A few weeks ago, we covered the conclusion of the critical Guadalcanal Campaign, a campaign that
ended with a decisive American victory and that would drastically change the course of the Pacific
War. Today, we return to the Solomons to cover the direct aftermath of the Guadalcanal Campaign, as
the Americans prepare to embark on a new offensive operation against the Russell Islands, in an
effort to prevent the Japanese from using them again against the Allies. But that’s not all, as
we’ll also return to the Aleutian Islands, one of the most forgotten theaters of the Pacific War, to
cover some new developments that transpired during the last few months. Thus, join us as we delve
into another exciting episode of the Pacific War. Hey all, as you know, Turkey and Syria suffered a
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With fierce and very important
land, naval, and air engagements happening all over the South Pacific, from the Solomon Islands
to the New Guinean mainland, from the coasts of Australia to the depths of the Coral Sea;
we admit that our coverage of the last few months has been mainly dedicated to that theater. Thus,
we’ve been neglecting the usually-forgotten North Pacific theater for a while now. But today, we’ll
return to the Aleutian Islands for our coverage of the Defense of Alaska and the increase in American
initiative that would lead to one of the most costly man-for-man battles of the Pacific War.
As we last saw, the Americans had landed at Adak back on August 30, 1942, building there
a new airfield from which they could be closer to the enemy bases; and the Japanese had also
reoccupied Attu Island by the end of October, confident that the Americans were not able to
construct an airstrip on the neighboring island of Amchitka. By early October, Kiska also enjoyed
a massive anti-aircraft concentration and an impressive network of underground bunkers.
Despite the fact that Admiral Hosogaya had turned it into an impervious fortress , Tokyo had shown
no interest in keeping their presence in the Aleutian islands, their original plan being
to keep the enemy at bay until winter and then to fall back to the northern Kuriles.
Yet the American occupation of Adak, coupled with further landings of small forces on the Atka,
Sequam, Tanaga and St. Paul islands; eventually persuaded the Japanese that these advances were
a prelude to a northern invasion of the homeland. As a result, the Japanese decided not to abandon
the Aleutians for the winter, and on November 1, the Japanese Empire finally published a
joint plan to strengthen the defenses of Kiska and Attu by February 1943,
as well as to establish a seaplane base at the currently unoccupied island of Shemya. Meanwhile,
Admiral Nimitz had decided to occupy Amchitka and construct a new airfield on the island.
Contrary to the Japanese reports, the Alaska Scouts had determined that Amchitka was long,
narrow and flat, except for the inevitable volcano at one end; and as Nimitz was confident that his
American engineers could make an operating air base out of any flat space overnight,
the occupation of Amchitka, codenamed Operation Longview, was rapidly authorized.
On November 7, the Japanese reoccupation of Attu was also discovered by the Americans,
so General Butler immediately started to send missions against the island.
Led by the fearless Colonel William “Eric” Eareckson, the Americans successfully managed
to destroy several beach installations, sink a cargo ship and scrap nine Zeros at Holtz Bay.
On November 23, the first Shemya convoy at last departed Paramushiro, carrying 1100 troops of the
303rd Independent Battalion and escorted by a small fleet under Admiral Hosogaya.
Yet before the island could be occupied, on November 27, an American B-24 from Adak flew by
overhead and managed to sink a transport off Attu. Further reports that there was a strong enemy task
force in the North Pacific forced Hosogaya in the end to postpone the Shemya landings
and return back to Paramushiro. Ironically, there was no American task force in the North Pacific,
as most of the vessels under Admiral Theobald had been taken away for the invasion of North Africa.
The following day, convinced by Eareckson’s constant raids that he couldn’t afford to divide
his forces, Hosogaya finally decided to take the entire convoy to Kiska,
successfully landing the troops on the night of December 2. On December 18, mere hours after an
air bombardment by Eareckson that destroyed every building on Amchitka, General Buckner
decided to send the Alaska Scouts to Amchitka in another scouting expedition to study the terrain.
