The FReeper Foxhole Remembers the Alcan Highway (1942-1943) - June 18th, 2004

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[SAMWolf]

Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.

...................................................................................... ...........................................

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History of the Alcan Highway

One of America's greatest engineering feats of the modern era, the construction of the Alaska Highway, celebrates its fiftieth anniversary this year. Compared in scale and logistical difficulty to the building of the Panama Canal, the highway was constructed in less than a year. Weather conditions reaching sixty below; short supplies; permafrost; muskeg; and swarms of mosquitoes, black flies, and no-seeums challenged the 11,000 army personnel and 7,500 civilians who blazed a pioneer trail through 1,600 miles of northern wilderness to create what we now call the Alaska Highway.

In the eighty years preceding the construction of the highway, ideas for a route connecting the territory with the lower forty-eight states ranged from a Western Union Telegraph line to William Gilpin's (first territorial governor of Colorado) grand vision of a cosmopolitan railway stretching from the U.S. to Alaska across the Bering Strait through Siberia and finally connecting with European railways.

In 1938 President Roosevelt created the Alaskan International Highway Commission which developed two surveyed routes to Alaska. Despite years of debate, the highway project remained on hold until the shock of Pearl Harbor destroyed the American myth of isolationism and a panic-stricken nation and government rushed into action. Fearful that the Japanese Navy would seize control of the shipping lanes in the North Pacific and cut off supplies to Alaska, Roosevelt finally approved the building of a highway on 11 February 1942. Construction began the following March.


Dawson Creek, British Columbia, the beginning of the 1,522 mile road. The sign marks mile 0.0.

Ignoring the Highway Commission's recommendations, U.S. Army engineers ran the Alaska Highway along an unsurveyed route from Dawson Creek in British Columbia to Fairbanks, Alaska.

The primary purpose of the highway was the defense and resupply of the "Alaska Skyway," a string of WWII airfields. The army selected the route by connecting the dots on a map marking existing airfields.

The highway was built under much protest from the Highway Commissioners who disapproved of the route chosen by the Army. Thomas Riggs, commission member, engineer, and former governor of Alaska, wrote that the route "is so absolutely out of the picture insofar as a highway to Alaska is concerned as to seem utterly absurd." The military justified their choice by pointing out that it was far enough inland to be safe from enemy attack and that pilots could follow the road to avoid getting lost.



Construction of the highway began simultaneously in five separate places with the goal of pushing through a pioneer road in a single season. Through the summer of 1942, engineers driving a fleet of twenty-ton bulldozers covered about six miles a day through the subarctic forest. Speed was the only measure of success. Crews attacked the trail, building without grades or curves, cutting a path wherever a bulldozer could go with reasonable ease and speed. The trail was not built for cars or trucks but for bulldozers.

Surveyors using aerial photographs to mark a rough trail through forest and across muskeg (grassy bog) barely managed to keep ahead of bushwackers and bulldozers. The heavy machinery was followed by gangs of soldiers who widened the road, laid culverts, and built small bridges.



The greatest construction hazard occurred during the summer when surface vegetation was removed from the frozen earth. Exposed to the sun, the permafrost melted into a black sludge, turning dry trails into impassable ditches that swallowed trucks and bulldozers alike. The only way to pass over the permafrost was to lay down a road of timber and brush, thus insulating the frozen ground so it would not melt.

When the formal completion of the pioneer road was celebrated on 20 November 1942, the road was all but impassable to any vehicle besides bulldozers. In 1943 the trail was developed into a standard highway by the U.S. Public Roads Administration and civilian contractors. Rebuilding nearly the entire trail, workers graded and blasted 25.4 million cubic yards of earth, straightening and shortening the route in the process by nearly 200 miles.



One of the original BSA motorcycles ridden over the proposed Highway route between Fairbanks and Seattle in 1939 to prove that it was a viable passage to the North It took two men seven months to complete the 2,000 mile trip. When the highway was built three years later it took a different route. University of Alaska, Fairbanks Highway repairs were almost nonexistent in 1946, and wartime travel restrictions remained in effect. Only travelers with legitimate business in Alaska or elsewhere along the road received permits to drive the highway. People who used the road were required to carry a supply of tools and spare parts including: two spare tires and tubes, tire chains, tire gauge, car tools, axe and shovel, spark plugs, distributor coil and points, condenser, brake fluid, tube repair kit, tire pump, jack, tow rope or cable, first aid kit, fan belt, light fuses, fuel pump kit, axle, generator brushes, and clutch parts. In 1948 travel restrictions were lifted, and scores of WWII veterans and their families traveled to Alaska to stake out homesteads in the northern frontier. Despite the influx of civilian traffic rugged conditions persisted, and the entire stretch of highway on Alaskan soil wasn't paved until 1960.



The highway forever altered the political, economic, social, and cultural life of America's northern frontier and its construction, linking Alaska with the lower forty-eight states, ended the isolation of the Territory and played an important part in helping transform Alaska into a state in 1959.

---

World War II, 1942-1943, Canadian Wilderness.
10,607 U.S. soldiers built a road 1,522 miles long in 8 months.
3,695 of these soldiers were Black men.


Back Row (l-r): Lt. Rives, Capt. Land, Lt. Rice, Lt. Lavelle
Front Row: 1st Pt. Sgt.McGee, Mess Sgt. Salter, 1st Sgt. T.C. Barnes, 1st Pt. Sgt. Spretley, Sup. Sgt. James Smith, 2nd Pt. Sgt. Witmore

Military policy during World War II decreed that Blacks would not be sent to northern climes or active duty, but after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the need for an inland route to Alaska appeared vital. Manpower was scarce, and segregated troops were shipped north under the leadership of white commanders... despite protest from the U.S. Army commander in Alaska, Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner, son of a Confederate general whose negative attitude toward Blacks was legendary.


