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ATTU WW-II KIA LISTING
The Aleutians Forum
Aleutian Poetry, Fred
Ellis
Aleutians Mail Call Newsletter
Battle for
the Aleutians, a Graphic History
WW2
Alaska Service Certificate
NARA: Military Service & Pension Records
National
Park Service's Aleutian WWII
Returning Japanese Battle Flags and Other Memorabilia
The
Aleutian "Keebird"
Short History of WWII in the Aleutians
Loran
Station Attu Gets an Unexpected Visitor
Ring of Fire; Aleutians Tour
Weather Notes
for Pilots
The Last
Military Person to Leave Adak
Smitty's Place Live Weather (Lakewood, CO)
The Aleutian Store
Aleutian's Message Board Attu's Landmark P-38 Recovery
What Is a Vet
A Soldier's Flag Returns
Home
The
Japanese in the Aleutians |
There's a Fighter Base Located Where?
In 1941 General Buckner, to bypass
heavy U. S. Navy opposition to U. S. Army
involvement in the Aleutians that would appear to
subvert the Navy's interests there (the Navy
considered this to be "their turf"),
covertly contrived the "Blair Fish Packing
Co," an outfit whose real intentions were to
build a U. S. Army Air Force base on the island of
Umnak. After lengthy and intense negotiations with
General DeWitt, General Buckner finally received
official approval for his plans to build airbases at
both Cold Bay and Umnak. The fish packing company
cover was retained to help conceal the United States
effort to establish forward air bases in the
Aleutians from which to protect Dutch Harbor and to
launch attacks against the Japanese. In March of
1942, the 807th Army Engineers arrived in the
Aleutians to begin work on the airfields.Umnak is part of the "Fox" islands,
southwest of mainland Alaska in the Aleutian chain.
It is the third largest of the Aleutian islands,
having a land mass of around 675 square miles. At
this time in it's history, Umnak supported about 50
Aleut residents, about 15,000 sheep, and a heard of
imported reindeer. Umnak has no natural harbor,
supports no trees, and is very mountainous. There
were serious doubts that a runway could in fact be
constructed here. General Buckner solved the runway problem by
importing to Umnak 3,000,000 square feet of Marsden
Matting, perforated-steel plating (PSP) that
could be assembled with other steel plates to create
a flat surface upon which aircraft could take off
and land. On March 31st, 1942 the 807th had
completed the 3,000 by 100 foot runway on Umnak for
use by Jack Chenault's P-40 fighter aircraft.
The joint Board in late November 1941 had approved the
construction of an Army airfield on Umnak Island, not only to
provide local air protection for the naval base at Dutch Harbor, but
also for the broader purposes of blocking a Japanese advance toward
the mainland and permitting the projection of Army air power into
the more distant Aleutians. Army Engineers under the command of Col.
Benjamin B. Talley began the construction of a runway at Otter Point
on the northeastern end of Umnak in mid-January 1942 and soon
thereafter undertook similar work on an intermediate base at Cold
Bay near the tip of the Alaska Peninsula, where construction of an
airfield had been started by the Civil Aeronautics Administration.
The Umnak base became the Army's Fort Glenn, and the Cold Bay base
Fort Randall, with Fort Mears, the Army garrison for Dutch Harbor,
in between. Both of the new fields were usable by 1 April, although
just barely so. When the enemy approached two months later, Umnak
had a garrison of about 4,000, Fort Mears of over 6,000, and Cold
Bay of about 2,500, including engineer troops, but also including
balanced complements of infantry and of field and antiaircraft
artillery units. Generals Buckner and DeWitt had wanted a much
larger combat force for the forward base on Umnak but had to be
content with the 2,300 or so combat troops that the War Department
had authorized.
While the Umnak and Cold Bay airfields were being rushed to
completion, the Japanese High Command was planning to attack and
occupy points in the Aleutian Islands as part of their "second
phase" offensive. By April Japanese planners had agreed on the main
features of the operation. Japanese task forces were to undertake a
two-pronged drive against Midway and the Aleutian Islands in the
early part of June. Aside from its diversionary aspect to cover the
Midway strike, the Aleutian phase of the operations was to be purely
defensive. After capturing Midway and Kiska, the Japanese intended
to use them as bases for an aerial patrol of North Pacific waters.
The islands would also be outposts in a new defense perimeter that
would be extended in due course to the Samoan and Fiji Islands and
New Caledonia.
The enemy knew little of American activities in the Aleutians since
the war's beginning. The Japanese planners thought the United States
had extensive military installations at Dutch Harbor and smaller
garrisons on Adak, Kiska, and Attu. They also believed that there
were one or two small aircraft carriers as well as cruisers and
destroyers operating in Aleutian waters. But they knew nothing of
the new airfields east and west of Dutch Harbor then nearing
completion.

Dozer stuck in the Tundra - 1943

The Umnak base became the Army's Fort Glenn
(Current Photo - Doerte)
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