Yet what they found was very troubling: signs that the Japanese had been there recently,
evidently doing the same, so efforts to launch the operation would have to be increased. Nonetheless,
the Alaska Scouts would determine that a fighter strip could be built in two to three weeks,
and a main airfield in three to four months. Finally, the last action of 1942 would be off
Unimak on December 27, as destroyer-minesweeper Wasmuth was sunk by two exploding depth charges
wrenched overboard by stormy seas. By the end of the year, the 11th Air Force had destroyed
at least fifty enemy planes in combat and had lost only a dozen of its own in battle; yet it had also
lost almost eighty planes to “other causes”, such as weather accidents. In spite of the weather,
Eareckson’s handful of bombers managed to drop more than half a million pounds of explosives
on the enemy bases during the last three months of 1942. His innovative tactics would be decisive for
the success of the 11th Air Force during the Aleutian air campaign and, with the exception
of one brief October mission to the States, Eareckson had been in the air, and in combat,
on virtually every flyable day of the campaign. On January 4, 1943, Thomas C. Kinkaid,
the American admiral that had seen action in more big naval battles than anyone else, finally
arrived at Kodiak to replace Theobald as North Pacific Area commander. A mere day later, Kinkaid
ordered the full troop landings on Amchitka to be executed, immediately assembling a taut little
combat force of three battle-hardened cruisers and seven destroyers under Admiral McMorris.
Yet once again the weather, the most important enemy in Alaska, would force the Americans to
postpone the operation for a few days. Meanwhile, the slow strangling of Japanese reinforcements
continued, so Butler decided to launch recon flights over Amchitka and bomber strikes against
Kiska and Attu, successfully sinking the freighter Montreal Maru off the Komandorski Islands and the
Kotohiro Maru off Attu. The success of American air raids during this period meant that between
December 17 and January 30, only twelve resupply ships would reach Kiska and Attu.
By nightfall on January 11, the weather continued to look bad, with the storm slacking only just a
bit, yet Admiral McMorris decided to order the 2100 Engineer and Army troops under
Brigadier-General Lloyd Jones to go ashore in the morning regardless of the weather. Shortly after
midnight, he even ordered the destroyer Worden to move into Constantine Harbor and land a detachment
of Alaska Scouts under Lieutenant-Colonel William Verbeck. Blasting through the surf
at the harbor mouth shortly before dawn, the Worden would successfully land Verbeck’s Scouts;
yet when she steamed back out of the harbor, the brutal current dashed her onto a pinnacle rock,
thus leaving the destroyer powerless. Destroyer Dewey then raced off to her assistance, but the
Worden would finally capsize and suffer the death of 14 Americans before the crew could be rescued.
Once on the ground, however, Verbeck’s Scouts cleared the island and found it
devoid of Japanese forces, so the rest of the transports were promptly sent,
successfully landing all 2100 soaked, swamped and oil-drenched men by the end of the day.
With Amchitka Island secured, the American Engineers immediately began construction of
the new airfield. Yet on January 23, a Japanese floatplane would finally discover the American
presence on the island. Japanese commanders were shocked by the unexpected occupation of Amchitka,
just 50 miles from their main base at Kiska, so they immediately started to launch a series
of air raids over the island before the new airfield could be constructed. If completed,
American air attacks would be relentless and the Kuriles would be at great peril.
Though the fierce Japanese air raids caused considerable damage in the following days,
Colonel Benjamin Talley’s miraculous Engineers managed to finish off the Amchitka runway by
the end of the month, so that a P-40 squadron could be landed on the new base on January 28.
After that, bombing missions over Amchitka became more sporadic and finally ceased by February 18,
as the Japanese couldn’t waste the few planes they had in the North Pacific. Furthermore, ten P-38s
soon joined the Warhawks and began daily raids against Kiska. For Kinkaid, an aggressive, simple,
and direct commander, this was only the beginning of his campaign to drive the Japanese out of the
Aleutians Islands, out of Alaska, and out of any American soil. But we’ll leave the Aleutians for
now, as we have to move to the Solomon Islands for the start of another important operation.
After the epic conclusion of the Guadalcanal Campaign, with one of the most elaborate and
perfectly coordinated evacuation operations in the history of warfare, the Japanese Empire now knew
completely that it had to go on the defensive. Because of this, they had already established
strong bases all over the central and northern Solomons, with the IJA assuming the responsibility
of defending Buka and Bougainville while the IJN had to protect Kolombangara and New Georgia.
Furthermore, efforts to reinforce these places were already underway. Yet the Japanese presence
on the island of New Georgia also posed a serious threat to future American operations in the South
Pacific. As such, Admirals Nimitz and Halsey immediately began planning their next moves
in the South Pacific, intending to counter the Japanese infiltration down the Solomons.
