Endnotes for Chapter XI

1 Rad, Gen DeWitt to Gen Marshall, 18 Dec 42 ; Rad, DeWitt to Marshall, 19 Dec 42 ; Rad, Marshall to DeWitt, 21 Dec 42 ; Rad, DeWitt to Marshall, 21 Dec 42. All in OPD Log File, Dec 42. Rad, Marshall to DeWitt, 23 Dec 42, OPD 381 Alaska/52 ; unsigned Memo for Rcd, 20 Dec 42, sub: Offensive Operations in Aleutians, OPD 381 ADC (12-20-42).

2 Capt Nelson L. Drummond, The Attu Operation (2 vols.), 1, 30, MS in OCMH. Drummond, a historical officer, prepared this account from official records and interviews with participants.

3 Craven and Cate, eds., The Pacific-Guadalcanal to Saipan, pp. 375-76; Official Hist of the Alaskan Dept, app. B, Summary of Air Operations; Navy Dept Communiques for Jan and Feb 43, in G-2 Study on Aleutians, by Maj G. Dorrance, copy in OCMH.

4 Ltr, Adm Kinkaid to Actg Chief of Military History, 11 Apr 59, OCMH files.

5 See Morison, Aleutians, Gilberts and Marshalls, ch. II.

6 Rad, CTF 8 to CINCPAC, 7 Mar .13, OPD 381/39. ONI Combat Narrative, Aleutians Campaign, pp. 69-70.

7 Rad, COMINCH to CINCPAC and CG WDC, 10 Mar 43, OPD 381/39.

8 Memo, Adm King for COPS, 22 Mar 43, with proposed dir COMINCH to CINCPAC, and Memo, OPD for COM1NCH, 22 Mar 43, OPD 381/54. For accounts of the Pacific Military Conf in Washington, see Maurice Matloff, Strategic Planning for Coalition Warfare, 1943-1944, UNITED STATES ARMY IN WORLD WAR II (Washington, 1959), pp. 91-99, and, in the same series, John Miller, jr., CARTWHEEL: The Reduction of Rabaul (Washington, 1959), ch. 11.

9 Lt Col Lynn D. Smith, Asst ACofs, G-3, WDC and Fourth Army, Preliminary Report on Attu Landing, 30 May 43, OCMH. First Information and Hist Service, G-2 Hist Subsec, The Attu Operations, p. 7, Monograph, OCMH. This account, The Attu Operations, was prepared by General Brown in late 1943 and edited by him in Feb 1946. It should not be confused with Drummond's narrative bearing a similar title.

10 The following maps of Attu have been used: AMSQ 831, Type C (AMS-2) 1947, Scale1:25,000; and AMSQ 501, First Edition 1953, Scale 1:250,000.

11 Drummond, Attu Operation, 1, 43-44 ; Smith, Preliminary Rpt on Attu Landing, p. 2.

12 Drummond, Attu Operation, 1, 8-9, 12-15 ; Japanese Monograph 46, pp. 111 ff., and Map 3, Disposition of Troops (Japanese) on Attu.

13 Hq Landing Force (TF 51.4) PO 1, 17 Apr 43, with Intelligence an. 3 and app. 1 to an. 3, (Study of JACKBOOT as known 15 April 1943) .

14 Rad, CINCPAC to CG WDC and COMINCH, 25 Mar 43, OPD 381/54; Attu Operations (Gen Brown's account), p. 9; ONI Combat Narrative, Aleutians Campaign, p. 76.

15 Morison, Aleutians, Gilberts and Marshalls, app. 1; Ltr, Adm Nimitz to Gen DeWitt, 22 Mar 43, OCMH files.

16 Hq Landing Force, FO No. 1, 17 Apr 43, incorporates all five plans. The plan E included in the field orders is, however, a later, although not the final version. The original Plan E, to judge from its Engineer Annex, dated 17 April, was in general as given above.

17 Memo, Adm Rockwell for Gen Brown, 29 Apr 43, sub: FO 1, in OCMH files; undated summary of the operation by General Brown in same file; Attu Operations (Gen Brown's account), pp. 16-17.

18 Hq Landing Force (TF 51.4), FO 1, Plan E (corrected copy), 2 May 43; and G-3 Journal Vouchers, 16 Apr-10 May 43. The Journal Voucher file was the daily message and memoranda file, usually designated "journal file" as distinct from the bare record of incoming and outgoing messages and memorandums usually designated the "journal," but which in the case of TF 51.4, was termed the "journal file."

19 Attu Operations (Gen Brown's account), p. 8.

20 Hq TF 51 .4, G-3 Journal Vouchers, 16 Apr-10 May 43 (entries for 4-10 May) ; Morison, Aleutians, Gilberts and Marshalls, pp. 40-41; ONI Combat Narrative, Aleutians Campaign, pp. 76-77.

