70 Years ago a Foreign Army held American Soil

[Sourdough]

70 Yeasr ago the American Army started the operation that would lead to the second costliest battle of the Pacific therater during WWII.  The battle to remove invading Japanise Forces from America.  The only battle of WWII fought on American Soil.  The Forgotten War, the one nobody remembers except the soldiers that was there.  11 May, 1943.
 
http://www.newsminer.com/news/local_news/event-marks-th-anniversary-of-start-to-battle-of-attu/article_49f5d754-bad7-11e2-bbf7-001a4bcf6878.html
http://www.history.com/topics/battle-of-attu

[yellowtail3]

70 Yeasr ago the American Army started the operation that would lead to the second costliest battle of the Pacific therater during WWII. 

costliest battle, how? Dollars? Casualties were small, relative to other ground actions. There wasn't much of a war at sea. The biggest battle, as I understood it, was against the weather, which did far more damage to military units/operations than did the Japanese involved...

[powderman]

SOURDOUGH. Thanks for the link and history lesson. POWDERMAN. 

[Oldshooter]

I watched a documentary about this once before. Seems the American troops were slugging it out up hill and in bad weather with japs that were dug in and prepared to die fighting(as usual). The inhabitants being carted off is a new wrinkle for me, Interesting though. Wonder if the casualties per capita fighting was figured in as to the battle's size. i dunno.
 

Attu’s 42 inhabitants who survived the invasion were taken to a prison camp in Japan, where more than a third died.

[Shu]

War in the Pacific? There wasn't much of a war. 4 Aircraft carriers put out of commission in a single engagement. Only 2 of the 4 were repairable. Nope not much of a war in the Pacific.
 
 

[Cuts Crooked]

War in the Pacific? There wasn't much of a war. 4 Aircraft carriers put out of commission in a single engagement. Only 2 of the 4 were repairable. Nope not much of a war in the Pacific.

Interesting take on it. By my count there were at least twelve major engagements/offensives by the advancing Allies after the attack on Pearl.

[nw_hunter]

I plead guilty to ignorance about this battle on American soil. I don't remember being told anything about it in American History class. Here is a good read from one perspective. Someone who was there.




http://www.adn.com/2013/05/04/2891040/70-years-ago-this-month-the-battle.html

[Oldshooter]

It was the only land battle in the war fought in the Americas, the first amphibious landing by the U.S. Army and, aside from Iwo Jima, the most costly in terms of the percentage of American casualties. "For every hundred of the enemy, about 71 Americans were killed or wounded," according to the official Army history.

 
 
Good read NW_Hunter, I love stuff like that! Thanks.

[SHOOTALL]

On American soil ? Alaska was not a state but considered US soil during WW2 as was the Philippines until July 4, 1946  I think.

[mauser98us]

But this engagement in the Aleutians allowed us to take intact a Jap Zero fighter. I a;so understand a lot of the hard assets were left at the end of the war,and virtually undisturbed since then. Like a time capsule.

[powderman]

HUNTER. Thanks for the link. I too was unaware of this battle. My Dad told me about those banzai attacks. POWDERMAN. 

[Anna]

What was costly about it was the logistics involved. The tundra was already thawed out and starting
to freeze and roads had to be built plank by plank. Bulldozers would sink and were never recovered.
Men mostly Blacks, were so cold they would sit and cry like baby's.
The History channel had an episode about this some years ago, frostbite was a bigger problem
than the Japanese were. Seven in ten men had to have toes or fingers cut off due to that.
I agree with the OP that was a very costly venture on the Army Corps of Engineers.
Casualty rates don't always mean a bullet, disentary also became a factor and we didn't have
helicopters back then. Plus for a time the Japanise controlled the air making this even harder.
The one Jap Zero that we got our hands on that early in the war was shot down in that theater.
Even Pawn Stars had a deal about that where they bought some old photos of the crash sight.   

[Shu]

The Japanese were pretty fierce throughout the theater. The real reason for Japans loss was being an island nation you eventually run out of resources. Japan also did not continue with its industrial base and bring out newer and better weapons to meet America. Americas industrial base was able to out manufacture everyone else. So rich with resources and manpower America was able to cripple Japan and turn its attention to Europe.
 
Talking with an old Marine who was on Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima he said at first they just thought them japs were weak kids but they learned quickly they were pretty tough soldiers.

[Sourdough]

Yellowtail:  The death toll was pretty high for the amount of personnel on the Island, but the support they needed was astronomical.  Navy ships shelling the Islands for days before troops landed.  Then the conditions were unbelievable for the Army Brass.  The Army found out about Muskeg, and frozen terrain.  Most Army equipment could not traverse the landscape, or was totally useless in that environment.  Resupply with the right equipment was costly and hard.  All the equipment the troops had with them was not suited for the arctic.  They had been outfitted for fighting in the South Pacific.  The mission was so top secret that the army was afraid to resupply them with arctic gear, afraid the Japanese would find out.  Plus the Top Army Brass did not understand the conditions they were sending the troops into.  A lot of the fighting was done hand to hand, when the Japanese made Banzai Charges.

