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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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Posted on 02/17/2003 5:36:32 AM PST by SAMWolf
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are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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The Forgotten War The Islands There are approximately 120 islands comprising the Aleutian chain that stretches from the tip of the Alaskan peninsula to within 90 miles of Kamchatka, Russia. The easternmost island, Unimak, is also the largest, measuring 65 by 22 miles. To the southwest is Unalaska, on the north coast of which is located Dutch Harbor. Unalaska is about 2,000 miles from both San Francisco and Honolulu. Continuing westward, in order, lie Umnak, Atka, and Adak. Kiska is 610 miles west of Dutch Harbor. Further west you will find Shemya, a small island located about 35 miles east of Attu. The Shemya landmass is only two by four miles, with the highest point being about 240 feet. Attu, the westernmost American island, is nearly 1,100 miles from the Alaskan mainland and 750 miles northeast of the northernmost of the Japanese Kurile Islands. Attu is about 20 by 35 miles, and has some fairly high mountainous terrain beginning just a short distance from its shore line, rising abruptly to altitudes of 3000 feet, and stretching through to the interior of the island. One writer of the time wrote, "Attu is the lonesomest spot this side of hell."  All the Aleutians are volcanic in origin. They are uniformly rocky and barren, with precipitous mountains (usually covered with snow) and scant vegetation. There are no trees on the islands, with the exception of a few stunted spruces at Dutch Harbor, and no brush. The lowlands are covered with a spongy tundra or muskeg as much as three feet thick, making walking very difficult. Below the tundra is volcanic ash, finely ground and water soaked to the consistency of slime. In many places water is trapped in ponds under the tundra. A man on foot may readily break through the tundra, sinking in watery mud up to his knees. Men have fallen into these bogs and have been lost. Motor vehicles, even those with caterpillar treads, quickly churn the tundra into a muddy mass in which sunken wheels and treads spin uselessly. The Aleutians, being unsuitable for agriculture, lacking in mineral resources, and with little possibility of commercial exploitation, received only slight attention after their acquisition from Russia in 1867. A chart of the coast lines were prepared by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey office. The Aleutian island's shorelines are jagged with submerged rock formations rendering navigation hazardous. The better anchorages, such as Dutch Harbor, are located in the easternmost islands, while the worst are located in the westernmost islands. Attu has four relatively unguarded bays...Holtz, Chichagof (the best), and Sarana on the northeast side, with Massacre Bay on the southeast side. Aleutian weather becomes progressively worse as you travel from the easternmost islands to the west. Attu weather is typified by cold, damp fog, often accompanied by snow or icy rain. The winds often reach velocities of more than 100 miles an hour. There are many days during the year where working outside is impossible. On Attu, five or six days a week are likely to be rainy, with hardly more than eight or ten clear days a year. The rest of the time, even if rain is not falling, fog of varying density is the rule rather than the exception. Shemya, located a short distance from Attu, suffers the same fate, but to not as great an extent due to the lack of mountainous terrain. This weather is highly localized, however, and areas of high visibility can be found within 20 miles of fog concentration! The average rainfall is around 40 to 50 inches throughout the islands, with the heaviest rains in fall and early winter.  Snow Scene Onboard Ship Squalls, known as "williwaws," sweep down from the island's mountainous areas with great force, sometimes reaching gale proportions within 30 minutes. The mountains are concentrated on the north sides of the islands, which results in strong off-shore winds that in turn make it difficult to find a lee along the north coasts. The columns of spray and mist resulting from the williwaws frequently resemble huge waterfalls. In the winter, the williwaws can cause snow to be blown right up your pant legs, with many having observed the phenomenon of snow blowing from the ground up! The Aleutian weather turned out to be a constant impediment to the military operations of the United States and Japan alike. Japan, however, enjoyed one advantage: the weather in this theater moves from west to east, resulting in Japan always knowing in advance the conditions which were likely to prevail in the islands. As a diversionary move in conjunction with their strike against Midway, the Japanese in June 1942 bombed Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Island chain and landed troops on Kiska and Attu islands. Here the Japanese remained, primarily in a defensive situation, to prevent any movement by American forces toward Japan through the Aleutians. Why Japan clung to its positions in the Aleutians after the battle of Midway is not known, but it is probable that Attu and Kiska were either going to provide the jumping-off places for future invasions of the North American continent, or merely provide advanced observation posts and defenses for the Empire. General Simon Buckner had proposed to attack Japan via a northern route, through the Aleutians, thus giving some credence to Japan's concerns about protecting their northern flank, which formulates the second reason for Japan's wanting to hold on to Kiska and Attu. A line drawn from Kiska through Attu and down to Midway Island would define Japan's eastern line of homeland defense.  Lieutenant General Hideichiro Higuda, commander of the Japanese Northern Army, said they wanted to break up any offensive action the Americans might contemplate against Japan by way of the Aleutians, to set up a barrier between the United States and Russia in the event Russia joined with the United States in its war against Japan (Russia at this time was neutral in terms of the Japanese conflict with America), and to make preparations through the construction of advanced airbases for future offensive actions. Japan's intent was brought to light on June 3, 1942, when Japanese carrier-borne aircraft flew out of the Aleutian fog and bombed the American installations at Dutch Harbor on the island of Unalaska. There were few casualties incurred with only minor damage to the Dutch Harbor facilities. Nevertheless, WWII now became more personal to those who lived in Alaska. News of this event took an inordinate amount of time to reach Americans living on the mainland's "lower 48."  