WWII in Alaska Connections

Objective: Information collection for Minnesota-area families whose family members (military and civilian) participated in Alaska military activities between 1940-1944. Background information for Minnesotans in the Aleutian campaign can be found in this article Minnesotans in Forgotten War.pdf

Note: Sources are often incomplete and sketchy. Please let me know of any inaccuracies, provide additional information or items for inclusion and pass the word so others may help build this resource. For additional information on scheduled or scheduling a “World War II on Alaska Soil” program see the Programs page on this website.

Who – summary bits:

Minnesota National Guard’s 205th and 206th Infantry Regiments converted into the 215th, 216th, and 217th Coast Artillery (Anti-Aircraft) Regiments, which together comprised the 101st Coast Artillery (AA) Brigade. In 1940 Army sought to repair imbalances in its forces by transforming many infantry regiments into anti-aircraft artillery outfits. Mobilized in Winter of 1941. Trained at Camp Haan in California. 215th sent to Kodiak in July 1941 to guard the naval base. After Pearl Harbor, 216th and 217th assigned to various gun emplacements along California coast and 215th sent to Adak to support the drive to remove Japan from the Western Aleutians. In 1944, the 101st was deactivated, retrained and reassigned overseas. (Source: MN Military Museum, Camp Ripley).
Eugene McGaan, Iowa (daughter Mary Logan)- 47th Engineering Regiment ~ April 1 1942 - Sent to Tacoma, WA to board, the ship “Baronof” , for 4-day trip to Cordova, Alaska.“The rest of the spring was spent building KD huts. These were 16x16 wooden, on sills, with good shingled roof. They housed 4 men. They had oil heaters. …We were to build dispersal hard stands for the patrol bombers using an air field built by Morris Knudsen Contractors. Hard stands were small taxi-ways surrounded by earthen bunkers. These bombers were patrolling the Pacific waters. About this time the Japanese bombed Dutch Harbor, and made their bid for Alaska." (Source: Diary notes written when McGaan was in his 90s.)
Battery E 215th Coast Artillery Regiment- 135 National Guardsmen from Rock County, MN (Luverne) - January 1941 sent to Kodiak to protect Fort Greely (Source: The War-Ward and Burns).
Patrick Joseph Hogan, Gilbert, MN -1941, first man from Minnesota to be drafted into military service. He spent the next four years in combat, first in the invasion of the Japanese of the Aleutian Islands. Part of bomb- disposal squad, stationed on Adak that cleared formerly-occupied islands of Attu and Kiska. Brought mascot blue fox, named “B.D.” for Bomb Disposal, back to Minnesota (Source: War Stories, Volume II: Further accounts of Minnesotans who defended their nation – Al Zdon)

Audience input:

Elim Baptist Church, Anoka - man whose mother was a “do-gooder” said she was in Alaska during war as nurse
Bill, Eden Prairie-Cartographer stationed in Seattle, 1941 images of the Aleutians sent to his unit, compiled map on 15-foot table, each team working on 6-foot section that overlapped (Note: Japan had detailed maps of the Aleutians because they had continuously fished the area. The U.S. military started the war using maps from the 1800s. Because of the constant fog maps were critical to the military effort)
Coon Rapids - brother fell off a ship, body never found
Coon Rapids - father part of ground crew somewhere
Elk River - father’s diary pages, list of ships in convoy, mimeographed civilian newsletter “The Midnight Sun” published Nov. 11, 1942 names listed: Sam Balkin, Red Grange, Mike Standfield, Merle Savage, Eddie Drahos, Ed Foote, Jay Norton, Jimmy Buechler, Harold Duncuff, Klondike Ragnier, Junior Grau, Ted Arko, Herman Berg, Joe Rodda, Dr. Barr, Jim Vivian (General Labor Foreman), Mark Eischeid, Bb Englehart, Carl Hutton, Gordon Fort, Olin Green, Gibonstine, Ed and Fred Pftisinger (father and son), Lou Makris, Elmer Westphal-Al Johnson employees
Elk River - father ran heavy equipment near Arctic Circle---Alaska Highway building?
Elk River –father Morse code operator possibly on Kiska at one of the prewar weather stations
Elk River – father told story about Japanese plane that went down and other Japanese pilots refused to shoot it full of holes (as was the practice to destroy evidence) because the pilot was their friend. Plane later recovered, reassembled in California, and U.S. learned the workings of Japan’s Zero fighter plane. Major discovery was that if the plane banked hard left, the carburetor flooded and the plane crashed, US military made use of intelligence
Elk River-father in Attu in 1943- 13 crew on plane, banked and plane stalled out, carrying large engine which imbalanced plane forcing a crash landing into the Bering Sea, civilians working on Kiska shore saw crash one mile away and went to recover, 11 died, 2 non-swimmers including his father (hung onto box of some kind) survived
Rochester – father in anti-aircraft regiment that fired on the Japanese when they made initial attack at Unalaska, in Battle of Attu, and part of last landing forces at Kiska

