Alexander, Harold (1891–1961) the U.S Navy was free to send additional assets to the Aleutians, including a battleship and an escort carrier Despite the devastating loss of four fleet carriers at Midway, the Japanese ill-advisedly proceeded to occupy isolated Aleutian outposts With TF8 wrongly positioned by Theobald, the Japanese landed unopposed on Attu on June and on Kiska on June They were not discovered until June 10 Air raids were mounted by long-range bombers against the Japanese on Kiska Theobald also conducted a naval bombardment, but to little effect The Japanese garrison on Attu was temporarily transferred to Kiska in late August, then 2,700 men were reinserted on Attu In awful weather conditions for both sides, the standoff in the Aleutians continued through the winter months American engineers built 5,000-foot airstrips on Adak and Amchitka starting at the end of August These fields permitted short-range bombing of Kiska while bringing Attu within range of U.S land-based bombers for the first time However, heavy seas and winter storms limited air and sea operations until March 1943 A naval engagement was then fought at the Komandorski Islands (March 26, 1943) On May 11, 11,000 men of the U.S 7th Infantry Division landed on Attu Fighting was bitter and often handto-hand Surviving Japanese launched a banzai charge that partly overran American lines on May 29 There followed sustained fighting all through the night and into the following morning Just 28 enlisted Japanese were taken prisoner when it was over: No officer surrendered Americans counted another 2,351 Japanese corpses, all killed in the fighting or choosing suicide over surrender Hundreds more Japanese were assumed killed and buried by bombs on other parts of the island, or were thought to have been buried earlier by their countrymen U.S casualties were 600 dead and 1,200 wounded A worse fight was anticipated on Kiska, where twice as many Japanese troops were dug in However, the Japanese Navy secretly evacuated Kiska on July 28–29 The departing ships slipped past the American destroyer picket line in the dark and fog Unaware that the enemy was gone, U.S 7th Division landed on Kiska in assault deployment It formed the core of a force of 34,000 men who landed on August 15, with 5,300 in a brigade from Canadian 6th Division as well as the Canadian contingent of the 1st Special Service Force (SSF) (later dubbed the Devil’s Brigade) Nearly sixty soldiers were killed or injured by friendly fire The main cause was fog and taut confusion during a landing in which severe opposition was expected, but none materialized Over 200 more troops were wounded by Japanese booby traps or suffered severe frostbite Plans to use the Aleutians as a base for the invasion of Japan were soon shelved, though bombing missions were eventually flown against targets in the Kuriles The main Aleutian islands were garrisoned for the remainder of the war Otherwise the chain returned to historical obscurity See also Pips, Battle of Suggested Reading: Brian Garfield, The Thousand-Mile War (1969) ALEXANDER, HAROLD (1891–1961) British field marshal Alexander had extensive combat experience during World War I and was a rising star within the 36