On 31 August 1942 American forces occupied Adak Island after scouting it two days earlier. It was considered a hostile environment to build an airbase due to weather conditions. To keep the Japanese on Kiska occupied, missions were flown there by bombers from the Eleventh Air Force. They were escorted by fighter aircraft, including P-38s from Umnak over away. Runway construction began immediately following the American landing. After 10 September, fighters and bombers were moved into the new Adak airbase and used to launch more bombing raids against Japanese positions on Kiska.

From September to November, American air raids were able to keep the total number of enemy aircraft low, usually under 14 frames, despite persistent attempts to reinforce their number by the Japanese. Without supporting carriers in the area, the Japanese were unable to dislodge the American forces on Adak. Even when they had a few air assets to spare, the Japanese generally avoided direct combat. Other supplies were also beginning to run low. After evacuating Attu, the Japanese contemplated occupying and setting up a new base on either the Semichis or Amchitka but were not able to carry out those plans.

In February 1943, the Americans successfully occupied Amchitka and built an airstrip there. Their main losses were a result of bad weather. Ground attack missions were flown from the new island base, starting with P-38s and P-40s before bombers also joined in. Their targets included radar installations, parked aircraft, anti-aircraft artillery positions, railway, submarine base, and moored vessels. The bombings further reduced Japan's ability to supply its bases, hampered its construction of landing strips on Attu and Kiska, and facilitated the recapture of those two islands later that year. In April 1943 Japanese surface convoys made their final attempt to break through American naval blockade and resupply troops on Attu and Kiska but were forced to abort after being defeated in battle. Future Japanese resupply missions would be conducted exclusively by submarines and limited by how much materiel they could bring.

Navy submarines and surface ships had also been patrolling the area. Kiska Harbor was the main base for Japanese ships in the campaign and several were sunk there, some by warships but mostly in air raids. On 5 July 1942 the submarine , under command of Lieutenant Commander Howard Gilmore, attacked three Japanese destroyers off Kiska. She sank one and heavily damaged the others, killing or wounding 200 Japanese sailors. Ten days later, was attacked by three Japanese submarine chasers in Kiska Harbor, with two of the patrol craft sunk and one other damaged. On 12 May 1943 the Japanese submarine was sunk in a surface action with the destroyer northeast of Chichagof Harbor.

At least three Japanese submarines were sunk near Kiska in June 1943, reportedly on the 11th, 13th, and 22nd.

Komandorski Islands

A cruiser and destroyer force under Rear Admiral Charles "Soc" McMorris was assigned to eliminate the Japanese supply convoys. They met the Japanese fleet in March 1943. One American cruiser and two destroyers were damaged, and seven U.S. sailors were killed. Two Japanese cruisers were damaged, with 14 men killed and 26 wounded. Japan thereafter abandoned all attempts to resupply the Aleutian garrisons by surface vessels, and only submarines would be used.

Attu Island

thumb|American troops endure snow and ice during the Battle of Attu in May 1943

On 11 May 1943 American forces commenced Operation Landcrab to recapture Attu. The invasion force included the 17th and 32nd Infantry regiments of the 7th Infantry Division and a platoon of scouts recruited from Alaska, nicknamed Castner's Cutthroats. The Army Air Force flew more than 500 sorties in a 20-day period to support the invasion. A shortage of landing craft, unsuitable beaches, and equipment that failed to operate in the appalling weather made it difficult however for the Americans to exert force against the Japanese. Soldiers suffered from frostbite because essential cold-weather supplies could not be landed, and soldiers could not be relocated to where they were needed because vehicles could not operate on the tundra. Rather than engage the Americans where they landed, Colonel Yasuyo Yamasaki had his forces dig into the high ground far from the shore. That resulted in fierce combat, with a total of 3,829 U.S. casualties, with 549 killed, 1,148 wounded, and another 1,200 suffering severe injuries from the cold weather. Also, 614 Americans died from disease and 318 from miscellaneous causes, mainly Japanese booby traps or friendly fire.

On 29 May 1943 without warning the remainder of Japanese forces attacked near Massacre Bay. Recorded as one of the largest banzai charges of the Pacific campaign, Yamasaki penetrated so deep into U.S. lines that Japanese soldiers encountered rear-echelon units of the Americans. After furious, brutal, often hand-to-hand combat, the Japanese force was virtually exterminated. Only 28 Japanese soldiers were taken prisoner, none of them were officers. American burial teams counted 2,351 Japanese dead, but it was thought that hundreds more had been buried by bombardment during the battle.

With its loss of Attu to U.S. forces, Japan was deprived of its only remaining airstrip in the Aleutians, a disadvantage that it could not compensate for because Japanese aviation units were entirely ground-based.

Kiska Island

thumb|Part of the huge U.S. fleet at anchor, ready to move against Kiska.

left|thumb|150x150px|Kiska Task Force SSI

On 15 August 1943 an invasion force of 34,426 Canadian and American troops landed on Kiska. Castner's Cutthroats were part of the force, but the invasion consisted mainly of units from the 7th Infantry Division (United States). The force also included about 5,300 Canadians, mostly from the 13th Canadian Infantry Brigade of the 6th Canadian Infantry Division, and the 1st Special Service Force, a 2,000-strong Canadian-American commando unit trained in winter warfare techniques. The force included three 600-man regiments: the 1st was to go ashore in the first wave at Kiska Harbor, the 2nd was to be held in reserve to parachute where needed, and the 3rd was to land on the north side of Kiska on the second day of the assault. The U.S. 87th Regiment of the 10th Mountain Division, the only major U.S. force specifically trained for mountain warfare, was also part of the operation.

