Sometimes called the “Forgotten Front” or “Forgotten War2”, the battle for the Aleutian Islands, in southwest Alaska, was one of the bloodiest of the Second World War. With the Battle of Attu still fresh in mind, on August 14, 1943, the U.S. Army sent more than 100 ships and 30,000 men to land on Kiska Island to attack a Japanese force estimated at 10,000 men. What they found on the island ultimately shocked the Allied forces. HISTORY In December 1941, the Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor, drawing the United States into World War II. The Japanese commander in charge of the navy, Admiral Yamamoto, was looking for an opportunity to draw the U.S. Navy into a battle in which he could decisively engage and destroy its aircraft carriers. He decided that the best available target would be Midway. However, as a diversion, in June 1942 Yamamoto opened a second front by attacking the Aleutian Islands. Unbeknownst to Admiral Yamamoto, American codebreakers had deciphered Japanese radio transmissions and the Americans knew exactly what he was doing. Armed with this knowledge, Admiral Nimitz, commander of US naval forces in the Pacific, decided to send a contingent of 21 ships to Alaska and retained the remainder of his fleet for the defense of Midway. The Japanese fleet managed to escape the Americans and attack the Dutch Harbor base on June 3 and 4. Then they managed to escape a naval confrontation again and landed on the islands of Kiska and Attu on June 7, quickly subduing the military and civilian inhabitants. For the rest of the summer, the United States and the Japanese exchanged blows, with the United States. The air force regularly bombs Kiska's forces. To the great dismay of the Americans, they were unable to dislodge them. Continued from... middle of document......Huntoon, David H. The Aleutians: Lessons from a Forgotten Campaign. Leavenworth, KS: U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, 1988. Martin, Russell. “The Aleutian Optical”. American History, March 1998, pp. 48-55, 63-64. Mortensen, Daniel R. “The Air Expeditionary Force in Perspective.” » Airpower Research Institute Paper, 2003-01. Rozell, Ned. “Kiska.” Alaska, September 2004, pp. 18, 20-21. “Aleutian Operations, 1942-1943.” http://www.worldwar2database.com/html/aleutians.htm The Bloody Aleutians. Directed by Michael Prentice. 2001. Centennial, CO: Jones Entertainment Group, 2001. DVD. US Army Center for Military History WWII Campaigns: Aleutian Islands http://www.history.army.mil/brochures/aleut/aleut.html US Navy Battle Story The Aleutian Campaign June 1942-1943.http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/USN-CN-Aleutians.html