Big Pigeon - Pottawattamie County, Iowa
  • Home
    • Usage Hints
    • Acknowledgments
    • Resources >
      • Free Sites
      • Pay Sites
      • Print Resources
      • Search Engines
      • Land Records
      • Resources - Denmark >
        • Finding Danish Ancestors
    • Project Mgt - Public >
      • Website Overview
      • Website Log
      • Project Overview
      • Mac Computer Use
      • Weebly Use
      • Reunion Use
      • Project History
      • Image Provenance
    • Project Mgt - Private >
      • Site Management
      • Site Plan
      • Contact List
      • Backup Info & Log
      • System Info & Log
      • Image Storage
      • E-Mail Log
      • Asset Organization
      • History Index
      • Binders & Photos
      • Upon My Death
      • Donations & Dispersal
  • Family
    • Christiansen
    • Rasmussen
    • Christiansen/Rasmussen News
    • Larsen/Larson
    • Hansen
    • Larsen/Hansen News
    • Allied Families
    • Wall of Honor
  • St. Paul's
    • Early Families >
      • Early Families Help
      • Early Families More Lists
    • St. Paul's Roots
    • St. Paul's Timeline
    • St. Paul's Resources
  • Pott. Co.
    • Early History >
      • Missouri River
      • Native Americans
      • Colonial Period
    • Big Pigeon Area >
      • Area Towns >
        • Beebeetown
        • Crescent
        • Honey Creeek
        • Loveland
        • Neola
        • Persia
        • Underwood
        • Weston
        • Lost Locales
      • Danes from Dronninglund
      • Maps & Plats
      • Big Pigeon Galleries >
        • Gallery 1 - Area Historic Structures
        • Gallery 2 - Grange Sunday School
    • Avoca >
      • Gold Star Avoca
      • Cuppy's Grove
    • Pott. Co. Addendum
    • LDS History >
      • LDS Links
      • Gallery 1 - Mormon Maps
    • A House Divided >
      • Endnotes
      • Niels Peder Pedersen
      • Ane Katrine Pedersen
      • Kirsten Pedersen
      • Kirsten's Story >
        • Kirsten's LDS Daughters
        • Kirsten's Daughter, Karen Bondo
        • Kirsten's Son, Anders Johnson
        • Kirsten's Niece, Christine Mortensen
        • Kirsten's Niece, Anne Marie Larsen
    • More History >
      • Iowa History
      • American History
  • WWII Roster
    • The Roster >
      • Roster-A
      • Roster-B
      • Roster-C
      • Roster-D
      • Roster-EF
      • Roster-G
      • Roster-H
      • Roster-IJ
      • Roster-KL
      • Roster-M
      • Roster-NO
      • Roster-P
      • Roster-QR
      • Roster-S
      • Roster-TUV
      • Roster-WXYZ
      • Other In-Service Deaths
      • Post-Separation Deaths
    • Roster Notes >
      • Awards for Valor
      • Iowa Casualties & Dead
    • Homes >
      • Council Bluffs
      • Rural Pott. Co.
      • Cass Co.
      • Harrison Co.
      • Mills Co.
      • Montgomery Co.
      • Shelby Co.
      • Other Counties
      • Other States
    • Deaths >
      • War with Japan Deaths
      • The Atlantic Deaths
      • Mediterranean Theater Deaths
      • European Theater Deaths
      • Stateside Deaths
      • The Air Dead
      • The Sea Dead
    • Roster Photos
    • Roster Outliers
    • About the Roster
  • WWII
    • WWII Overview
    • US in WWII - Organization
    • US in WWII - Operations
    • WWII References >
      • WWII Free Sites
      • WWII Pay Sites
      • WWII Personnel Lists
