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Bloody but forgotten WWII battle still haunts soldiers
http://www.wnct.com/ ^ | 5/28/18

Posted on 05/28/2018 2:39:19 PM PDT by BBell

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — William Roy Dover's memory of the World War II battle is as sharp as it was 75 years ago, even though it's been long forgotten by most everyone else.

His first sergeant rousted him from his pup tent around 2 a.m. when word came the Japanese were attacking and had maybe even gotten behind the American front line, on a desolate, unforgiving slab of an occupied island in the North Pacific.

"He was shouting, 'Get up! Get out!'" Dover said.

Dover and most of the American soldiers rushed to an embankment on what became known as Engineer Hill, the last gasp of the Japanese during the Battle of Attu , fought 75 years ago this month on Attu Island in Alaska's Aleutian chain.

"I had two friends that were too slow to get out," the 95-year-old Alabama farmer recalled. "They both got bayonetted in their pup tents."

Joseph Sasser, then a skinny 20-year-old from Cartharge, Mississippi, also found himself perched against the berm on Engineer Hill when a captain with a rifle took up a position about 10 feet (3 meters) away.

"I noticed about after 30 minutes or so, he was awfully quiet," Sasser said. "We checked to see if he had a pulse and if he was alive, and he was not.

"We didn't even know he had been shot," said Sasser, also 95.

American forces reclaimed remote Attu Island on May 30, 1943, after a 19-day campaign that is known as World War II's forgotten battle. Much of the fighting was hand-to-hand, waged in dense fog and winds of up to 120 mph (193 kph).

The battle for the Aleutian island was one of the deadliest in the Pacific in terms of the percentage of troops killed.

(Excerpt) Read more at wnct.com ...


TOPICS: History; Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: alaska; aleutians; attu; battle; battleofattu; worldwareleven; ww2; wwii
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To: rlmorel

Not to argue, but in the book they mentioned that the Japanese had special damage control crews whereas the Americans had everyone trained.


41 posted on 05/28/2018 5:27:35 PM PDT by ebshumidors
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To: Bulwyf
"I’m a history buff and did not know this. Thanks for posting.

As a vet myself I feel this man’s pain. We must never forget. We have a debt we can’t repay, but we owe to never let freedom slip away on our watch.
"

Agreed! You said it perfectly.


42 posted on 05/28/2018 5:34:27 PM PDT by familyop ("Welcome to Costco. I love you." - -Costco greeter in the movie, "Idiocracy")
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To: rlmorel

It was the codebreakers back at Pearl under Admiral Eddie Layton that broke the code. The fighter pilot who located the Japanese fleet was part-native American and his colleagues believed he had an uncanny sense that enabled him to detect the Japanese fleet. A colleague who was stationed in Alaska at the time, related how everyone stationed there knew that Midway was the turning point ending their further danger and considered it a bloody miracle.


43 posted on 05/28/2018 5:38:57 PM PDT by AmericanVictory (Should we be more like them or they more like we used to be?)
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To: rlmorel

Thanks for all that good information and the good points you make. You are very knowledgeable.

My Dad was a young captain who was Lt. General DeWitt’s aide de camp at the Presidio. Gen. DeWitt was the CO for part of the Aleutian campaign. Dad never made it to Alaska because he was sent to India. He had been in the Cavalry and was needed to transport mules and communication equipment for the CBI build up.


44 posted on 05/28/2018 5:51:13 PM PDT by laplata (Liberals/Progressives have diseased minds.)
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To: sargon

We don’t need that IHR BS here.

Not all Japanese residents were moved temporarily to the camps but only those who were higher risks (one example, with certain ties to the enemy overseas). They and their families were well cared for and comfortable. While training in schools, I’ve slept in some of the buildings used by them, which billets were far better than any of my training accommodations elsewhere.

We’ll do it again when necessary, too. Foreign identity enemies will not be allowed to attack us on our own soil. Americanize. Love it, or leave it. The anti-American revisionism will not prevail here.

As for Americans of German descent during the War, I’ve met many who were never in U.S. camps and none who were. Even the German prisoners of war were well treated in the U.S.A., allowed day release details, and many went on to become American land and business owners.

During World War 2, the Americans were the good ones—not the enemy. The very few remnants of the enemy are obviously trying to get somewhere with laughable feminist victimology, though.


45 posted on 05/28/2018 5:52:50 PM PDT by familyop ("Welcome to Costco. I love you." - -Costco greeter in the movie, "Idiocracy")
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To: laplata

Wow! He was probably on those mule teams to transport stuff over The Hump!

Your dad had some unique mid-Twentieth Century duty there! (of course, the axis powers used more horse and mule transport than we did, of that I am certain)


46 posted on 05/28/2018 6:00:24 PM PDT by rlmorel (Leftists: They believe in the "Invisible Hand" only when it is guided by government.)
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To: Inyo-Mono

The Aleutians were a bitch.


47 posted on 05/28/2018 6:07:29 PM PDT by Bonemaker (invictus maneo)
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To: rlmorel

He went over the Hump numerous times but it was by plane. He never mentioned mule trains going over the Hump. He liked the Sherpa guides they had.

He was with Gen. Stillwell when the Japs chased them. Then they definitely relied on mules.

Yes, the Germans were very reliant on horses and mules.

I have some neat pictures of hundreds of mules being led down some of the streets of San Francisco on their way to the docks.

One of the transports was torpedoed and they couldn’t save the mules so they went through the stalls and shot as many in the head as possible before the ship went down so they wouldn’t have an agonizing death by drowning.


