Sometimes called the "Forgotten Front1" or the "Forgotten War2", the battle for the Aleutian Islands in southwest Alaska was one of the bloodiest of the Second War World. With the battle for Attu still fresh in their minds, on August 14, 1943 the U.S. Army sent over 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 shocked the Allied forces. HISTORY In December 1941, the Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor, dragging the United States into World War II. The incumbent Japanese Navy commander, Admiral Yamamoto, was looking for an opportunity to drag the U.S. Navy into a battle in which he could engage decisively and destroy its aircraft carriers. He decided that the best available target would be Midway. However, as a distraction, in June 1942, Yamamoto opened a second front by attacking the Aleutian Islands. Unknown to Admiral Yamamoto, U.S. codebreakers had deciphered Japanese radio transmissions, and the Americans knew exactly what he was doing. With this knowledge, Admiral Nimitz, commander of U.S. Naval Forces in the Pacific, decided to send a contingent of 21 ships to Alaska and kept the remainder of his fleet in defense of Midway. The Japanese fleet managed to evade the Americans and attack the Dutch Harbor base on June 3 and 4. Subsequently they managed to avoid a naval clash again and on 7 June they landed on the islands of Kiska and Attu, quickly subduing the military and civilian inhabitants. During the remainder of the summer the United States and Japanese exchanged fire, with the U.S. Air Force regularly bombing forces on Kiska. To the Americans' frustration they were unable to dislodge them. Continuing on...... middle of paper ...... 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 Optic." 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 bloodthirsty Aleutians. Directed by Michael Prentice. 2001. Centennial, CO: Jones Entertainment Group, 2001. DVD. US Army Military History Center Campaigns of World War II: Aleutian Islands http://www.history.army.mil/brochures/aleut/aleut.html US Navy Combat Fiction The Aleutian Campaign June 1942 -1943.http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/USN-CN-Aleutians.html