alaska invasion

[darrels joy]

	"My job was to kill Japanese, and that's what I did." Bill Jones and Andy Petrus are the two toughest 85-year-olds you've ever met. Together, these life-long friends fought 3,000 Japanese in a secret Alaskan invasion during World War II. Now, 60 years later, these two forgotten heroes embark on an intense and emotional journey back to the remote Aleutian island of Attu, where they relive the brutal 19-day battle that the American government kept secret. As Bill and Andy retrace their steps over this desolate, untouched battlefield -- a living museum littered with crashed airplanes, collapsing buildings, and unexploded bombs -- the line between past and present begins to blur and long-forgotten memories resurface with moving force. Red White Black & Blue isn’t just one soldier’s story -- it is the story of every solider who faces an enemy he does not understand and returns home with scars that are slow to heal. Walk through one of the bloodiest battles of World War II with the soldiers who lived it. Through their eyes you'll experience the complicated, and sometimes contradictory, mindset of a nation at war and what it really means to be an American hero. Red White Black & Blue is the first feature-length documentary to tell the story of the Battle of Attu, one of the bloodiest battles of World War II and the only invasion of the United States since the War of 1812.

http://www.alaskainvasion.com/

On May_11, 1943, the operation to recapture Attu began. A shortage of landing craft, unsuitable beaches, and equipment that failed to operate in the appalling weather made it very difficult to bring any force to bear against the Japanese. Many soldiers suffered from Frostbite because essential supplies could not be landed, or having been landed, could not be moved to where they were needed because vehicles would not work on the Tundra. The Japanese defenders under Colonel Yasuyo_Yamasaki did not contest the landings, but rather dug in on high ground away from the shore. This caused bloody fighting: there were 3,929 U.S. casualties: 549 were killed, 1,148 were injured, 1,200 had severe cold injuries, 614 succumbed to disease, and 318 died of miscellaneous causes, largely Japanese Booby_trap and friendly fire.




On May_29, the last of the Japanese forces suddenly attacked near Massacre Bay in one of the largest Banzai_charge of the Pacific campaign. The charge, led by Colonel Yamasaki, penetrated U.S. lines far enough to encounter shocked rear-echelon units of the American force. After furious, brutal, close-quarter, and often hand-to-hand combat, the Japanese force was killed almost to the last man: only 28 prisoners were taken, none of them an officer. U.S. burial teams counted 2,351 Japanese dead, but it was presumed that hundreds more had been buried by bombardments over the course of the battle.
Battle_of_the_Aleutian_Islands_______________________________________________
GunnerCarvo's grandfather was there(artillery officer). Upon returning, his food requests were salad every night with dinner, no lamb and NO SPAM.