    • WWII Personnel >
      • WWII Casualties
      • WWII Deaths
      • WWII Burials
      • Service Numbers
    • WWII Ground Forces
    • WWII in The Air
    • WWII at Sea
    • WWII at Home
    • Civilian Victims
    • Strategic Bombing
    • The Cold War
    • WW I >
      • Iowa In WW I
  • WWII-Japan
    • WWII - Japan Overview
    • Japan Ascendant
    • US Navy War w/ Japan >
      • US Submarine Force
      • Third & Fifth Fleets
    • US Air Force War w/ Japan >
      • Fifth Air Force
      • Seventh Air Force
      • Thirteenth Air Force
    • Japan Lashes Out >
      • Pearl Harbor
      • Guam & Wake Island
      • Malaya & Singapore Lost
      • The Dutch Indies Lost
      • The Philippines Lost
      • New Guinea & Solomons
    • Japan Overreaches >
      • Coral Sea
      • Midway
    • South & SW Pacific >
      • Solomons Naval War
      • Solomon Is. - Guadalcanal
      • SE New Guinea - Papua
      • NE New Guinea - Lae to Madang
      • Solomon Is. - New Georgia
      • Solomon Is. - Bougainville
      • Bismarck Archipelago
      • Western New Guinea
    • North Pacific >
      • Alaska
      • Attu & Kiska
      • Pacific Lend-Lease Routes
    • Central Pacific >
      • Gilbert Islands
      • Marshall Islands
      • Mariana Islands
      • Palau Islands
      • Pacific Comm. Zone
    • Philippines Liberated >
      • Leyte
      • Battle of Leyte Gulf
      • Philippines Naval War
      • Luzon
      • Southern Philippines
    • Iwo Jima & Okinawa >
      • Iwo Jima
      • Land Battle of Okinawa
      • Naval Battle of Okinawa
    • China-Burma-India >
      • China - 1941-45
      • India - 1942-45
      • Burma - 1941-45
      • Crossing the Hump
    • Japan Overpowered >
      • Japan Under Attack
      • Strategic Air War - Japan
      • Japan Vanquished
  • WWII-Germany
    • WWII-Germany Overview
    • Battle of the Atlantic
    • The MTO >
      • North Africa & Sicily >
        • Operation Torch
        • The Race to Tunis
        • Tunisia
        • Sicily
      • Italian Mainland >
        • Salerno-Naples-Foggia
        • To the Gustav Line
        • Battle of Anzio
        • Cassino - the Gustav Line
        • Cassino to Rome
        • Rome To Florence
        • Northern Apennines
        • The Po Valley
      • The MTO Sea War
      • The MTO Air War
      • MTO Comm. Zone
    • The ETO >
      • Normandy Campaign >
        • D-Day
        • Normandy after D-Day
      • France Liberated >
        • Normandy Breakout
        • Northern France
        • Southern France
        • The Allies Stall
      • Arnhem & Antwerp >
        • Arnhem - Market Garden
        • Antwerp
      • Rhineland 1944
      • Lorraine & Alsace >
        • Lorraine Campaign
        • Alsace Campaign
      • Ardennes/Bulge Overview >
        • Ardennes/Bulge Details
      • Rhineland 1945 >
        • Ninth & First Armies
        • Third & Seventh Armies
        • North, Feb/Mar, 9th/1st Armies
        • Mid, Feb, 3rd Army
        • Mid, Mar, 1st/3rd Armies
        • South, Mar, 3rd/7th Armies
      • Central Europe >
        • Crossing the Rhine
        • Central Germany
      • The ETO Air War
      • The ETO Sea War
      • ETO Comm. Zone
    • The Eastern Front
Picture
Picture
Alaska
Alaska Mainland
North Pacific
bigpigeon.us webpage WWII - Japan > North Pacific  > Alaska, updated by RAC 18 May 2022.

