HISTORY OF SHEMYA
PART I

It was dusk-- a gray, bleak, cold dusk, so characteristic of that part
of the world. Standing on the bridge of the lead ship the Captain
surveyed the numerous boats carefully scattered within the convoy's pattern.

The scouts had reported no signs of any enemy. Those Americans didn't
know potential air strips when they saw them. Well, we Japs will show
them how to fight a war. What's all the commotion, eh? A plane?
Where?

Through a sudden break in the overcast sky could be seen one lone
bombing plane clearly marked with the white star of the United States
Army Air Forces. Obviously the plane had spotted the convoy for it
swung to pass directly over the enemy's powerful invasion force that
lay bobbing on the sea. As the co-pilot turned in his seat to watch
this group of ships disappear behind the plane's tail he hollered,
"Joe! Joe--look! They are turning around." Joe, the pilot, too busy
flying his plane, could only reply, "Well, I'll be damned---."

Such was the Japanese "Invasion' of the Semichi Islands. That's how
close they came. But for a lone plane, which in all probability couldn't have called enough firepower to drive them away, the Japs would have occupied Shemya ......

For a period of months fighting was confined to the air when and if the weather permitted. The Japanese were busy not only making airstrips
but also putting in defense against submarines, naval, air and ground attacks. The U. S. worked feverishly to augment the service, combat,
and air units already stationed in Alaska and the eastern Aleutian
Chain. Neither side was bothered by enemy actions one half as much as
it was by the Aleutian weather. After the Dutch Harbor attack, it
became standard practice for one of the U.S. bombers to take off from Umnak, and acting as a weather plane fly the 600 miles to Kiska, radio back weather conditions, and return. This was aerial warfare at its

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