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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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Now go finish emptying the dishwasher!!
Yep, sounds like Alaska to me.
CAMP LEJEUNE, N. C. - Stone Street Elementary School, which sits deep inside this 153,000-acre Marine base, is a bit different from most schools. Nearly all of its 380 students are sons and daughters of Marines.
We did a whole thread on them earlier this month
Six months ahead of schedule and only a year and three days after her keel laying, the 10,000-ton light cruiser SANTA FE was poised on greased ways at the New York Shipbuilding Company's Camden, New Jersey yards, on 7 June 1942. Outfitted in beige and sporting a bouquet of red roses, 14-year-old Caroline Trevelyan Chavez shared the christening platform with top Army-Navy officers, friends and relatives, yard officials, and Santa Fe's Mayor Manuel Lujan.
For the youthful sponsor, niece of New Mexico's Senator Dennis Chavez, and for the capital city of New Mexico (the first time a U.S. Navy ship had been named SANTA FE) it was a red-letter day. At 1203 the light cruiser began slipping down stern-first into the Delaware River and Miss Chavez working fast, crashed a bottle of Santa Fe River water against the warship's sharp prow.
Not until November 1942 was the crack CLEVELAND Class Cruiser ready for U. S. Fleet service. Bristling with a dozen 6-inch guns in her main battery, and another dozen 5-inchers in her secondary battery, equipped with the most recent radar developments, the SANTA FE was then delivered to the Philadelphia Navy Yard. When USS SANTA FE was placed in commission 24 November, 1942, Captain (now Rear Admiral) Russel S. Berkey, USN embarked as her first Commanding Officer.
Escorted by destroyer-mine sweeper JEFFERS, the cruiser stood out of Philadelphia 11 January 1943 and moved down the coast to Norfolk. In the Norfolk area from 12 January through 15 February, with the exception of a 3-day breather at Annapolis, Skipper Berkey conned his new command through the prescribed curriculum of rigorous fitting out and shakedown training. During this period the 1200-odd sailors designated to fight the SANTA FE worked, under simulated battle conditions, to acquaint themselves with the intricacies of her engineering plant, her fire control and communication systems. By 16 February the cruiser was back in Philadelphia.
Assigned to Cruiser Division 13, USS SANTA FE left Philadelphia in her wake on the 1st of March. She nosed south in the Atlantic together with the destroyer STANLY, transitted the Panama Canal 5 March, and reached California's San Pedro Naval Base on the 13th. In view of the crucial need for more seapower in the Pacific forward areas, little time was wasted in routing the SANTA FE to Pearl Harbor; four days at San Pedro and she was underway. Gunnery exercises were conducted throughout the voyage, which ended when SANTA FE lookouts sighted Diamond Head on 23 March 1943.
Ever since the Japanese snatched Attu, Kiska and Agattu, craggy studs in the fog-swept Aleutian chain, U.S. Pacific plotters stood ready to erase this alarming threat to the Northwestern United States whenever sufficient forces became available. Spring of 1943 saw the enemy relaxing his hold on the New Guinea -- New Britain -- Solomon islands arc, warranting the allocation of enough ships, planes and troops for an all-out effort in the Northern Pacific. Designated to assist in ousting the enemy from the Aleutians, light cruiser SANTA FE completed refresher training at Pearl Harbor, fueled and provisioned, and set sail for desolate Adak Island 15 April 1943.
With its blasts that sometimes reach velocities well above 100 knots and which roll up unbelievably gigantic seas of 50 to 70 feet trough to crest, the Northern Pacific was the global war’s most rugged theater from the climatic standpoint, a storm-lashed proving ground for both ships and men. Into Adak's Kuluk Bay sailed the SANTA FE on 20 April, her log slated to record four arduous months of campaigning.
USS SANTA FE sailed from Kuluk Bay on 21 April with a cruiser-destroyer detachment labeled task Group 16.6. Through howling williwaws which swooped out of the Bering Sea, the flotilla moved out to Attu, terminus of the Aleutians. Ice coated the SANTA FE from sharp bow to blunt stern as she and the others patrolled west of Attu Island without incident. Climaxing the sortie, Task Group 16.6 unleashed a long-range bombardment on Attu installations 26 April. Inaccurate return fire from ashore failed to hamper the precision shelling and SANTA FE returned to Kuluk Bay on 28 April 1943.
Task Group 16.6 topped off with fuel at Adak, went out again 29 April to resume reconnaissance of Attu’s western approaches. While patrolling, the SANTA FE had contact with one enemy submarine on the 1st of May, another on the 4th. Contact on both occasions was lost before it could be acted upon. On 11 May cruiser SANTA FE closed to about 60 miles southwest of Attu to act as part of the covering force for the amphibious landings on that island.
