worst efficiency. To operate against the Japanese with any degree of deadlines we needed land bases closer to their installations at Kiska
and Attu than Umnak. By l0 September 1942 Adak had been made tenable
for aircraft with the result that from this time on the main base of operation against the Japs at the end of the chain was this island.

Shemya Seizure Slated

During the last days of the Battle of Attu, another campaign from Attu
was in the offing. Brig. Gen. John E. Copeland selected certain of
the hardiest troops from the Fourth Infantry Regiment for a landing on tiny Shemya some 40 miles to the southeast. There were no Japs on the island at that time. A contingent of Alaskan Scouts had reconnoitered
the place in May and found only evidence of a Japanese surveying party which had made tests for an airstrip site. But the men in the initial landing party served in the Aleutians long enough to realize that the
perils of natural elements can prove as hazardous as those encountered
by engaging the foe. And Japs or no Japs, the landing was destined to
be a difficult one.

Infantry Faces Fog, Reefs, Waves

Under cover of a thick fog, landing barges, loaded with Americans from
the Fourth Infantry approached the shores of Shemya after six hours of uncomfortable, sickening voyaging over heavy seas. A single dilapidated trapper's cabin, long before deserted and two Russian graves were the only signs of former habitation greeting the occupation force. High waves whipped by lashing winds broke furiously against the jagged shore-
line. The barges tore over partially submerged reefs, ripping open hulls as the frail craft came to rest atop exposed rocks. Spring ice-water flowed between the reaches of ramps and solid ground. Men waded through the surf burdened with supplies of food and tent material strapped to their backs. The Army had arrived on Shemya. The date was 28 May 1943. Ashore, fox-holes were dug and tents set up. But the canvas shelters
were soon discovered to be useless if exposed above ground. Finally, the tents were used to bundle in, rather than as shelters, until excavations could be dug below the surface as protection against the wind---------

6