The frigid Alaska, once a backwater territory sparsely populated and with little infrastructure,
now a deadly battlefield in the most extreme of conditions.
Although American high command at first paid relatively little attention to this threat in
the north, the population of the United States was shocked about the Japanese invasion, not
believing that their oriental enemy could be so close to their own homes so early on in the war.
But over half a year has passed since that critical moment, and now the initiative has
slipped away from the hands of the Japanese. It was now time for an Alaskan counteroffensive.
Thus, General Buckner and Admiral Kinkaid set out to create a winter beast, one that could
protect the northern frontier, expel the ferocious invaders, and make the American population feel
safe once again. But first, the Japanese attempts at reinforcing their strong positions at Attu and
Kiska needed to be stopped if the Americans hoped to defeat their enemy. Today, join us as we delve
into the biggest naval engagement of the Aleutian Campaign: the Battle of the Komandorski Islands.
Hey History fans! As you know, the youtube algorithm precludes us from releasing more
than three or four videos per week, as the more we release the lower the average view is,
which hurts the overall standing of the channel in the search rankings and such. Still, we produce
more videos than that and want to give our viewers a chance to watch them. Videos are now published
as youtube member and patreon exclusive. For just 5$ dollar per month, yes, one cup of coffee, you
will get access to 25 new videos. Currently, we are ruinning two battle series - the Peloponnesian
Wars and the Italian Unification Wars. Click the link in the description or pinned comment,
and you will get exclusive videos, early access to all videos, learn our schedule,
get access to our private discord, watch our behind the scene videos and much more. Thank
you for watching and for your kind support, we wouldn’t be able to do what we love without you!
As we last saw, Admiral Kinkaid had arrived at Alaska to assume command of the North
Pacific Force, immediately launching the successful occupation of Amchitka.
Yet this was only the first step in Kinkaid’s plan to clear the enemy out of the Aleutians;
and now, he envisioned to starve them out by establishing an unbreakable naval blockade,
which he saw as his best chance at forcing the Japanese to abandon the Aleutian Islands.
For this task, Kinkaid assembled a tough little striking force , consisting of the heavy cruiser
Indianapolis, the light cruiser Richmond and four destroyers, under the command of Admiral McMorris.
Their first action came in early February, as Kinkaid sent McMorris to blockade the enemy’s
approaches to Kiska and Attu. After steaming west into action, Task Force 8 received a submarine
report on February 18 claiming that several enemy ships were harbored at Attu’s Holtz Bay,
so McMorris would decide to carry out an attack on Attu. Yet the same signal also reached Adak,
where General Butler’s forces determined to launch a bomber strike against Holtz Bay,
to be carried out before McMorris could arrive. Unexpectedly, the Americans were met with a clear
weather instead of a foggy one, which allowed McMorris to travel at full speed towards Attu;
and so, both the naval and air forces would reach the island at the same time.
What is worse, McMorris didn’t see any enemy vessels on sight as he arrived, only a B-17
bomber appearing at 10000-feet, which mistakenly identified the American fleet as Japanese.
The Flying Fortress then attempted two bomb runs, but luckily, disaster was averted as the bomb
releases failed to function. Sparse anti-aircraft fire would finally force the bomber to withdraw
and McMorris would nonetheless take the occasion to shell Chicagof village and Holtz Bay.
From there, McMorris would continue on a westward course, as he reasoned that the best way to
enforce the blockade was to cruise just outside of Japanese home waters and intercept any outbound
convoys. Once again, the Americans would see both luck and misfortune, as the Japanese had actually
launched a convoy on February 13. Because the Americans had never ventured to this part of the
world, the convoy would be caught with its guard down and dispersed, but luckily for the Japanese,
McMorris would only get to intercept the 3100-ton Akagane Maru, which would be swiftly sunk with
gunfire. Though undetected, the other Japanese vessels would finally decide to return to
Paramushiro because of the high enemy activity in the area. With this small action, the blockade of
Kiska and Attu had started, an action that Admiral Theobald would have never dared to take. This left
General Higuchi in a great predicament, knowing that his only options were to withdraw from the
Aleutians, continue to reinforce and fortify the strongholds at Attu and Kiska, or persuade
the Navy to attack the American supply lines that supported the Adak and Amchitka bases. The latter
request was immediately vetoed by Admiral Hosogaya, as IJN high command thought it was
cowardly to attack merchant and supply shipping. Higuchi’s request to abandon the islands was also
denied, as Tokyo believed that the Kuriles and northern Japan would be left too vulnerable.
In the end, Higuchi’s troops would have to keep up their frenzied efforts to finish their
fortifications and airfields, even though American bombs would undo all their work almost daily.
He also set out to prepare for an enemy attack, but only his anti-aircraft strength
was impressive; he had little mechanized strength , no mountain artillery, fewer than
8000 troops on Kiska and around 1000 at Attu, although none of these were first-line soldiers
nor did they have high morale. The beaches were also sparsely defended, with mines and barbed
wire; and he had been forced to surrender the air to the Americans, as the tremendous losses
of the Guadalcanal Campaign had left the Japanese with no seaplanes to spare for the North Pacific.