Despite the weather, the North Pacific was a conduit for American Lend Lease shipments of military equipment to the Soviet Union. (Japan and the Soviet Union were not at war with each other.) 

​Such lend-lease shipments were one of the motivations behind the hurried 1942 construction of the 1,400-mile AlCan Highway  connecting the railhead at Dawson Creek, British Columbia with the Fairbanks, Alaska area.
The AlCan Highway
The Alcan Highway - Constructed 1942
In 1941, the United States Air Corps sent Colonel Everett Davis to Alaska to plan a system of airfields for use if war with Japan developed. Plans for naval and ground force bases were also developed. In particular, Dutch Harbor was chosen as the major forward naval base and Adak as the corresponding forward air base. Colonel Davis became the first commander and later the chief-of-staff of the 11th Air Force, headquartered at Elmendorf Field near Anchorage.

During WW II, the Ladd Field complex of airfields, near Fairbanks, was used by nearly 8,000 aircraft being ferried to Russia for use on the Eastern Front in the War with Germany.


Alaska WW II Military Sites
The major bases for land and air Alaska operations were Fort Richardson and Elmendorf Air Force Base near Anchorage.
As part of the Japanese June 1942 operation that included the attack on Midway Island 2,000 miles to the south, Japan sent a naval force to the Aleutian Islands. This force:
  • bombed our military base at Dutch Harbor, near the eastern end of the Aleutian Islands chain. 
  •  occupied Attu and Kiska, two undefended islands in the western portion of the Aleutians.

The United States responded by increasing the Air Force, Navy, and ground forces asssigned to Alaska.  Flying in nasty, unpredicatable weather, many aircraft were lost.
The Bombing of Dutch Harbor, June 1942
The Bombing of Dutch Harbor, June 1942

On 26 March 1943, equally matched US Navy and Imperial Japanese Navy cruiser-destroyer forces fought west of Attu Island in the Battle of the Komandorski Islands. Battle results were inconclusive, no vessels were sunk, but the Japanese withdrew and thereafter supplied their forces on Attu and Kiska by submarine. Time was running out for the Japanese on Attu and Kiska.
Location of the Battle of the Komandorski Islands
Location of the Battle of the Komandorski Islands
Sources for the The North Pacific webpage:
  • The Alaska Mainland map in the page header is courtesy of naknekseafood.blogspot.com.
  • The North Pacific map source is unknown.
  • The AlCan Highway - Constructed 1942 map is courtesy of http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CjPJcnuJ8fs/VBzq2GmZKTI/AAAAAAAAHUM/hPKix_FFoUU/s1600/map05.gif.
  • The Alaska WW II Major Military Sites map is courtesy of the National Parks Service.
  • The Bombing of Dutch Harbor, June 1942 is courtesy of en.wikipedia.org.
  • The Location of the Battle of the Komandorski Islands map is courtesy of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Komandorski_Islands.
​
Pottawattamie Area WWII Dead - The North Pacific:
  • Taken from the bigpigeon.us WWII Roster module.
07-01 - North Pacific > Alaska: (four dead, updated 2 Oct 2021)
† Alter, Earl Carlton, SN O-157398, US Naval Aviation, Harrison Co.
  • Naval Air Patrol Sqdn. VP-52, Fleet Wing #4; based at Adak NAS, Aleutian Is., Alaska Territory; Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina BuNo 07271 co-pilot; DNB 18 May 1943 Aleutian Is.; plane lost on patrol, all ten dead; wreckage & six bodies recovered; North Pacific > Alaska.
† Jensen, Arthur Orville, SN 37-117-909, USAAF, Pott. Co.
  • 54th Troop Carrier Sqdn., 11th AF, based at Elmendorf AFB, Anchorage, Alaska Territory; Douglas C-47-DL Skytrain/Dakota #41-38635 radio operator; DNB 28 Nov 1942, near Lake Iliamna, Alaska; plane hit hillside in heavy winds returning to base, all eight dead, including Colonel Everett Davis, founder of the Alaska Air Force; North Pacific > Alaska.
  • Note: Arthur Orville Jensen was my father's second cousin; the plane crash location is marked on the page header map.
† Knutson, Harold Norman, SN 39-092-195, USAAF, Sioux Co.
  • 36th Bomb. Sqdn., 28th Bomb Gp., 11th AF; based at Elmendorf Field, Anchorage, Alaska Territory; Boeing B-17E Flying Fortress #41-9146 crew member w/ pilot Albert J. Wilsey Jr.; KIA 28 Aug 1942 Aleutian Is., Alaska; plane disappeared returning from three-plane mission over Kiska Is. led by Col. William O. Eareckson; all nine dead; North Pacific > Alaska; BNR.
† Meindl, Joseph James, SN 230-946, USCG, Marshall Co.
  • Coast Guard Cutter USS Clover (WLB-292), stationed in Alaska Territory; DNB 18/19 May 1944, Dry Bay, Alaska Territory panhandle; member of a seven-man boat crew from Clover who all drowned in the breakers at the entrance to Dry Bay, the Alsek River mouth, while going to the aid of two stranded fishing vessels; North Pacific > Alaska; BNR. 
  • Notes: Earlier the Clover had been involved in setting up LORAN stations in remote Alaska locations.
Proudly powered by Weebly