By early 1941, the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy had taken over most of Asia.
Their eyes were now set upon the Philippines, New Zealand, and Australia.
But the United States military knew that they were next, and an imminent conflict was inevitable.
Pearl Harbor, the Philippines, and other surrounding territories were
simultaneously attacked in December of 1941.
When America least expected it, the Japanese were already at its doorstep in Alaska.
The Aleutian Islands Campaign of World War II was the second time an American territory
was occupied and attacked by a foreign force since the Mexican Revolution. The Japanese
sought to control the Aleutians to prevent a possible US attack on the Northern Pacific.
On June 2, 1942, a Japanese Task Force was spotted off the coasts of Dutch Harbor
on Amaknak Island. Under the command of Japanese Vice-Admiral Hosogaya, an aircraft fleet attacked
the island with hopes of damaging the American port with a surprise charge.
But they did not know that an underpowered yet
brave American garrison was already waiting for them...
Alaska Under Attack
To counter the Japanese expansion in the Pacific, the United States planned to fortify islands that
extended from Hawaii to Australia. Shipping routes needed to be protected so that supplies could
reach American troops. With Australia’s help, the United States started preparing an offensive.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed General Douglas MacArthur to take command
of the Southwest Pacific Area that comprised New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. The rest
of the Pacific was commissioned to the Commander in Chief of the US Pacific Fleet, Admiral Chester
W. Nimitz. The North Pacific Area extended from Alaska to the Japanese islands of the Kuriles.
The Aleutian Islands comprised a 1,200-mile-long archipelago of volcanic lands that protruded
from Alaska to the Soviet Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East.
Desolate terrain, unforgiving Arctic weather, and cold winds that inadvertently turned into
dense fog were standard living conditions in the Aleutians. But the United States and the
Imperial Japanese Army knew that the islands were a valuable stretch for a potential invasion route.
The Japanese were on high alert after the successful Doolittle Raid on April 18,
1942. Under the command of Lieutenant Colonel James H. Doolittle,
American forces abruptly attacked Tokyo with 16 B-25B Mitchell medium
bombers. The strafing of civilians also prompted Japan to seek retribution.
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto devised a plan to invade the Aleutian Islands
and the central Pacific at Midway.
The operation’s objective was to extend the Japanese empire in the
Pacific and safeguard mainland Japan from potential attacks.
Yamamoto also planned to use the Japanese garrisons stationed in Alaska as bait to
lure the remnants of the American Pearl Harbor fleet and destroy them.
Yamamoto appointed Vice-Admiral Boshiro Hosogaya to spearhead the invasion
and provided him with a formidable fleet. According to the Aleutian Islands Campaign
book from the US Center of Military History, Hosogaya’s fleet consisted of 5 cruisers,
12 destroyers, 6 submarines, 2 aircraft carriers, and 4 troop transport ships.
In contrast, the commanders assumed that the Americans would have no
more than 3 aircraft carriers and less than a dozen warships on hand.
The objective was to surprise the Americans with a
bombardment on the Dutch Harbor Naval Operating Base and US Army Fort Mears,
followed by amphibious landings in Adak, Kiska, and Attu. The invaders would then
begin the construction of airstrips and barracks for a permanent occupation force.
Dutch Harbor was protected by anti-aircraft batteries from the 206th Coast Artillery,
the 11th Army Air Force Corps, members of the Arkansas National Guard, and old warships that
were inoperable for open-sea combat. But the troops mostly had World War I-era equipment,
such as bolt action Springfields, 3-inch M1918 AAs, and first-generation Browning machine guns.
US forces in Alaska amounted to 40,000 men scattered across all the Arctic territory.
Based on Army reports, only 2,500 were infantry, and the rest were Air Force personnel and sailors.
But unbeknownst to the Japanese, the Americans were already expecting them.
The Battle for Dutch Harbor
In May of 1942, US Intelligence decrypted the Japanese Naval Code and learned of
Admiral Yamamoto’s invasion plans. Admiral Nimitz then formed a task force under the
command of Rear Admiral Robert A. Theobald to reinforce Alaska and defend Dutch Harbor.
Based on military reports, Theobald’s squadron consisted of 5 cruisers,
14 destroyers, and 6 submarines that left Pearl Harbor on May 25.
Theobald set his headquarters at Kodiak Island, where he convened with Major General Buckner Jr,
commander of the Army’s Alaska Defense Command. Buckner’s infantrymen would be supported by 95
fighters, 34 medium bombers, and less than 10 B-17s located in Anchorage and Cold Bay.