With the lid blown off the Aleutian powder keg, the U. S. plan was obvious. Rear Admiral Francis W. Rockwell and Major General Eugene M. Landrum had teamed to take Attu, bypassing Kiska, and rendering it untenable so that it might be plucked like an overripe plum at a later date. While the SANTA FE roamed off embattled Attu to prevent enemy reinforcement, elements of the 4th and 7th Infantry Divisions slugged their way in from two points, i.e. , Holtz Bay in the north and Massacre Bay about five miles across the island to the south. Dodging mortar shells in foxholes filled with icy water, plodding through molasses-like mud, their bodies numb from cold, the U.S. butted and bayoneted their way to Chichagof Harbor.
Shadowing Attu from seaward, the SANTA FE again experienced submarine encounters on 14 and 16 May, neither of which materialized. On 24 May she terminated her 3-week patrol, returned with other units to Adak on the 26th. Back on snowy Attu, Colonel Yamazaki announced 28 may that his frost-bitten garrison would make a last desperate banzai charge. Shortly after midnight they came howling en masse up the valley from Chichagof toward the American artillery positions beyond Clevesy Pass. Those few who were not killed by the Americans chose suicide rather than surrender. On 30 May 1943, with only a few snipers remaining to be hunted down, Chichagof was occupied without opposition.
Cruisers WICHITA, SAN FRANCISCO, LOUISVILLE, , SANTA FE, and four destroyers swarmed out of Kuluk Bay 20 May and set sail westward to the patrol area. Captain Berkey’s warship remained north of Kiska (centered about Lat. 54-30N, Long. 176-30E) until 17 June, returned with Task Group 16. 8 to Adak on the 18th.
June 27th saw the SANTA FE departing Adak for another sortie with the heavy cruisers, destroyers and two battleships arrayed north of Attu. She fueled 3 July and passed the next day down through Amchitka Pass. Early on the 5th SANTA FE radar picked up a submarine but the contact faded out two minutes after the cruiser cut loose with her guns. On 6 July the four cruisers moved in through soupy summer fog to rock Kiska. SANTA FE's 6-inch guns pumped shells into the silent shores, knocking out a coastal defense battery and scoring hits on anti-aircraft emplacements. Then the ship ranged south of Kiska, holding training exercises daily until the 13th of July when she went to Adak for upkeep.
Adhering to the rigorous in-and-out routine which was the lot of U.S. Naval units in the Aleutians at that time, the SANTA FE departed Adak 20 July in company with Task Group 16.7. She proceeded to the Kiska area and, on 22 July, administered a second sound drubbing at long range, using radar control. When her cannonading was over, the SANTA FE took up a patrol to the southwest in anticipation of intercepting an enemy cruiser-destroyer force reported approaching the Aleutian chain. This force failed to appear and on 31 July 1943 the SANTA FE steamed Adak-bound out of the operating area.
The last of the SANTA FE's pro-invasion prowls around Kiska commenced 3 August, as the cruiser went out from Kuluk Bay with Task Group 16.7. After an uneventful patrol north of Kiska, the SANTA FE returned to Adak 9 August. American reoccupation of Kiska, 175 miles east of captured Attu, was about to be realized as the strongest amphibious force ever mounted in the North Pacific readied for the onset. In a gunfire support unit, the SANTA FE got underway for the Island push on 13 August 1943.
Radar took over the SANTA FE's guns as she moved in through a swirling blanket of fog to hit Kiska's Gertrude Cove 15 August. At 6,000 to 10,000 yard s, CL 60 pounded invisible targets on shore while U.S. troops broke into Quisling Cove on the northwest coast and began probing camouflaged enemy positions. But Kiska was as void of Japanese as Times Square after Pearl Harbor. (Two light cruisers and ten destroyers had sneaked off in zero visibility with Kiska's 5,100 defenders on 29 July.) With the abandonment of their largest Aleutian base, the Japanese were through in the Northern Pacific. Light cruiser SANTA FE stood off Gertrude Cove until 19 August, retired to Adak on the 20th.
Detached from ComNorPac, cruiser SANTA FE jubilantly cleared Kuluk Bay 25 August 1943. Thawing as she sailed southward, the ship prepped for new duties by holding daily firing exercises. Behind her were 47,812 miles of Aleutian cruising (underway 79 per cent of her 4-month tour of duty), and four successful bombardments of enemy-held territory. 1 September 1943 brought the battle-wise SANTA FE to Pearl Harbor.
Post from FReeper Auntie Mame
My nephew is over there right now. He is in the Navy and writes that he is involved in building an enormous tent city, apparently the subject of this news report. One interesting comment from one of his emails: "There are many services on Sundays at the chapel but they are all catholic or protestent or whatever and no non denominational christian services, so I just read my bible before I go to sleep. I try to walk in Jesus' footsteps however I can and I know I am doing as best a job as I can." And then, my absolute favorite line from a couple emails ago: "They were taking shots at us with small arms last night but I do not worry because Marines are always itching for a fire fight so they quell any problem very quickly. These are just isolated incidents, most Kuwaiti's are pretty cool about us being here." Just thought the freepers would like to know what fine young men we have over there protecting this world from madmen. All prayers are, of course, welcome and appreciated.
Eagle
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