By early March, the constant American bombing had sunk or crippled at least 40 vessels
and had inflicted a total of 3477 casualties. As Higuchi’s garrisons were running short on food
and ammunition, a large convoy would finally slip past the American blockade on March 9; but this
was to be the last, as Admiral McMorris would turn back half a dozen ships in the next week.
The effectiveness of the American blockade would finally force Admiral Hosogaya to assemble all his
forces to run the blockade. Their mission was to escort two big transports filled to the gunwales,
while four destroyers would also be loaded with an overflow of supplies.
Resolved to blast his way through, he personally took command of his Northern Force, consisting of
two heavy cruisers , two light cruisers and five destroyers . On March 22, he would at
last steam out of the Kuriles in battle order, with the heavy cruiser Nachi as his flagship.
Meanwhile, Admiral Kinkaid had decided to reform Task Force 8 into the new Task
Force 16 , mainly replacing the Indianapolis for the older heavy cruiser Salt Lake City,
which had recently finished repairs after the damage sustained in the Battle of Cape Esperance.
March 22 would also be the day in which Admiral McMorris departed Dutch Harbor,
heading far west once again to enforce the blockade of the Aleutian Islands.
By the morning of March 26, Task Force 16 would be as far as 200 miles west of Attu,
crossing an ocean deep about a hundred miles south of the Russian Komandorski Islands.
At this point, McMorris had received a number of reports from American PBYs that had seen
an enemy fleet of many ships appearing and disappearing somewhere to the west.
The Socratic admiral was certain that this was a big enemy convoy, and he was anxious to intercept
it, but he didn’t think he would be facing anything more than a few destroyers. At dawn,
as the American fleet routinely went to battle stations, the leading destroyer Coghlan made radar
contact with several unidentified ships about ten miles north. In response, McMorris gathered his
ships into a close pack around his flagship, the Richmond, and made a stately fleet-turn towards
the northeast to intercept the enemy. At the same time, Japanese lookouts successfully identified
the approaching American vessels, so Hosogaya would immediately order his transports to fall
behind while he maneuvered his nine fast warships between the cargo ships and the Americans.
As the two fleets approached each other in a collision course, American lookouts would identify
four enemy cruisers moving fast towards Richmond’s starboard bow, while the Japanese destroyers
swung to bear down on the port bow. McMorris was outgunned, outsped and outnumbered by two-to-one,
but he would ultimately decide to fight nonetheless, as he reasoned that if he
refused to accept battle and the Japanese got to resupply Attu and Kiska, then the campaign could
be lengthened by entire months. While he notified Kinkaid and requested air support, he planned to
draw the enemy cruisers away with a feint to then dash in behind them and sink the cargo ships.
Around 08:40, the Japanese cruisers opened fire on Richmond, which was swinging into
a westward turn and would be straddled by the Japanese fire. Hosogaya then decided to shift
fire towards the bigger Salt Lake City, straddling the heavy cruiser as well, yet the Americans would
also start to respond , successfully putting the Nachi’s main battery out of action. This forced
Hosogaya to change course and swing into closer range to bring his other batteries into play,
sharply cutting McMorris off from the Japanese transports. In response, McMorris made a 40-degree
turn to port to confuse the enemy’s gunners, but Hosogaya would take this chance to launch eight
torpedoes at Salt Lake City. Nevertheless, Captain Bertram Rodgers expertly maneuvered
the cruiser to evade them and even managed to evade the enemy salvos with uncanny timing.
At the same time, the Salt Lake City continued to fire at Nachi, successfully hitting her three
times and causing heavy damage. Further hits from Richmond and Coghlan would finally force the Nachi
to slow down and drop back as it smoked heavily. At 09:03, Richmond ceased firing, trying to get
around the enemy warships and attack the transports, yet Hosogaya would order the
light cruiser Tama to cut across the arc of the American westerly turn.
At this point, Hosogaya had deployed his vessels to cut off the American’s escape route,
and the Abukuma column had already been positioned to guard the transports, so the outnumbered Task
Force 16 would be forced to make a desperate run for their lives towards the west and northwest.
An interval in the battle then ensued, in which both sides called for air support, but were
informed that none was coming. Heavy cruiser Maya and Salt Lake City were the only ones to trade
fire during this interval, with Maya scoring a hit on Salt Lake City’s amidships catapult at 09:10,
which destroyed a floatplane. Ten minutes later, Maya scored a second, more inconsequential hit on
the cruiser’s quarterdeck. Meanwhile, as the Tama and the Abukuma continued to close in,
Richmond would be forced to open fire once again at 09:52 to make the enemy back off slightly.
