we had done in the South Pacific.
Scary thought really.

 

[bashfulbrother]

My dad used to talk about planes coming in all shot up and missing the runway. He said that the planes would simply fly off the end of the runway and sink in the Ocean with all on board.
The army-in it's usual propensity for efficiency-sent mostly the soldiers from the southern part of the states up there. So when my dad, who was raised in Wisconsin, came back he had a southern accent. Too funny.
When they came into one of the islands they had softened the beaches. They made their landing at night, and there was 3 feet of fresh snow on the ground. He said that he and his guys set up their tent and they put a stove in the corner to heat the tent. They hit the sack to get a couple hours of sleep and about 2 hours later they were awoken by a terrible smell. It turned out that they had set the stove on top of a Japanese soldiers body and the stove was cooking it. Pretty nasty.

 

[Espee]

My late father was a bit of a "buff" on the Aleutians battles having been stationed there as a truck driver. But he was old enough that he didn't go in the Army until late '44 when the draft was expanded.
Later he expressed interest in "one of those cruises to Alaska" but my mom told him he'd be going by himself.

 

[Mr. 'H']

Gentlemen - I assume you're all familiar with director John Huston's documentary? I wrote a paper on it (and Huston's 2 other war documentaries) if anyone's interested. I am a big fan of his work and segued into an interest in the Aleutian campaign through this documentary and its production history:

[video=youtube;XFGkrT4Vd4E]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFGkrT4Vd4E[/video]

 

[cco23i]

We are working on our Navy impressions for the PV-2, it was used late war and flew out of the area.

Scott

 

[Widebrim]

My father was in the Aleutian Campaign on Attu (I've written about it elsewhere). He was an Infantryman with K Company, 3rd Battalion, 17th Inf. Reg., 7th Inf. Div. Of all the other campaigns he went through (Kwajalein, Leyte, Okinawa), this was the one that he told me the most about, and the one he often remembered come every month of May. He had written to my mom that the fiercest Japanese fighting he experienced was on Okinawa, but Attu was were he experienced extreme cold, a banzai, and was first wounded. The campaign is remembered by war buffs to a certain extent, but while many people have heard of Okinawa and Iwo Jima, it seems that few know of Attu.

 

[Burton]

I spent over three years out on Shemya at the end of the Aleutian Island chain and the thing that will always stick out in my mind was the terrible weather. Cold winters with high winds and miserable summers with fog that lasts for months. As other posters have mentioned it doesnt get the same press as other WWII battlefields but in my mind as one that has been to and lived on (New Guinea, Midway, Kwajalein and now Wake Island) the Aleutian campaign was awful.

 

[1961MJS]

I spent over three years out on Shemya at the end of the Aleutian Island chain and the thing that will always stick out in my mind was the terrible weather. Cold winters with high winds and miserable summers with fog that lasts for months. As other posters have mentioned it doesnt get the same press as other WWII battlefields but in my mind as one that has been to and lived on (New Guinea, Midway, Kwajalein and now Wake Island) the Aleutian campaign was awful.

Hi, from my reading of "The Thousand Mile War", after Kiska was taken, an army was kept in the Aleutians in preparation for invading the north island of Japan. These guys had little or nothing to do. With the prevailing weather, their main problem was boredom, and the main source of casualties was from suicide. I can't say as I blame them...

Later

 

[Widebrim]

^^That would have a terrible place to be stationed. Charlton Heston was posted there at that time with the Army.

 

[Chasseur]

As mentioned earlier a fun intro read is Brian Garfield's "Thousand Mile War." Lots of interesting aspects to the campaign the US learning in how to re-take islands (battle for Attu), a "big gun ship" cruiser battle without aircraft carriers (the Battle of the Komandorskis), US raids on the Kurils, the development of the Alaska Highway, etc. Similar to the others my grandfather was assigned to the theatre for most of the war. He was on the USS Avocet (a seaplane tender) and after the Pearl Harbor attack it spent several years as part of Fleet Air Wing 4 servicing Catalinas in Alaska. He was an advid fisherman but was sent to Alaska without any fishing equipment so he used to tell a funny story of wadding shallow streams with a big rock to hit salmon over the head with for his first "Alaskan fishing experience."

Chasseur edit: As Widebrim well said I got Attu and Kiska mixed up (hey I was still drinking my first cup of morning coffee!)

 

[Widebrim]

When the U.S. Army got to Kiska, it found some dogs and a dead Japanese soldier. The Imperial forces had slipped out the night before under the cover of fog.

 

[Tomasso]

As a child of 7 or 8 years old I was playing with the neighbor's kids at their house when we stumbled upon a box containing photos taken during their father's military service. One of the photos was of him holding the severed heads of a Japanese soldier in either hand, by their hair. It was shocking to see and we must have made a commotion because their mother swooped in and took the photos away. All of our subsequent questions about the photo were rebuffed by our parents.

Years later as an adult I asked the man, who we called Uncle Jack, about the story behind the photo. He said the photo was taken in the Aleutian Islands where he was part of one of the small exploratory forces that were dropped off on various smaller islands to look for Japanese soldiers. If they found any enemy presence, dead or alive, they would call for more troops.

On the occasion that the photo was taken they had found a few of the enemy, engaged them and killed them. Someone in their group who had a camera had the idea to decapitate the dead enemy and pose with them in trophy photos. When the subsequent troops landed on the island many wanted the same photo-op so Uncle Jack, ever the entrepreneur, started charging a couple bucks for the service. From then on they took every opportunity to set up their photography business, which by his account was fairly lucrative.

I recall Uncle Jack making the point, several times, that the enemy were already dead when they were decapitated. I took it to mean that he didn't want me to think that it was an act of torture.

 

[bashfulbrother]

My father told me that at one time they were on an island and they got hit with a storm that lasted 3 weeks straight. He said that they couldn't get any supplies in as the waters were too rough.
One of the things he said was that all of the guys would eat everything that he made except green beans. So he would take the green beans that he was sent and stash them in their storage tents.
So the storm hits and they run out of food. He and his crew go out to the streams and start taking salmon. He said that for 2 week straight they ate green beans and salmon breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

 

[adouglasmhor]

First model aeroplane I made as a kid in the 60s was an Aleutian Tiger P-40.

 

[Mr Vim]

There are some great exhibits in the State museums in Juneau and Anchorage about the Campaign. A lot of weapons and placements are still on the Aleutians, just sitting out there exposed to wind, rain and snow. Some spots are so deserted I wouldn't be surprised what you would find.

 

[Story]

The VA is still tracking down the few surviving members of the World War II Alaska Territorial Guard or delivering benefits to their next of kin.
http://www.npr.org/2013/05/28/186485619/forgotten-for-decades-wwii-alaskans-finally-get-their-due