Listen to a small snippet of CMSAF Kaleth O. Wright talk with Staff Sgt. The Liberators sank two ships, set three others afire, damaged midget submarines in dry dock as well as a number of buildings, and killed some 200 Japanese soldiers. In the second half of 1942, air-war attrition on both sides worsened due to weather and combat. To elude U.S. Navy PBY Catalina patrol planes, the fleet, commanded by Rear Admiral Kakuji Kakuta, had hidden in a storm front. “Are you?”, From June 11 to June 13, more than 20 PBYs shuttled constantly over the 650 miles separating Kiska from Atka, where at Nazan Bay the crew of the seaplane tender USS Gillis did yeoman service refueling and rearming Catalinas. Overriding complaints that the bombing marathon had been a waste, Gehres kept up the raids, albeit at a reduced pace, and against resistance by Japanese pilots in newly delivered Nakajima A6M2-N “Rufe” amphibious fighters. Another Catalina, taxiing in the bay, took fire from a Zero but avoided further damage when its pilot flew up a mountain draw and into the concealing mist. In January the unit lost another 11 aircraft, none in combat. But air superiority meant nothing. Maintaining radar contact from above the overcast, the American pilot dove through the clouds and circled the enemy fleet at 1,500 feet. The durable Catalina had a 3,000-mile range and could carry 4,000 pounds of bombs or torpedoes, but was an unlikely combat plane. It's the spirit we fly by! Having satisfied their moral imperative, the Americans then took on the cost in lives and resources of bombing sorties further west. With 11 of 20 critical days of the assault not flyable, U.S. Army troops recaptured Attu largely without help from above. Soon after, a dozen B-26s from Umnak and Cold Bay, each carrying a torpedo, flew to the attack. Also anxious for a scrap, Captain Leslie Gehres, Commander of Navy Patrol Wing 4, ordered his PBY crews into the fray. The blitz, which inflicted a few hits on enemy ships, did destroy three four-engined Kawanishi H6K “Mavis” flying boats, as well as damage antiaircraft emplacements on Kiska. Anxious to protect their northern flank, the Japanese decided that grabbing parts of the Aleutian chain would discourage attacks on the home islands while extending the Empire’s security perimeter. On June 10 an LB-30 Liberator cargo plane crew over Kiska Harbor found a hole in the clouds and went in for a closer look. “Don’t figure on getting any serviceable planes back from us,” Eleventh Air Force Chief of Staff Colonel Everett Davis wrote to air chief General Henry “Hap” Arnold. The Imperial Japanese Navy light aircraft carriers in heavy seas, steaming into the wind 180 miles south of the American naval Ryūjō and Junyō were base at Dutch Harbor, Alaska, as dawn neared on June 3, 1942. Between July and December the Eleventh Air Force lost 72 planes, only nine of them from combat. Alice Josephine McLellan Birney, child welfare worker whose ideas evolved into the PTA. And the Americans were not only willing to fly in weather the Japanese loathed but were also tightening a noose of submarines, picket ships, and aircraft around Kiska and Attu, cutting off supplies. The newest Air Force Podcast recently dropped. Image:  80-G-475760:  Vough OS2U "Kingfisher" launched from repair mat at Attu, Aleutian Islands. In the cold, hydraulic fluid and oil congealed, grease froze, and crews had to heat engines to get them to turn over. Naval Aviation in the Alaskan Islands. The stuttering nature of ground actions there meant the battle was defined largely overhead, as opposing naval and air forces groped for a win in a setting so harsh that mere survival was a victory. Analysts discovered several vulnerabilities. The pilot banked, jettisoned his ordnance, and returned to base. Naval Aviation in the Alaskan Islands. In June 1942 the seaplane carrier Kimikawa Maru had delivered 18 Rufe fighters to Kiska; by early August, only two were airworthy, as was only one of six huge Mavises at that island. One PBY completed a run with 200 holes from flak or small-arms fire, an engine shot out, and a missing aileron—then hightailed it for the clouds hanging at 500 to 1,500 feet. John M. Curatola. Colonel William Eareckson, head of XI Bomber Command, based at Cold Bay, began attacking the Japanese with B-24s and B-17s from fields on Umnak. An invasion was set for August 15, 1943, and in mid-July airstrikes began. With Japanese air power in the Aleutians withered, pre-invasion strikes at Attu’s enemy garrisons went unhampered. These insights eroded the Zero’s mythical reputation and illuminated tactics American pilots could bring to bear against foes flying Zeros. Amy Carter, daughter of American president (1977-81) Jimmy Carter, she engaged in social activism in the 1980s. Realizing his Zero was trailing a black spew, he headed for Akutan, his designated ditching spot. / Published December 06, 2006, The Stormbreaker! One pilot flew more than 19 hours in a 24-hour period. But instead of a grassy field, he was setting down on muskeg— boggy ground that masked standing water. By the end of July, the wing had lost a third of its flying boats. This section highlights some of the U.S. Navy aircraft that participated in the Aleutian Island Campaign and were also based on various Alaskan Islands during World War II.. He flew east from Dutch Harbor, with his two compatriots flying guard. When a Zero arced over at the top of a climb, for instance, its engine would cut out because its gravity-feed carburetors would not send fuel into the cylinders. Tune in as our Air Force musicians along with other military musicians are awarded the National Medal of Arts. In addition to Japanese ordnance, crews endured fatigue. Aleutian P-38 Lightning summary. Peter Max, illustrator and graphic artist whose use of psychedelic shapes and bright colors made him popular in the 1960s. Mounting a defense against the threat of invasion from the north and bombings in the Kuriles kept some 500 planes and 40,000 Japanese troops far from the fighting elsewhere in the Pacific, and an empire chronically short on men and material could hardly afford the price of keeping Kiska and Attu in a conflict in which nature would be the true victor. Over Kiska, pilots dove through the overcast to drop bombs amid antiaircraft fire that could be punitively accurate. Last update: August 22, 2020. Aleutian Islands: World War II secret bases. While Yamaguchi was positioning his Kate for a bomb run, Zeros strafed the naval base, where a Catalina was lumbering down the runway for the daily mail flight to Kodiak, some 600 miles east.