21 Experience during the North African landings, six months earlier, had demonstrated the illadvisedness of establishing force headquarters on a vessel that might be called away on tactical missions. (See Morison, Operations in Nortb African Waters, pp. 104-105.) Before leaving San Francisco, Admiral Rockwell had urged General Brown to establish himself aboard the battleship Pennsylvania, but General Brown had rightly insisted that to do so might prevent him from going ashore at the proper time, if for any reason the battleship had to leave the actual scene of landing. One solution, adopted at Guadalcanal, was to establish force headquarters on a transport. The Zeilin, however, according to Admiral Rockwell, was not large enough to accommodate both headquarters. Later a special class of amphibious command ships (AGC), designed before the war but not yet in service in 1943, was used for this very purpose.

22 Craven and Cate, eds., The Pacific-Guadalcanal to Saipan, pp. 380-83.

23 The foregoing is based on messages recorded in Hq TF 51.4, G-3 Journal File, and G-3 Journal vouchers (entries for 11 May) ; on Smith, Preliminary Rpt on Attu Landing, pp. 6-7; ONI Combat Narrative, Aleutians Campaign, pp. 79-81; Attu Operations (Gen Brown's account), p. 20.

24 Japanese Monograph 46, pp. 111-18; Morison, Aleutians, Gilberts and Marshalls, p. 43.

25 BCT 17-1, Unit journal for 11 May; Smith, Preliminary Rpt on Attu Landing, pp. 6-7; ONI Combat Narrative, Aleutians Campaign, p. 81. The Smith report places the first encounter with the Japanese at 1900, which does not quite correspond with the unit journal.

26 Maj Gen Eugene M. Landrum, CG Landing Force, Rpt of Operations-Attu, 22 Jun 43, pp. 3-4; ONI Combat Narrative, Aleutians Campaign, pp. 78-79; Drummond, Attu Operation, 1, pp. 99-102; Personal- Narrative by ist Sgt. Fenton Hamlin, in the War Department's The Capture of Attu: As Told by the Men Who Fought There (Washington: Infantry Journal Press, 1944), pp. 64-68. The narrative introducing this volume provides an excellent summary of tactical operations on Attu.

27 BCT 17-2, Action Rpt, and Unit journal ( 11 May) ; RLG 17, Action Rpt ( 11 May). 

28 BCT 17-3, Action Rpt, and Unit journal ( 11 May).

29 RLG 17 Action Rpt, Overlay 11-14 May; Personal Narratives by Lt Charles K. Paulson, Cpl Mike M. Brusuelas, and Cpl Paul H. Doty, in The Capture of Attu, pp. 27-31. The quotations are from Field Order No. 1, Plan E (corrected copy), 2 May 43, in Landing Force (Task Force 51.4) G-3 Journal Vouchers (2 May).

30 RLG 17, Action Rpt, and Overlay (11 May) ; Hq Landing Force (TF 51.4), G-3 Journal File and Journal Vouchers (11-12 May) ; Attu Operations (Gen Brown's account), pp. 22, 27, 28.

31 On the eve of the Attu landing, on 4 May, Buckner was promoted to lieutenant general.

32 RLG 17, Action Rpt and Overlays (11-14 May); BCT 17-2, Unit Journal; and BCT 17-3, Unit journal.

33 BCT 17-1 Unit Journal and Overlays; Smith, Preliminary Rpt on Attu Landing.

34 Memo, Gen Brown for CTF 51 (Adm Rockwell), 14 May 43, Hq TF 51.4, G-3 Journal Vouchers (item 35, 14 May).

35 Attu Operations (General Brown's account), pp. 35-36.

36 A handwritten draft message, Gen Brown to CG WDC, in Hq TF 51.4, G-3 Journal Vouchers (item 12, 15 May). The G-3 Journal File lists this message as dated and "IN" at 1020.

37 ONI Combat Narrative, Aleutians Campaign, pp. 84-88; Morison, Aleutians, Gilberts and Marshalls, pp. 47-49; Attu Operations (Gen Brown's account), p. 35, and Rpt of Operations Attu (Gen Landrum's Rpt ), p. 7 ; Ltrs, Adm Kinkaid to Actg Chief of Military History, 11 Apr 59, and Gen Brown to Chief of Military History, 26 Apr 62, in OCMH file.

General Brown has contended, with much justification, that the assumptions of conditions on Attu upon which his relief was premised were not in fact correct, and he also believes that these assumptions should have been checked before such an irrevocable step was taken. Before his new appointment, General Landrum commanded the Adak base. He had been promoted to the rank of major general in March.

