Like the bombing of Pearl Harbor and America’s entrance into World War II, the Aleutian Campaign came suddenly when undetected carrier-based Japanese planes bombed United States (US) installations at Dutch Harbor on June 3rd 1942. Three days later, Japanese forces landed on Kiska and Attu, two remote islands in the far western reaches of the Aleutian chain. On Kiska Island, the initial invasion force of 550 men was quickly reinforced to sustain occupation. A naval installation comprised of a submarine base, sea plane base, and protected anchorage for ships was established at Kiska Harbor while the Japanese Imperial Army garrisoned 3,500 men on its base at the head of Gertrude Cove. Infrastructure, including a system of roads and telegraph wires, were quickly erected linking forces throughout the island. The Japanese also heavily fortified the island with an impressive array of anti-aircraft weapons. The largest concentration of these encircled Kiska Harbor at North Head, South Head, and Little Kiska and wreaked havoc on low level US bombing missions. At the height of occupation, Japanese forces on the island totaled more than 7,200.
The American response to the Japanese invasion was immediate. On June 11th, 1942, a combined force of US Army and Navy aircraft unleashed a near continuous three-day bombing campaign, known as the “Kiska Blitz”, in which the US Navy alone reportedly dropped 65,000 tons of bombs (Figure 1).