Nighttime blackouts at Dutch Harbor were ordered starting on May 10 to prevent the
Japanese from spotting strategic locations, but not all townspeople complied. Still,
the troops were ready and waiting for the enemy to attack.
On June 2, a US patrol spotted Hosogaya’s fleet 500 miles southwest of Dutch Harbor. Theobald
dispatched a unit to bombard the enemy carriers, but the dense fog made them undetectable.
Day 1
On June 3, a force of 12 Zero fighters, D3A Val bombers, and 10 B5N Kate high-level bombers
took off from the carriers Ryugo and Junyo to strike Dutch Harbor. However, only half of them
reached the objective, as dense fog and raw weather forced many to return to the carriers.
At 5:45am, the Japanese reached Dutch Harbor and began striking several objectives.
The radio station, oil storage facilities,
and recently constructed barracks, were severely damaged during the attack.
While the Americans had been on high alert for several days, there was no warning of the attack,
and they were taken by surprise. Marines rushed the old warships out of the harbor to launch
defense maneuvers while sirens screamed on the ground and men raced to the anti-aircraft guns.
Army Fort Mears, whose barracks were made of wood, was easy prey for enemy fire. Suicide Hill, as the
communications facility became known, was also targeted by Zeroes but not entirely destroyed.
Still, the 206th Coast Artillery regiment fired back with all the anti-air support fire they
had at their disposal, forcing the Japanese to withdraw and return to their carriers by 7:45am.
Theobald attempted to send an attack squadron to hunt down the Japanese aircraft,
but radar and weather problems made it unmanageable. Even allied aircraft on
Umnak Island did not hear about what happened until a day later.
Admiral Hosogaya did not expect the robust potency of the American resistance
and concluded that the enemy must have known about their invasion plans before the attack.
Still, about 40 US soldiers lost their lives that day.
Day 2
Hosogaya ordered a second attack the next day. The Japanese had taken photographs
during the first attack, and this time they were more prepared. And so were the Americans.
An American P40 took down a Dave recon plane near Umnak Island before the battle even began.
On the afternoon of June 4, Japanese aircraft proceeded to bomb the harbor’s army barracks,
oil storage tanks, an aircraft hangar, and several docked ships. The attack also
partially destroyed a local hospital, and the old Fillmore and Gillis warships were neutralized.
Although Almirant Theobald had also reinforced the Aleutian defense,
weather and communication problems prevented them from detecting the incoming Japanese aircraft.
After bombarding the harbor, the Japanese regrouped in the vicinity of Umnak Island. The
troops were unaware of an American airbase nearby, and a squad of P40s suddenly engaged with them.
During the attack, the Japanese lost two dive bombers and one fighter from
anti-aircraft artillery. And on their way back to their carriers,
the enemy fleet engaged with six American Curtis P-40 fighters near Otter Point.
Both armies lost two fighters during the dogfights over the arctic waters.
In total, the two assaults on Dutch Harbor cost the lives of 43 Americans, and more
than 50 men were wounded. The US Army also lost 12 aircraft, compared to 10 from the Japanese fleet.
Only one enemy ship was harmed, and the Battle of Dutch Harbor ended with an ambivalent denouement.
Aftermath
A fallen Japanese Zero fighter on Akutan Island was later retrieved by US forces for inspection.
The carrier was almost intact,
and American engineers dismantled it to obtain enemy information.
They soon discovered that the aircraft’s sole weakness lay in its extremely light armor.
During the next few days, Admiral Theobald would continue pursuing Husogayas’s fleet
while he moved South to join forces with Admiral Yamamoto in the aftermath of the battle of Midway.
In it, the Americans defeated an attacking fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
Naval historian Craig Symonds would call that battle of Midway (QUOTE):
"one of the most consequential naval engagements in world history.”
Still, Admiral Husogaya and a small force would return days
later to the Aleutian region to occupy the Kiska and Attu islands,
which would become the only two invasions of the United States during the war.
The Japanese garrisons would spend the following months building improvised
barracks and airstrips on the islands for future operations. It was until late 1943
that the US would eventually take Kiska and Attu back, as the Japanese were forced
to change their strategy in the aftermath of the battles of Guadalcanal and Saipan.
Even though in the post-war years the battle for Dutch Harbor and the Aleutian Islands was
overshadowed by more significant confrontations in the Pacific Theatre, the conflict in Alaska helped
fortify Anchorage and other small towns with permanent military bases, advanced radar systems,
and air defenses that would play significant operational roles in future conflicts.
Ironically, at the end of World War II, American bombers would launch destructive
bombing raids on Japanese military targets from the Aleutian air base in Shemya Island.