Original Wwii Army

This incredibly rare and museum-grade artifact is an extremely rare U. Army "CONFIDENTIAL" marked TACTICAL MAP from the infamous. Aleutian Islands campaign of WWII. This very limited tactical map print of Umnak Island saw action during. Their mission was to neutralize the air base at Dutch Harbor and destroy its ability to attack Japan. In a strange compromise, due to the lack of flat ground, American airfields had been built 100 miles east, at Cold Bay, and 80 miles west, on Umnak Island, Cape Field.

Finding no airfield, the planes dropped their bombs on the Army barracks of Ft. This tightly packed cluster of white buildings housed most of the 9,000 men on the island. More bombs fell on radio stations and anti-aircraft positions. No Japanese planes were shot down.

Strangely, communication with the American airfields failed during the attacks. No planes came to the defence of Dutch Harbor.

Over the next 24 hours, American aircraft searched for the Japanese. A few unsuccessful attacks were made against the small fleet. Army strength, less air force personnel, at those three bases totalled no more than 2,300, composed mainly of infantry, field and antiaircraft artillery troops, and a large construction engineer contingent, which was used in the construction of bases. The Army Air Force's Eleventh Air Force consisted of 10 B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers and 34 B-18 Bolo medium bombers at Elmendorf Airfield, and 95 P-40 Warhawk fighters divided between Fort Randall AAF at Cold Bay and Fort Glenn AAF on Umnak. The naval commander was Rear Admiral Robert A. Task Force 8 consisted of five cruisers, thirteen destroyers, three tankers, six submarines, as well as naval aviation elements of Fleet Air Wing Four. This map is heavily used and is a very rare glimpse into a bloody and unknown battleground of WWII.

In the only two invasions of the United States during the war of a U. Incorporated territory, a small Japanese force occupied the islands of Attu and Kiska, where the remoteness of the islands and the challenges of weather and terrain delayed a larger American-Canadian force sent to eject them for nearly a year. Successful Japanese invasions of other U. Territories, which were unincorporated territories, in the western Pacific shortly after the Attack on Pearl Harbor included Wake Island, Guam, and the Philippines.

A battle to reclaim Attu was launched on May 11, 1943 and completed after a final Japanese banzai charge on May 29. On August 15, 1943, an invasion force landed on Kiska in the wake of a sustained three-week barrage, only to discover that the Japanese had withdrawn from the island on July 29. The campaign is known as the "Forgotten Battle" because it has been overshadowed by other events in the war. Military historians often believe that the Japanese invasion of the Aleutians was a diversionary or feint attack during the Battle of Midway that was meant to draw out the US Pacific Fleet from Midway Atoll, as it was launched simultaneously under the same commander, Isoroku Yamamoto. Some historians have argued against that interpretation and believe that the Japanese invaded the Aleutians to protect their northern flank and did not intend it as a diversion.