What: diary pages, newsletters, photos

Where:

Kodiak Navel Operating Base and Forts Greely and Abercromie
Ladd Field-Fort Jonathan Wainwright, located in Fairbanks
Sitka Navel Operating Base and U.S. Army Coastal Defenses
Dutch Harbor Navel Operating Base and Fort Mears, U.S. Army
Adak Army Base and Navel Operating Base
Kiska - Japanese Occupation Site
Attu Battlefield and U.S. Army and Navy Airfields
Cape Field at Fort Glenn - later renamed Cape Air Force Base, and the adjacent Otter Point Naval Air Facility, both located on Umnak Island in the Aleutian Islands of southwestern Alaska.

When:

Dec. 7, 1941 - Pearl Harbor bombed
April 18, 1942 - Doolittle air raid on Tokyo
June 3 and 4, 1942 –Japanese bombed Dutch Harbor
June 6 and 7, 1942 – Japanese took Kiska and Attu, 42 Aleut villagers as prisoners
June 10-12, 1942 - Japanese bombed Atka
June 12, 1942 - U.S. evacuated 881 Aleuts and Pribilovians to internment camps in S.E. Alaska
August 30, 1942 - U.S. built airfield on Adak
Nov. 20, 1942 - Alaska - Canada (Alcan) highway completed
March 26, 1943 - Battle of the Komandorski Islands (Amchitka) -blockaded supplies and reinforcements to the Japanese on Kiska and Attu
May 11-29, 1943 - Battle to recapture Attu became second costliest battle in Pacific
July 28, 1943 Japan - successfully evacuated Kiska, undetected, in the fog
August 15-15, 1943 – 29,000 U.S Troops and 5,300 Canadian troops landed on Kiska
August 24, 1943 - Aleutian Campaign ended

Why:

An Aleutian Campaign?

Japan – Doolittle raid on Tokyo (April 1942)>protect flank from Aleutians attack
U.S. Lend-Lease program operations protected; main shipping route through Unimak pass
Prevent increased Japanese access to mainland U.S. if they bombed Boeing plant in Seattle

The “Forgotten War”?

Alaska was a remote, unknown U.S. Territory at the start of the war.
Intentional news blackout because of fears that people of the Lower 48 would panic if they realized that the Japanese were occupying U.S. Soil.
Battle of Guadalcanal dominated the news

How to find more information:

General

Thousand Mile War -Brian Garfield
Alaska’s Hidden War: Secret Campaigns of the North Pacific Rim - Otis Hays, Jr.
Alaska Geographic: The Aleutians
The Great Alone (a novel) - Janet Dailey
The Aleutian Islands of Alaska: Living on the edge –K.F. Wilson and J. Richardson
Alaska Geographic: World War II in Alaska, Volume 22, Number 4, 1995
War in the Pacific: Aleutians, Volume V - Edwin P. Hoyt, 1992
Alaska Islands and Ocean Visitor Center – Homer, Alaska
Alaska Veteran’s Museum – Anchorage, Alaska
Unalaska: Aleutian WWII National Historic Area Map and Guide

MN-WI specific

The War: An intimate history 1941-1945 - Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns
War Stories, Volume II: Further accounts of Minnesotans who defended their nation – Al Zdon
MN Military Museum – Camp Ripley

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WWII in Alaska Connections