Alaskan Highway

Last week I finished finalizing my bicycle tour directions from home (Toledo, OH) to Leavenworth, WA. And let me tell you, at this point, I’m pretty sick of looking at roads in Google Maps. In fact, the realization that I will be sharing the same roads as thousands of vehicles on a rickety bicycle leaves me a little timid. When I’m done with my first leg I’ll probably be too afraid to drive again because I’ll after having become so acquainted with the fear of being struck by traffic. Although after months of recovery, I’ll probably be back on the road heading back towards the Atlantic Ocean.

the Alaskan Highway

Yet someday, whether it’s when I’m in Washington or down in Florida, I’d love to ride my bike to Alaska. And as far as I’m concerned there’s only one way to get there, via the Alaskan Highway. The highway is 1,390 miles (2,237 Km) long stretching from Dawson Creek, British Columbia to Delta Junction, Alaska.

Proposals for the highway’s construction were given in the 1920s when an investor thought it would be beneficial to build a ‘super-road’ linking the United States, Canada, and Russia. Yet in order for the idea to take root, Canada, where the majority of the roadway would lie, would have to be very supportive of its construction; they were not. It wasn’t until the attack of Pearl Harbor in 1941 and the later Japanese invasion of Alaska, that the idea was approved by U.S. Congress and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Canada approved of the highway as long as it along with all roadside assets were turned over to the Canadians after the war.

Many bridges were simple, makeshift woodem designs

made by hand from the surrounding forests.

The majority of the highway’s construction was done by the U.S. Army. 11,000 soldiers along with 7,500 civilians were put to the task of building the shortest road to Alaska that, at the very least, could be used to transport military equipment. Two crews started from each end point and worked their way to the middle. It’s actually quite remarkable that the two teams met without global positioning satellites (GPS) been launched yet.

The most difficult setback in creating the road came not from subarctic temperatures, but from the Earth itself. In the summer, the ground underneath the quickly thinning permafrost was filling with water and becoming increasingly unstable. When this top layer was removed in order to lay the road the soil turned into quicksand, sucking bulldozers and other heavy machinery with it.

Did you know?- On September 24, 1942 crews from both directions met at Mile 588 at what became named Contact Creek.

This will be me someday…

Japanese Invasion of Alaska

While I tend to post articles pertaining to happy times, ‘Firsts’ are also traumatic experiences. And I cannot think of a much more somber time than that of war. Among the few things that adults may remember from social studies class is World War II. Stories and images from the attack on Pearl Harbor, D-Day, and the Holocaust are ever present in our minds. But one battle of WWII has since been long forgotten, if people even knew of it in the first place. I will now recount the melancholy and epically frank tales of the “thousand mile war” when Japan invaded Alaska.

With a newfound enemy only 2,200 miles from Seattle, WA, the United States military sought to build air bases in the Aleutian Islands, a chain of more than 300 volcanic islands extending 1,200 miles west of the Alaskan Peninsula. The future battleground would consist of 70 of these islands from the peninsula to Attu, the U.S.’s most westward territory. Attu is only some 650 miles from Paramushiro, the northern most bastion of the main Japanese defenses.

After Pearl Harbor, Japan’s top naval strategist, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, believed that by defeating the Pacific Fleet at the island of Midway, we would be forced to consider peace terms. He decided that a diversionary attack would be made on Dutch Harbor on Unalaska Island at the same time to draw a percentage of the Pacific Fleet away from Midway. Ground force would then occupy Attu and another island, Kiska, establishing bases to shield their home land against further attacks.

On May 5, 1942, an armada of 200 ships, including five heavy and three lights carriers, and 700 aircraft headed towards Midway from Japan. Halfway there, carriers Ryujo and Junyo changed course towards the Aleutians under the command of Admiral Kakuji Kakuta. The now established Alaska Defense Command (later designated the Eleventh Air Force) had developed bases at Otter Point and Umnak Island for the defense of the naval installation at Dutch Harbor. Two 5,00 foot airstrips made from pierced-plank steel matting each held a squadron of Curtiss P-36s and P-40 Warhawks, Douglas B-18s, and Martin b-26 Marauders.

P-40 Warhawk

Navy patrol pilots began searching on June 1 as far as their fuel loads would permit. The carriers were soon spotted about 400 miles south of Kiska. At 4:30 a.m. on June 3, Japanese Zero fighter planes and Kate dive bombers attacked Dutch Harbor and nearby Fort Myers killing 78 men. Attacks continued through the next day with Japanese planes attacking fuel tanks, barracks, gun positions, and SS Northwestern, a barrack’s ship and power plant.

A landing party of 1,250 men went ashore on Kiska on June 7, along with 1,200 more the next day on Attu. A reconnaissance plane soon radioed that there were four Japanese troop transports and a destroyer lurking in Kiska harbor.

Japanese invasion fleet gathers in Kiska Harbor.

America’s first move was on August 26 when a fleet of 250 tugboats, barges and fishing scows put engineer troops ashore at Adak Island 250 miles east of Kiska to construct an airfield. On September 11, 1943, American engineer troops landed on Amchitka, 75 miles east of Kiska, constructing an airfield. Bombers could now make the flight from there to Kiska 4-6 times a day.

Though the enemy is also your biggest opposition during war, weather, especially In Alaska, took more lives than fighting. By the end of October 1942, 72 American planes had been lost, but only nine to enemy fire.

The only sea battle during the Aleutian campaign was the Battle of the Komandorskis in late March. The battle lasted 31 ½ hours and is noteworthy as one of the longest continuous gun duel in naval history.

American land forces did not enter Attu until May 11th on what was called “Operation Landcrab”. With 4,000 troops ashore, the island was soon under U.S. control. Thanks to Japanese suicide attacks, only 28 of their 2,300 soldiers survived. American losses totaled 549. Allied planes could now run bombing runs in the Kuriles, a string of islands running southwest from the Kamchatka Peninsula.

PBY Catalina over Alaska

After the fall of Attu, Japan realized that their time in the Aleutians was done and soon withdrew all their men from the island. Unaware that they had retreated, Allied hit the island with heavy shelling for 36 hours straight from battleships, cruisers, and destroyers along with 300,000 pounds of bombs. When the 34,000 strong combat force was assembled to go ashore, 5,300 men of the Thirteenth Royal Canadian Infantry Brigade was there to help. However, they were to find nothing except a dozen dogs the Japanese had left behind.

On September 11, 1943, B-24 and B-25 bombers dropped 12 tons of explosives on targets at Paramushiro and Shimushu. The Japanese managed their last attack on October 13, when nine heavy bombers dropped bombs in Massacre Bay and the nearby airfield. During the Kuriles campaign, six enemy ships were sunk, 29 planes were downed, and 155 Americans died.

Fewer than 10,000 Japanese troops tied up 300,000 Allied troops from June 1942 to August 1943. The last intelligence report of the Eleventh Air Force in 1945 summarized the war as thus: “The Aleutian Islands, on the Great Circle Route from North America to the Orient, may not have fulfilled their hope of becoming the ‘Northern Highway to Victory’, but they certainly are destined to be aerial highways to peace.”

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