93rd Engineers: The first of the three black regiments, the 93rd were led by Colonel Frank Johnson. Beginning their work at Teslin, they helped Lyon's 340th Engineers on the road to Whitehorse.(Picture from Twichell)

The construction of the 1,522 mile long road from Dawson Creek, British Colombia, to Fairbanks, Alaska through rugged, unmapped wilderness was heralded as a near impossible engineering feat. Many likened it to the building of the Panama Canal. There was much praise for soldiers who pushed it through in just eight months and twelve days. However, Black battalions were seldom mentioned in publicity releases, despite the fact that they numbered 3,695 in troop strength of 10,670.


Lt. Rice and Sgt. Barnes with Highway Platoon- Company A, 95th Engineers.

According to the testimony of their commanders, these men did an exceptional job under duress. Ill housed, often living in tents with insufficient clothing and monotonous food, they worked 20 hour days through a punishing winter. Temperatures hovered at 40-below-zero for weeks at a time. A new record low of -79 was established. The majority of these troops were from the South; yet, they persevered. On the highway's completion, many were decorated for their efforts and then sent off to active duty in Europe and the South Pacific. The veterans of the Army's Black Corps of Engineers were members of the 93rd, 95th, 97th and 388th units.


97th Engineers: Colonel Stephen Whipple led the 97th, the last of three black regiments, who accounted for 10,607 of the workers on ALCAN. The 97th worked in the northern third, helping the PRA and the 18th between Whitehorse and Big Delta, Alaska. (Picture from Twichell)

Due to the fine showing of these Black troops and others, the U.S. military integrated all units during the Korean Conflict, becoming the first government agency in the United States to do so.


Temperatures were often 30 or 40 degrees below freezing. A record -79 was set this year.
"We wore three pairs of socks at times, with rubber galoshes instead of shoes, because the leather would freeze. We had adequate clothing-- lined parkas, pants, mittens and heavy underwear, but it was still might cold. But I was a young man who felt he had a job to do, and I did it."
-Alexander Powel, Crane Operator, 97th Engineers

The road, originally called the Alaskan-Canadian Highway quickly adopted the shortened name Alcan Highway. Today, this road, known as the Alaska Highway, still provides the only land route to Alaska.

(Black Archives Research Center Museum, Florida A & M University)

[SAMWolf]

She's now certified to teach history in high skrool

Congratulations Msdrby! Now go out and mold some minds. :-)

[SAMWolf]

I recall reading that one of the things that outraged the British officers in the revolutionary war was the American practice of targeting officers.

Yeah they hated that. I guess it comes from a Society based on Class. Ok to shoot the underclass but it isn't cricket to shoot at the upper Class.

[SAMWolf]

SOme Britsh Naval officer, can't recall the name off hand, remarked something about "centuries to build a tradition". I think it applies to the British Army too.

[Valin]

And Sanitation Engineers deal with the aftermath

[Professional Engineer]

That's why God created bacteria.

[snippy_about_it]

This is sad news. Matthew, is there a way out of the EU now that the country has voted for it? By a future vote? By parliment?

[snippy_about_it]

Thank you Matt for the further explanation, please keep us informed as time goes by.

[snippy_about_it]

Congratulations. The kids she gets to teach will be the lucky ones!

[PhilDragoo]

1901 Jeanette MacDonald actress/singer (When I'm Calling You)

Alcanoepaddlespankencroonen

WARNING: Do not melt permafrost.

Required for 57 Chevy trucks on any highway, five rear ends.

This is one of many shipments of military vehicles and supplies that Northern Alberta Railways transported to Dawson Creek, British Columbia and Peace River, Alberta during World War II. The shipments were for construction of the Alaska Highway, as well as the refinery on the Mackenzie River at Norman Wells in the Northwest Territories. Three NAR officials inspect the train before it leaves Dunvegan Yards: (left to right) General Manager J.A. MacArthur, Assistant Superintendent Syd Bradburn, and Day Yardmaster Jack Vollans. Picture taken March 26, 1943. (Photo: A. Blyth Collection, BL50215)

Mosquitoes in tug of war over four by six.

Alcan motor home.

In other news, I called our Senator both at his capital city office and DC office, also the White House comment line, message being, I will vomit if our president says we will track these people down blah blah blah--

That we are sick and tired of "new tone", velvet gloves, political correctness--

That it is time to kick butt--

My smarter half indicated we don't even need to hunt them down to get started--I replied excitedly, "Why, yes, we have six hundred at Guantanamo who can start dying right away!"

Underwear on their heads? No, razor wire.

Whenever the bad boys do a number they drop a dime on the media to show up ready to roll tape--

Let no street celebration of jackasses stoning burning HumVees go un-daisy-cuttered--

Mecca=glass parking lot; we assume the Saudi oil production and the peninsula becomes our fiftieth state.

Paraphasing Patton, the object is not to lose your head--the object is to make the other bastard lose his.

[SAMWolf]

Evening Phil Dragoo

Alcanoepaddlespankencroonen

LOL!

Thanks for the great pics to go with the Alcan highway thread.

I agree with you about the velvet gloves. When we heard the news about Johnson, I told Snippy if I were in charge, I'd immediately take out about 50 Al Qaeda prisoners, line them up in front of a firing squad and execute them, making sure that any named in the terroists demands were included.

Predator drones would be waiting to drop in on any "photo ops" the terrorists stage to show off their AKs and RPGs.

Screw their "hearts and minds", put a few of these in their bodies.

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!!

[Professional Engineer]

Paraphasing Patton, the object is not to lose your head--the object is to make the other bastard lose his.

LOL bump