At the same time, the Japanese 301st Independent Infantry Battalion landed on Attu via Chichagof Harbor. At this time Attu's population consisted of several Blue Fox, forty-five native Aleuts, and two Americans: Charles Foster Jones, a sixty year old ham radio operator and weather observer, and his wife Etta Jones, a teacher and trained nurse. They (with the exception of the fox) all lived in a little village of frame houses around Chichagof Harbor, maintaining a precarious existence by fishing, trapping the foxes, and weaving baskets. Missionaries, as well as government patrol boats and small fishing craft, provided the inhabitants with their only direct link with the outside world...except for the small radio operated by Mr. Jones. Mr. and Mrs. Jones, having heard of the Japanese atrocities committed against the Chinese during their conquests on that continent, attempted suicide as the Japanese invasion force began their sweep of the island. While Mr. Jones was successful, his wife Etta recovered under Japanese care. [Note: There are several variations on the story relating to the Jone's fate after the Japanese invasion of Attu. One story has it that the roles were reversed with Foster Jones being the schoolteacher. Another story has it that Foster was shot by the Japanese. Additionally, other stories indicate that Foster had a cache of guns in the mountains of Attu and that he was shot as he headed for his weapons.] For a short time, the Japanese occupational forces maintained the services of the Aleut fishermen to supply them with food. As the Japanese forces became more entrenched on Attu, Mrs. Jones and the entire Aleut population of the little village of Chichagof was transported in the hold of a freighter to Hokkaido, Japan for internment. Additional information indicates that Mrs. Jones was separated from the native Aleuts and interred at Yokohama (along with U.S. Navy personnel captured by the Japanese on Kiska), while the Aleuts were interred at Otaru, Hokkaido. The Japanese garrison now had the island of Attu entirely to themselves, and began setting up defensive positions. By the 11th of June 1942 it was evident that Japan had landed substantial forces on Kiska and Attu. The U.S. Navy's PatWing 4 (Patrol Wing 4) consisting of PBY Catalina's flying out of Atka, bombed the Japanese held positions on Kiska that same day. On the 12th of June, 1942, the U.S. Army's 11th Air Force heavy bombers made their first run over Kiska at 1200 feet, claiming hits on two Japanese cruisers and one destroyer. One B-24 Liberator was lost to the intense anti-aircraft fire originating chiefly from the Japanese ships in the harbor.  The rusted and scorched hulk of the bombed barracks ship Northwestern is part of the Dutch Harbor scene as is the whirling snow shipped up by constant williwaw, the eccentric and unpredictable winds of the Aleutians. At the extreme left a cargo ship unloads at dock. Kiska came to be regarded as the primary objective for re-conquest by American Forces. Not only was Kiska the most advanced Japanese threat to those Aleutian Islands remaining in America's possession and to the Alaskan/Canadian mainland, but it provided better potential air facilities from which to launch attacks against Japan, a more satisfactory harbor, and terrain more suitable for a base. In December, 1942 Rear Admiral F. W. Rockwell, Commander Amphibious Force Pacific Fleet was directed by CINCPAC to submit an estimate of the situation along with a plan for the reduction and occupation of Kiska. On 24 January 1943 Admiral Rockwell reported to CINCPAC that the earliest date of troop readiness would be about 1 May, 1943. Due to a severe shortage of equipment and transport, Admiral Kinkaid recommended on 3 March 1943 that the Kiska operation be tabled for the time being, and that an attack on Attu be substituted. The Commanding General, Alaska Defense Command, Maj. Gen. Simon Buckner agreed and CINCPAC directed Admiral Rockwell to plan an operation against Attu.  The plan as it evolved was to land the 7th Division on Attu in two forces. One would land north and the other south of the enemy positions. They would then converge at the top of a peninsula which would isolate the enemy.
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Thank God for that! And that our current president isn't either.
HAHAHAHAHA! Sam, I don't think the Frenchies need any more training for that!
I don't enjoy talking bad about French soldiers. They have many fine men. The failure in 1940 was in the Corp and Army (and higher) training doctrine and leadership. Caused by corrupt socialist political leadership. Even today la legion etrangier is a serious outfit.
But the Army realized he was not going to be a frontline combat officer, and figured that his technical ability with wire and wireless communications could be put to use in a nice safe backwater area of the war, and so a couple of months later they sent him off to the Aleutians. He was, among other things, the radio operator who received and passed along the messages transmitted by Charles Foster Jones detailing the initial Japanese attack.
Happily, the events which caught up with him there were neither his first time in combat nor the first time he'd taken fire personally. Though not trained as an Infantry officer, he successfully operated as one, and in one case led a neat ambush for a Japanese naval landing party that resulted in their complete annihilation and the capture of their two backpack radios, of much interest to those interested in intercepting Japanese tactical communications.
I still have the Japanese radioman's rifle that Granddad took from the radioman who no longer needed anything of this world, as well as the M1903 Springfield and M1911 pistol he took along when the Signal Corps tried to foist off an M1 carbine upon him; he'd been a competitor in the New Jersey state rifle matches in the 1920s and '30s and the idea of going to war with the pipsqueak carbine was a bit unsettling to him. Among his other accomplishments, he later served as the New Jersey state commander of the VFW, and he was still residing there when he passed away a couple of decades back. But he always had one foot planted in the American west, in New Mexico and Wyoming, and the Homestead Act property he developed remains in the family and will so long as I have my say about it.
And the Japanese tried to make war against a nation of such men. The fools.
-archy-/-
Thanks for the info. I am sure it was extra hard for you and others to leave behind your children.God bless you for your service to our great country.
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