38 BCT 17-3, Action Rpt and Unit journal (17-18 May) ; RLG 17, Action Rpt (17 May) .

39 For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action above and beyond the call of duty on 26 May, Pvt. Joe P. Martinez of Company K, 32d Infantry, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. For extraordinary heroism and inspiring leadership in a series of actions beginning on 16 May, the commander of the 17th Infantry, Colonel Zimmerman, was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. Twelve distinguished unit citations were also awarded after the Attu operation, nine of them for unit actions after 17 May.

40 RLG 17, Action Rpt (29-31 May) and overlays, and Rpt of Operations-Attu (Gen Landrum's Rpt), pp. 12-1 3.

41 Control Div, Surgeon General's Office, Medical Report of Attu Campaign, 6 Dec 44, in OCMH.

42 Official Hist of the Alaskan Dept, ch. IV.

43 Unless otherwise noted, the sources of the following account of the Kiska operation are: Official Hist of the Alaskan Dept, ch. V, and a draft narrative by Capt Nelson L. Drummond, entitled History of Kiska Occupation, in OCMH. The two sources for the most part duplicate each other.

44 Col Charles P. Stacey, The Canadian Army, . 1939-1945: An Official Historical Summary (Ottawa: King's Printer, 1948), pp. 290-97. See also, by the same author, Six Years of War: The Army in Canada, Britain, and the Pacific, ch. XV.

45 Memo, Brig Gen Albert C. Wedemeyer for Gen Hull, 31 May 43 ; Memo, Col John C. Blizzard, Jr., for Gen Handy, 10 Jun 43. Both in OPD 381/132.

46 ONI Combat Narrative, Aleutians Campaign, p. 101.

47 OPD Diary, entry of 4 Aug 43 ; Craven and Cate, eds., The Pacific-Guadalcanal to Saipan, pp. 387-88 ; ONI Combat Narrative, Aleutians Campaign, pp. 94-97.

48 Craven and Cate, eds., The Pacific-Guadalcanal to Saipan, Pp. 390-92. 

49 Ltr, Adna Kinkaid to Acting Chief of Military History, 11 Apr 59, in OCMH files.

50 Morison, Aleutians, Gilberts and Marshalls, pp. 63-64.

51 Japanese accounts and documents relating to the Kiska evacuation are in the following Japanese monographs: 46, Aleutians Operations Record, June 1942-July 1943 ch. 7 ; 47, Northern Area Monthly Reports, Combat January-May 1943 ; 89, Northern Area Naval Operations, February 1943-August 1945.

52 Japanese sources cited in the preceding footnote lend no support whatsoever to the suppositions in ONI Combat Narrative, Aleutians Campaign (page 104) , and in Craven and Cate, eds., The Pacific-Guadalcanal to Saipan, p. 392, that a small rear guard was left behind to man light AA weapons and was evacuated by submarine just before the Allied landings.

53 Memo, COMINCH for JCS, 21 Sep 42, WDCSA 381, and notes on JPS Mtg, 2 Dec 42, JPS 67/7 in ABC 381 Japan (5-31-42) .

54 Strength as of 4 Sep 43, as reported in Memo, CofS for JCS, 6 Sep 43, ABC 320.2 Alaska (15 Aug 43)

55 Plan for Suggested Offensive Operations in Northwestern Pacific, Incl to Ltr, Gen DeWitt to Gen Marshall, 2 Aug 43, ABC 384 Northwestern Pacific (16 Aug 43) ; Ltr, CINCPAC to COMINCH, 15 Aug 43, and Memo, COMINCH for COPS, 30 Aug 43. Last two in WDCSA 3811. Memo, Gen Handy for CofS, 23 Sep 43, OPD 381/206.

56 Memo, COMINCH for CofS, 5 Nov 43; Rad, OPD to CG Alaskan Dept, 8 Nov 43. Both in WDCSA 381.

57 For further details about planning for offensive operations against Japan via the North Pacific from summer 1943 onward see Louis Morton. Strategy and Command: The First Two Years, UNITED STATES ARMY IN WORLD WAR II (Washington, 1962), ch. XXVI, and Matloff, Strategic Planning, 1943-44, PP. 316ff. For air plans, preparations, and operations, see Craven and Cate, ed5., The Pacific-Guadalcanal to Saipan, pp. 392-401.

58 Memo, OPD for TAG, 7 Oct 43; Memo, OPD for COMINCH, 11 Nov 43. Both in OPD 384.

59 The Adak subsector of the Aleutians was reduced from category D to C, the Unalaska subsection from D to B, and the rest of Alaska from B to "modified A." Rad, COMINCH to CINCPOA, 21 Oct 43, OPD Log file for October 43. For definitions of the categories of defense, see ch. IV, above.

60 OPD Diary. Entries of 24 Jan 44 and 28 Jan 44. The first of these items gives the garrison strength as of 31 Dec 43.


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