Battle of the Aleutian Islands
Part of World War II, Pacific War
American troops hauling supplies on Attu in May 1943. Their vehicles could not move across the island's rugged terrain.
Date June 6 1942 – August 15 1943 Location Aleutian Islands, off Alaska Result Allied victory
Belligerents
United States,  Canada	Empire of Japan
Commanders and leaders
United States Navy: Thomas C. Kinkaid Francis W. Rockwell United States Army: Albert E. Brown Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr.	Imperial Japanese Navy: Boshiro Hosogaya Imperial Japanese Army: Yasuyo Yamasaki
Strength
144,000[1]	8,500[1]
Casualties and losses
1,481 killed, 225 aircraft destroyed[2]	4,350 killed, 7 warships sunk, 10 transport ships sunk[3]

The Aleutian Islands campaign was a struggle over the Aleutian Islands, part of Alaska, in the Pacific campaign of World War II. A small Japanese force occupied the islands of Attu and Kiska, but the remoteness of the islands and the difficulties of weather and terrain meant that it took nearly a year for a large U.S. force to eject them. The islands had very little strategic value for either side, but control of the Aleutians would prevent a possible U.S. attack across the Northern Pacific. Similarly, the U.S. feared that the islands would be used as bases from which to launch aerial assaults against the West Coast, and it became a matter of national pride to expel the invaders from American soil. But Japan lacked both a long-range bomber and the resources to establish and operate an air base in the Aleutians^{[citation needed]}.

The battle, overshadowed by the simultaneous Guadalcanal campaign, is known as the "Forgotten Battle." It is described in mainstream histories as a diversionary attack during the Battle of Midway and was in fact launched simultaneously under the same overall commander, Isoroku Yamamoto. Historians Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully made strong arguments in their 2005 book, Shattered Sword, against the theory that Operation AL was merely a diversion.

Japanese attack

On June 3 1942, Japanese bombers attacked Dutch Harbor on Unalaska Island using Kate (Nakajima B5N) bombers from the carriers Junyō and Ryūjō. In bad weather, only half the planes found the target, and little damage was done.

The Japanese invasions of Kiska on June 6, 1942, and Attu on June 7 initially met little resistance from the local Aleuts. Much of the native population of the islands had been forcibly evacuated before the invasion and interned in camps in the Alaska Panhandle.

Allied response

In August 1942, the United States established an air base on Adak Island and began bombing Japanese positions on Kiska.

A naval force under Rear Admiral Charles McMorris was assigned to interdict the Japanese supply convoys. After a naval battle known as the "Battle of the Komandorski Islands," the Japanese abandoned attempts to resupply the Aleutian garrisons with surface vessels. From then on, only submarines were used for Japanese resupply runs.

On May 11, 1943, the operation to recapture Attu began. A shortage of landing craft, unsuitable beaches, and equipment that failed to operate in the appalling weather made it very difficult to bring any force to bear against the Japanese. Many soldiers suffered from frostbite because essential supplies could not be landed, or having been landed, could not be moved to where they were needed because vehicles would not work on the tundra. The Japanese defenders under Colonel Yasuyo Yamasaki did not contest the landings, but rather dug in on high ground away from the shore. This caused bloody fighting: there were 3,929 U.S. casualties: 549 were killed, 1,148 were injured, 1,200 had severe cold injuries, 614 succumbed to disease, and 318 died of miscellaneous causes, largely Japanese booby traps and friendly fire.

On May 29, the last of the Japanese forces suddenly attacked near Massacre Bay in one of the largest banzai charges of the Pacific campaign. The charge, led by Colonel Yamasaki, penetrated U.S. lines far enough to encounter shocked rear-echelon units of the American force. After furious, brutal, close-quarter, and often hand-to-hand combat, the Japanese force was killed almost to the last man: only 28 prisoners were taken, none of them an officer. U.S. burial teams counted 2,351 Japanese dead, but it was presumed that hundreds more had been buried by bombardments over the course of the battle.

On August 7, 1943, an invasion force of 34,426 Allied troops, mainly from 7th Infantry Division, including 5,300 Canadians (primarily from the 13th Canadian Infantry Brigade, but also including the Canadian component of the First Special Service Force), landed on Kiska, only to find the island abandoned. Under the cover of fog, the Japanese had successfully removed their troops on July 28 without the Allies noticing. The Army Air Force had been bombing abandoned positions for more than a week. Allied casualties during the invasion nevertheless numbered 313, all from friendly fire, booby traps set out by the Japanese, disease, or frostbite.

Aftermath

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 Paramushiro, diverting 500 Japanese planes and 41,000 ground troops.

As of 2007, the Battle of the Aleutian Islands was the last military engagement between sovereign nations to be fought on U.S. soil.

The battle also marked the first time Canadian conscripts were sent to a combat zone in the Second World War. While the government had pledged not to send draftees overseas, the fact that the Aleutians were North American soil enabled the government to deploy them. 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.^[4]

The battle also marked the first combat deployment of the First Special Service Force, though they also did not see any action.

A particularly significant event of the battle was the discovery by Allied forces of an intact A6M Zero fighter. A Japanese pilot attempted to set his aircraft down on rough terrain and died from a broken neck. The intact specimen was studied by Allied aeronautical engineers, and developed aircraft able to compete in aerial combat on even terms, such as the F6F Hellcat and later F4U Corsair.

Veterans

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 August 4, 2006.