All things considered the Battle For Attu and Kiska was classified as the second costliest battle of the Pacific Theater.  I got that from the reference material I used for my NCO Academy paper.  It came from the book "The Forgotten War"   

[Victor3]

Talking with an old Marine who was on Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima he said at first they just thought them japs were weak kids but they learned quickly they were pretty tough soldiers.

 And some just wouldn't give up. Talk about dedication to the mission...


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroo_Onoda

[SHOOTALL]

Japan lost because of several things , one they lost control of the ocean shipping routes they used to supply their bases and bring back stolen raw materials. They had a small resource for pilots and officers , as they got killed replacement was difficult to impossible. Those and many other things not the least of which was American industry .

[Anna]

The HC said the cold was unbelievable a lot of the solders were from the American South and were
not prepared for weather like this. The Japs were not fairing much better as this battle progressed
they were cut off from any support. Only air power in the form of drops became their supply line.
Its been compared to as Japan's version of the Russian front where most the casualties were
attributed to the weather and not the combat itself.

The Army sent the Black soldiers because they were mostly from newly formed units. They also
enlisted Eskimos because they looked like the Japanese and they were afraid of what could happen
to them if they were captured elsewhere. It was the same with the Blacks at first they didn't know
what the Nazis would do to a black soldier if they were captured in Europe. 
Jewish officers were also sent to head up most of the higher ranks and it isn't hard to understand
why. It was early in the war and the Army brass still wasn't sure what to do with a lot of its people
when it came down to race.

These soldiers also were not equipped with the newest and the better gear, they had a lot of WW1
leftovers including gas mask. Although no gas was ever seen used the troops found the mask were
beneficial to use against the cold on the face. Thus very little frostbite was ever reported to the
areas of the head like the nose and ears. The straps of the mask held the makeshift head garments
in place. Some troops modified the mask with a knife to accommodate its use as protection from the
cold. It was a very costly war any Arctic combat would be even by today's standards.

The history of the red ball express has a chapter in it about this conflict where the truckers learned
how to drive across frozen lakes and rivers instead of the costly roads. And remember Russia was
our Allie later on in this war and the roads built during this helped supply the red army with raw
materials including food, cotton, and medical supply's. The Coast Guard was instrumental in
delivering these supply's if air transport was not feasible due to the weather.   

[powderman]

VICTOR. Thanks for the link. POWDERMAN. 

[Oldshooter]

Why did Japan deploy even a fragment of its powerful fleet and aircraft to Alaska, to little-known and sparsely populated islands of small significance? There is one interesting speculation about that. It is that the 1942 Japanese attack on Alaska's Aleutian Islands was in response to the April 1942 American bomber raid on Tokyo. [size=-1]Daredevil Jimmy Doolittle masterminded the April 1942 retaliation for Pearl Harbor with his audacious bombing of Tokyo, a feat memorialized in the movie "30 Seconds Over Tokyo." With 16 B-25s, Doolittle led the raid on five Japanese cities, including Tokyo! Fifteen of those planes safely crash-landed in China, the 16th in the Soviet Union.[/size]
[size=-1]You see, Jimmy Doolittle, who was promoted to general because of that raid, spent his boyhood in Alaska, in Gold Rush Nome![/size]

Some say it was a diversion to pull assets from Midway, and then there is the speculation that it was in retaliation for the Dolittle raid on Tokyo!
 
The Japs were always making elaborate plans that included "US" doing certain things and reacting certain ways. WE rarely did and other than the ruse that drew Halsey away from the landing in the philipines. It mostly went badly for the little buggers.

[Sourdough]

The reason Japan placed assets in Alaska was they ere building a runway on Kiska.  Attu was to protect Kiska once the runway was built.  Kiska put Japanese bombers within range of Seattle, and other portions of the west coast.  They were doing this in a very quite manner to prevent detection.  Any and everyone they caught in the area was taken hostage and sent to Japan.  Fortunately a Alieut saw them and was not seen.  He returned to an occupied Island and reported the Japanese soldiers on Attu.

[mauser98us]

What was costly about it was the logistics involved. The tundra was already thawed out and starting
to freeze and roads had to be built plank by plank. Bulldozers would sink and were never recovered.
Men mostly Blacks, were so cold they would sit and cry like baby's.
The History channel had an episode about this some years ago, frostbite was a bigger problem
than the Japanese were. Seven in ten men had to have toes or fingers cut off due to that.
I agree with the OP that was a very costly venture on the Army Corps of Engineers.
Casualty rates don't always mean a bullet, disentary also became a factor and we didn't have
helicopters back then. Plus for a time the Japanise controlled the air making this even harder.
The one Jap Zero that we got our hands on that early in the war was shot down in that theater.
Even Pawn Stars had a deal about that where they bought some old photos of the crash sight.

Actually I studied this campaign quite a bit. First I have heard of black soldiers,not to say it was not true. The truth in the matter, pretty much of the whole US 7th infantry division,which was based in California at the time. They were sent with their summer kits. Pretty typical of the military.I studied this about thirty years ago,but the best my memory of it is what happened.