Royal Canadian Air Force Nos. 111 and 14 Squadrons saw active service in the Aleutian skies and scored at least one aerial kill on a Japanese aircraft. Additionally, three Canadian armed merchant cruisers and two corvettes served in the Aleutian campaign but did not encounter enemy forces.

It is likely that the main Japanese forces left Kiska on the night of 28 July when its radio became silent. During the subsequent two weeks, the U.S. Army Air Force and the U.S. Navy bombed and shelled the abandoned positions. The day before the withdrawal, the U.S. Navy fought an inconclusive and possibly meaningless Battle of the Pips to the west.

The allied invasion forces encountered no opposition on 15 August, but their total casualties would in the end number 313 due to friendly fire, vehicle accidents, Japanese booby traps and explosives, disease and frostbite. Like Attu, Kiska offered an extremely hostile environment.

Aftermath

thumb|The [[Akutan Zero, captured intact by U.S. forces in July 1942 on Akutan Island, after the Battle of Dutch Harbor. After repairs, it became the first flyable Zero acquired by the U.S. during the war, and made its first test flight on 20 September 1942.]]

Although plans were drawn up for attacking northern Japan, they were not executed. Over 1,500 sorties were flown against the Kuriles before the end of the war, including the Japanese base of Paramushir, which diverted 500 Japanese planes and 41,000 ground troops.

The battle also marked the first time that Canadian conscripts were sent to a combat zone in World War II. The government had pledged not to send draftees "overseas", which it defined as being outside North America. The Aleutians were considered to be North American soil, which enabled the Canadian government to deploy conscripts without breaking its pledge. There were cases of desertion before the brigade sailed for the Aleutians. In late 1944, the government changed its policy on draftees and sent 16,000 conscripts to Europe to take part in the fighting. The battle also marked the first combat deployment of the 1st Special Service Force, but it did not see any action.

In the summer of 1942, the Americans recovered the Akutan Zero, an almost-intact Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero fighter, which enabled the Americans to test-fly the Zero and contributed to improved fighter tactics later in the war.

Killed in action

During the campaign, two cemeteries were established on Attu to bury those killed in action: Little Falls Cemetery, at the foot of Gilbert Ridge, and Holtz Bay Cemetery, which held the graves of Northern Landing Forces. After the war, the tundra began to take back the cemeteries and so in 1946, all American remains were relocated as directed by the soldiers' families or to Fort Richardson near Anchorage, Alaska. On 30 May 1946, a Memorial Day address was given by Captain Adair with a three-volley salute and the sounding of Taps. The Decoration of Graves was performed by Chaplains Meaney and Insko.

Resettlement of the Unangax

In the spring of 1944 the surviving residents of the Pribilofs were allowed to return home, while the remaining villagers were moved back in the spring of 1945 and the camps were dismantled.

While the residents of Nikolski were able to return to their village and resume life as before the other villagers were not so lucky. Atka Island had a military base and airstrip built close to the village which made it a target for the Japanese during the war and when the villagers returned the village was destroyed.

Legacy

Many of the United States locations involved in the campaign, either directly or indirectly, have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and several have been designated National Historic Landmarks. The battlefield on Attu and the Japanese occupation site on Kiska are both National Historic Landmarks and are included in the Aleutian Islands World War II National Monument. Surviving elements of the military bases at Adak, Umnak, and Dutch Harbor are National Historic Landmarks. The shipwrecked , badly damaged during the attack on Dutch Harbor, is listed on the National Register, as is a crash-landed B-24D Liberator on Atka Island.

The 2006 documentary film Red White Black & Blue features two veterans of the Attu Island campaign, Bill Jones and Andy Petrus. It is directed by Tom Putnam and debuted at the 2006 Locarno International Film Festival in Locarno, Switzerland, on 4 August 2006.

Dashiell Hammett spent most of World War II as an Army sergeant in the Aleutian Islands, where he edited an Army newspaper. He came out of the war suffering from emphysema. As a corporal in 1943, he co-authored The Battle of the Aleutians with Corporal Robert Garland Colodny under the direction of Infantry Intelligence Officer Major Henry W. Hall.

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Bibliography

Further reading

  • Vidal, Gore (1946), Williwaw, New York: E. P. Dutton.
  • Logistics Problems on Attu by Robert E. Burks.
  • Aleutian Islands Chronology
  • Aleutian Islands War
  • Red White Black & Blue – feature documentary about The Battle of Attu in the Aleutians during World War II
  • PBS Independent Lens presentation of Red White Black & Blue – The Making Of and other resources
  • ”Attu: North American Battleground of World War II”, a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plan
  • Animated Maps of the Aleutians Campaign
  • Attu, Aleutian Islands, Alaska World War II KIA
  • U.S. losses at Kiska