48 posted on 05/28/2018 6:17:45 PM PDT by laplata (Liberals/Progressives have diseased minds.)
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To: painter

feint


49 posted on 05/28/2018 6:18:04 PM PDT by Mollypitcher1 (I have not yet begun to fight....John Paul Jones)
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To: laplata

I was speaking figuratively, I don’t know if anything went over the Himalayas by mule! (that is my ignorance speaking there...:)

Sigh. Terrible story about those mules, but it was the humane thing to do.


50 posted on 05/28/2018 6:26:41 PM PDT by rlmorel (Leftists: They believe in the "Invisible Hand" only when it is guided by government.)
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To: BBell

Bookmarking this thread.

Dutch Harbor I guess, one sees some pictures of that as well, was not on Attu Island I gather, read about Dutch Harbor here, so that was indeed, separate: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dutch_Harbor

The Atlantic had some pictures as well.
https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2011/08/world-war-ii-battle-of-midway-and-the-aleutian-campaign/100137/

How inhospitable and rough and forsaken were the terrains of these places.


51 posted on 05/28/2018 6:28:57 PM PDT by BeadCounter
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To: familyop
During World War 2, the Americans were the good ones—not the enemy.

Duh! I never suggested anything else.There's no need to try to project such ridiculously extreme sentiments into my opinion on American internment camps. America has saved the entire world's ass from extreme Tyranny at least twice.

Personally, I remain adamantly opposed to internment without a compelling reason. That's a personal opinion based on my assessment, in retrospect, of the available facts I've absorbed. I have no knowledge of this "IHR" you reference...

52 posted on 05/28/2018 6:30:41 PM PDT by sargon ("If the President doesn't drain the Swamp, the Swamp will drain the President.")
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To: Simon Foxx

The Japanese did not have enough tankers to operate as a unified fleet. Their carriers were based in the Home Islands, while much of their battle fleet road at anchor in the Dutch East Indies (where the fuel was). US submarines prevented all that oil from circulating freely withing the Japanese held Pacific areas.

After the loss of the Solomons the Japanese were planning for a major battle in their inner defensive ring where they could bring both wings of their fleet into play along with most of their airpower. In other words, “It was by design”. The IJN was husbanding their strength for a single battle that they hoped would prevent their eventual defeat.


53 posted on 05/28/2018 6:32:46 PM PDT by Tallguy
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To: painter

The word is “feint”.

L


54 posted on 05/28/2018 6:34:49 PM PDT by Lurker (President Trump isn't our last chance. President Trump is THEIR last chance.)
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To: Clutch Martin

Sounds like a fun place to be, but I’m not signing up right away.

I would like to make the drive from northern AB to Alaska sometime, but those islands will likely have to wait til another time.


55 posted on 05/28/2018 6:40:30 PM PDT by Bulwyf
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To: BBell
There is an excellent book named The Thousand Mile War by Brian Garfield about the battles in the Aleutian Archipelago. It documents the fact that the aircraft often had to fly a thousand miles for one mission. I remember seeing it for years around the house when I was growing up in Detroit. I finally read it years later when I was in my Twenties. I highly recommend it.
56 posted on 05/28/2018 6:42:24 PM PDT by gigster (Cogito, Ergo, Ronaldus Magnus Conservatus)
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To: Bulwyf

There is a sidestory to the battles of Attu and Kiska, plus the Japanese bombing of Dutch Harbor and other sites in the Aleutians/Alaskan chain of island.

This is off the top of my head because it has been about 10 years or more since I’ve seen these documents in the National Archives, College Park, Md. There was a husband and wife weather observatory team on one of those islands. Had been there for years but the Japanese invasion surprised them. The husband was captured, sent to Japan, where he died reportedly from maltreatment and/or malnourishment.

His wife was spirited away by some Aleut/natives in canoes during a fog to American lines.

Unfortunately I can’t recall the Record Group in w hich I found those documents. Could have been Army, Army Air Force (RG 18), Navy (BuShips? RG 19), or those for regional commands.

Don’t even know if any archivists there know about this incident but it has got to show up somewhere - best bet would be the “Weather Observation posts” reports for the Air Force and Army as they relied on these observers to report back flying conditions, storms, etc.

Somewhere in history, a brave husband and wife defied the Japanese to the end. An we must no forget the bravery and sacrifice of Alaskan natives who helped our fighters and civilians at great risk to themselves.


57 posted on 05/28/2018 6:59:14 PM PDT by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
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To: allendale
Japanese Navy did not demonstrate the same aggressive spirit.

From their POV, their ships were the personal property of the emperor. Sort of a big sword hanging over their heads if they lost their command.

The commander of the IJN destroyers that were trying to supply the IJA troops on Guadalcanal was pretty PO'd at being used as little more than a transport/supply group. Especially when he found out "The Tokyo Express" was the US name used to refer to his battle group's operations.

58 posted on 05/28/2018 7:16:02 PM PDT by Calvin Locke
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To: MadMax, the Grinning Reaper

Thank you for that information. Everyone knows of the main events in history, but I find it very interesting to hear stories such as this.

It reminds us what people gave up in the face of extreme hardship and mortal danger.

As I said earlier, we must never forget and we must honour their sacrifices with our dedication to liberty.


59 posted on 05/28/2018 7:17:28 PM PDT by Bulwyf
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To: gigster

“There is an excellent book named The Thousand Mile War by Brian Garfield about the battles in the Aleutian Archipelago.”

I just bought a copy on ebay FOR $3.00.


60 posted on 05/28/2018 7:59:00 PM PDT by bruoz
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