Victory on Attu

Remnants of Attu's Jap defenders were herded this week into three tiny pockets of bitter-end resistance on the northeast tip of the Aleutian outpost. Because most of them would probably choose death to surrender, several days of mopping-up operations were in prospect; but U.S. troops, in less than two weeks of fighting, had won their most important victory in the Pacific since Guadalcanal.

Seventeen days out of their embarkation port, in the early subarctic dawn, crowded American troop transports raised the headlands of the bleak volcanic island. Mothered by destroyers, fleets of tank lighters nursed their way through rock-infested bays in fog so thick that a ship was blotted out 100 yards away.

The attack was three-pronged, striking at Massacre Bay, Holtz Bay and Blind Cove. As the lighters pressed on the beaches at Massacre Bay to spill their cargoes of men, tanks and artillery, there was no sign of the enemy except for sporadic machine-gun fire.

No Surrender. The advance started under cover of a heavy bombardment from U.S. warships. Not until the attacking columns reached points about three miles inland did they encounter serious resistance. On Temnac Bay, beyond Murder Point, a unit led by Captain Robert Goodfellow surprised a Jap gun position. Before the guns could be manned every defender was killed. Not one offered to surrender. Another unit landing at Blind Cove fought across a ridge, waist-deep in snow, to join a main assault column. The Jap was tricky. Routed from one foxhole, he would escape by tunnel to another. But his tricks did him little good. U.S. officials had said they would not "send a boy to do a man's job." The 3,000 to 3,500 Japs on Attu were outnumbered as well as outarmed.

Within a week the partially completed bomber strip near Holtz Bay was in U.S. hands. Ridge after ridge was captured, until the defenders were compressed into an area of 20 sq. mi. U.S. losses were lighter than had been expected.

The Japs sent two waves of twin-engined bombers to the area, presumably from Paramoshiri or an aircraft carrier. They did no damage.

Beyond the Outpost. As has been true on every other Pacific front, the Japs were cool fighters. But with Attu firmly in the U.S. grasp, Kiska gravely threatened and the Jap naval base at Paramoshiri only 750 miles beyond the westernmost U.S. outpost, signs of nervousness began to appear in Tokyo. Blustered the Jap, in an official broadcast: "If in the future Russia ever puts her Siberian bases at the disposal of the U.S., the Japanese Army will resort to a blitzkrieg that will deal upon her the heaviest blows Russia has ever known."

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