Furthermore, the shock of Salt Lake City’s own gunfire damaged its hydraulic steering system
at 10:02, which made maneuvering harder. Over 200 shells fell around her in the next few minutes;
but at 10:10, the cruiser was finally hit by a dud that managed to flood an engine room,
thus forcing the steering cruiser to slow down. In an instant response, McMorris ordered his
destroyers to lay a smokescreen, which gave the Americans some cover while they retired westwards.
Through his superior positioning, Hosogaya had forced the Americans, already in Japanese waters,
to flee west, directly away from Alaska and even deeper towards the Kuriles airbases.
The American crews even believed that their only chance was to be interned in Russia.
Yet Hosogaya squandered this great opportunity to exploit his superior speed as he continued to
zigzag to bring full broadsides to bear. Still, the Japanese were closing the gap by a steady
two and a half knots. Thinking that in another hour the Japanese would be at point-blank range,
McMorris decided to make a wide turn to the south, covered by the destroyers’ smokescreen.
As Hosogaya failed to notice this, the Japanese launched a total of 16 torpedoes at the same
time, missing all of them. Yet at 11:03, Salt Lake City would further suffer another critical hit,
causing more flooding and a list. Nonetheless, the Japanese had been fooled momentarily, so McMorris
began to slip away to the south. Upon noticing, Hosogaya immediately ordered a sharp turn to port
while his forces continued to fire. In response, McMorris ordered his destroyers to launch a feint
torpedo attack, which forced the Japanese to back off and allowed Salt Lake City to regain full
speed. But at 11:50, as the engineers attempted to fight the damage in Salt Lake City, the Americans
would accidently dump salt water into a fuel line and the cruiser began to slow to a halt.
McMorris immediately ordered the destroyer Dale to lay smoke in tight circles while he got Richmond
close to evacuate the American crew. Yet Rodgers refused to abandon ship, as he wanted to get steam
up again, though he needed time for that. Thus, McMorris signaled his remaining three
destroyers to execute a suicide torpedo attack. Driving northwest at 37 knots, the destroyers
Bailey and Monaghan concentrated their fire on Nachi while the Coghlan dueled the Maya,
successfully inflicting light damage on both cruisers. Yet the Japanese quickly responded
and managed to drive away Monaghan and Coghlan. Only the Bailey continued forward, suffering three
hits by 12:00 before it launched five torpedoes three minutes later, although they would all miss.
As it retired, the Bailey would suffer a fourth hit that caused heavy damage. This, however,
gained enough time for the Salt Lake City to regain power and start to make headway once again.
At 12:02, Rodgers would further resume firing, yet his blue-dyed armor-piercing rounds had all been
expended, so he had to use some high-explosive incendiary shells. At this point, Hosogaya was
very nervous, as he had intercepted McMorris’ call for air support three hours ago and thus
believed the enemy aircraft was about to appear. Furthermore, the smoke screen had prevented him
from noticing that the Salt Lake City had come to a stop, and being low on fuel and ammunition,
he thought that the Americans were likely to get away. Still, he was uncertain about his next move,
at least until Rodgers’ explosive shells began to fall on Nachi. The unfamiliar explosions
convinced Hosogaya that he was being bombed by American bombers, finally forcing him to order
the Attu run aborted at 12:03. By 12:12, the Japanese would be out of range, leaving the
Americans incredulous as to why the enemy was retreating. McMorris’ luck had returned and,
relieved, he then began to retreat back to Adak. Though the Americans had suffered more damage
in the battle, this had been an important strategic victory for the United States,
as the convoy to resupply Kiska and Attu had been successfully stopped. Though the Japanese would
attempt to launch two additional resupply convoys in April, weather would ultimately stop them,
so the Attu garrison would not see any relief arrive to the island until its eventual demise.
The Battle of the Komandorski Islands would be the last slugout gunnery duel ever to take
place between opposing surface fleets without the use of combat airplanes. Lasting for three
and a half hours, it would also be the longest continuous gunnery duel in modern naval history.
Upon returning to Paramushiro on March 28, Hosogaya was seen as a coward due to the fact
that he withdrew against an inferior force; and thus, he would be replaced by Vice-Admiral Kawase
Shiro as commander of the 5th Fleet. For the rest of the war, Hosogaya would be based in Truk,
serving as the Governor of the South Seas Mandate. McMorris also received substantial criticism from
American participants due to questionable actions during the battle, yet Admirals Nimitz and Kinkaid
would ultimately praise McMorris for his glorious and unlikely victory. Next week, we’ll cover some
important strategic decisions that took place in the Pacific Military Conference of March and we’ll
also head back to the CBI theater to continue with our coverage of the First Arakan Campaign.
If you want to watch this episode and more, make sure you are subscribed and pressed the bell
button. Recently we have started releasing weekly patron and youtube member exclusive videos. Join
the ranks of patrons and youtube members via the link in the description or by pressing the button
under the video to watch these weekly videos, learn about our schedule, get early access to our
videos, join our private discord, and much more. Please, consider liking, commenting, and sharing -
it helps immensely. This is the Kings and Generals channel, and we will catch you on the next one.