The Saga of World War 2: a Casus Belli Project · Cassus Belli Guy

War on the Cold Periphery

January 20, 2023·25 min·1 clip

Attu Island in Alaska is closer to Japan than to mainland America—a strategic reality that shocked Americans in 1942.

The host opens by placing the episode in the Aleutian Islands campaign. He notes that, if this were a book, he would move the chapter earlier because the chronology stretches from mid-1942 to mid-1943. The episode is aware of that shift. He also points to source documents from the Ike Skelton Combined Arms Research Library of the U.S. Army's Command and General Staff College, which gave the account a solid research backbone. It then rewinds to the Japanese attacks on Dutch Harbor and Fort Glenn on Umnak Island. Those raids destroyed four 6,600-barrel fuel tanks, for a total loss of over 20,000 barrels. They also damaged part of the hospital, a barrack ship, and a warehouse and empty hangar. Forty-three men were killed and fifty more were wounded. At Fort Glenn, Army Air Force aircraft managed to scramble and intercept the Japanese raiders. Two Japanese aircraft were downed and the rest withdrew without delivering their payloads. Their crews were later likely lost in the frigid ocean after disappearing into the fog. After that, the Japanese offensive in the central and eastern Aleutians largely ended. Admiral Hosogaya concentrated activity on the far western end of the chain. American patrol craft kept hunting his force through dreadful weather. The strain on the air crews became severe. Some crews were flying or standing watch for as long as 48 hours at a stretch. By June 4, only 14 PVYs remained operational. On June 7, the Army Air Force had to send additional A-29s, B-17s, and B-24s north from the West Coast. Admiral Theobald kept a task force in the Gulf of Alaska to interdict any further move, and he ordered General Butler to attack enemy vessels with all available aircraft. The episode closes this operational arc by bringing the listener to the delayed landing on May 11, 1943. Across the whole story, the episode treats weather, distance, and logistics as active forces in the campaign rather than background.

As heard by us

A cold, methodical take on the Aleutians, where weather and attrition do most of the work.

War on the Cold Periphery treats the Aleutian Islands campaign as a hard lesson in weather and attrition. The June 1942 raids on Dutch Harbor and Fort Glenn set the tone, and the numbers make the cost plain: 43 men killed, 50 wounded, only 14 PVYs still operational by June 4,…

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Why you'd press play

Press play for fog, fuel dumps, and a campaign shaped by weather.

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