In January, they wished to attack the main enemy base at Munda, yet they lacked the forces for such
an undertaking. However, the occupation of the Russell Islands to the southeast,
codenamed Operation Cleanslate , seemed very feasible in comparison, thus preventing their use
by the enemy to ship more troops into Guadalcanal and securing another air and naval base that could
be used as a staging area to support the invasion of New Georgia. For Nimitz and Halsey, this was to
be the first step in the conquest of the central and northern Solomon Islands for the final
isolation of the Japanese stronghold at Rabaul. On January 29, as Halsey received permission
from Nimitz to proceed with the occupation, the Americans planned to embark an infantry battalion
and anti-aircraft units from Guadalcanal into two destroyers to occupy the Russells.
Yet the Japanese quickly beat them to it, landing an estimated 400 troops on the island for what
the Allied commanders didn’t know was the final evacuation of Guadalcanal . This forced Halsey
to postpone Operation Cleanslate, as he expected a violent response to the occupation of the Russells
and therefore believed that the occupation force would have to be strong. On February 7, with the
Americans still not knowing that there was no large Japanese force anymore on Guadalcanal,
Halsey finally directed that the landing force was to consist of the 103rd and 169th Regiments
of Major-General John Hester, along with the 3rd Marine Raider Battalion, anti-aircraft detachments
from the 10th and 11th Marine Defense Battalions, and naval base and construction units . Admiral
Turner was to command the operation, employing a small fleet of eight destroyers , five minesweeper
and other minor vessels to escort Hester’s forces while Admiral Fitch’s land-based aircraft was to
cover the movement of the troops. Furthermore, two other task forces were also close by in support.
Unbeknownst to the Americans, however, the last Japanese troops withdrew from the
Russells by February 10, as Operation KE had been successfully carried out. In the next ten days,
reconnaissance of the islands found some hastily abandoned equipment but no presence of the enemy.
Still, despite the reports of the Japanese withdrawal, Halsey decided to carry out Operation
Cleanslate as planned, as he feared that the enemy might suddenly decide to reinforce the islands.
By February 17, Hester’s forces had moved from Noumea to Koli Point, only suffering
an unsuccessful attack by Japanese bombers. Yet attacks like this proved to be a great threat,
so Halsey would coordinate air strikes with General Kenney, commander of air forces in
the Southwest Pacific Area, against Japanese bases in the northern Solomons during the nights
leading up to Operation Cleanslate to prevent unexpected Japanese counterattacks. Finally,
on February 20, the first echelon of the Russells Occupation Force departed Guadalcanal en route to
the Russells in strict radio silence to avoid detection by the enemy. Luckily for them, the
movement to the objective was uneventful, so early in the morning of February 21, the American force
divided into three groups and proceeded to the planned landing points. As the 103rd Regiment’s
soldiers landed at two separate locations on Banika and rapidly gained control of the island,
the 3rd Marine Raider Battalion would do the same on the northern coast of Pavuvu . Unopposed,
the landings would be successful ; and by the end of the day, the troops had dug themselves into
defense positions, with outposts and observation posts already being established. The next morning,
Turner’s vessels would land the 169th Regiment at Paddy Bay and Yellow Beach; and throughout
the rest of February, the Landing Craft Tanks transported the remainder of the 43rd Division.
By the end of the month, over 9000 soldiers had landed in the Russells, the construction of a
new air base had begun and the torpedo boat base at Wernham Cove had already gone into operation.
Upon learning of the enemy occupation of the Russells, so close to the island of New Georgia,
the Japanese would launch a surprise air raid on March 6, which only caused limited damage but
which would be a precursor to a series of fairly frequent air attacks over the next three months.
In late May, the construction of the Banika airfield would finally be completed, so at that
point, the US was using the Russells as a PT boat base, airfield, training center, and staging area
for future operations. Thus, Operation Cleanslate had been a complete success, with Halsey also
seeing it as an important practice run for future island-to-island movements in the Solomons.
The Landing Craft Tank veterans of Cleanslate would even become the nuclei of the massive
training effort for future amphibious operations. Furthermore, the landings taught important lessons
to the Americans; and luckily, the rapid unloading and movement of supplies inland
to keep the beaches clear had been carried out successfully this time; a big improvement from
their previous experience in Operation Watchtower. In our next episode, join us as we return to New
Guinea to cover the aftermath of the Battle of Wau and the final collapse of the Japanese
offensive in New Guinea, so make sure you are subscribed and have pressed the bell button to
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