The Battle of Dutch Harbor took place June 3 – June 4, 1942 and was a minor air and naval battle of the Aleutian Islands Campaign of World War II between Imperial Japanese Navy and United States Army and Navy forces.

Battle

In the battle, a Japanese aircraft carrier strike force under Kakuji Kakuta launched air attacks over two days against the Dutch Harbor Naval Base and Fort Mears^[1] in Dutch Harbor, Alaska. The attacks inflicted moderate damage on the U.S. base. Shortly thereafter, Japanese naval forces under Boshiro Hosogaya invaded and occupied Attu and Kiska islands in the Aleutians.

On June 3, a Japanese light carrier strike force, under the command of Rear Admiral Kakuji Kakuta compromising of the light carries Ryujo and Junyo, plus escort ships, sailed to 180 miles southwest of Dutch Harbor to launch air strikes at the facilty which were to be diversions from the main Japanese forces to the south during the Battle of Midway. At dawn, which at 2:58 AM given the geographic lattitude and longetude, Kakuta ordered his carries to launch their strike in which made up of 12 fighters, 10 high-level bombers, and 12 dive bombers that took off from the two small carriers in the freezing weather to strike at Dutch Harbor. The planes arrived over Dutch Harbor at 4:07 AM, and attacked the town's radio station and oil storage tanks causing some damage.

During the raid, one damaged Japanese Zero fighter plane crash-landed on a nearby island about 20 miles northeast of Dutch Harbor after being hit by a single bullet from ground fire, killing the pilot but not seriously damaging the plane. One week later, U.S. forces recovered, inspected, and repaired the plane, a type that had proven very troublesome to the Allies in the war to date. The recovery was a crucial intelligence gain for Allied intelligence who were able to engineer aircraft capable of competing with it in aerial combat on more favorable terms.

When all the Japanese planes were recovered, there were eronious reports of enemy ships in the vincinty, but search planes found no ships within the area. During the search, the four Type-95 two-seat recon planes launched from the cruisers Tako and Maya, encountered U.S. fighters searching for the departing Japanese squadron and shot two of them down, while damaging the other two, which managed to return to their ships, only to crash land in the water, but the crews of both were rescued. But the Dutch Harbor air raid inflicted very little damage on the U.S. forces in the area, and was entirely ineffective as a diversion since the Americans knew that the main Japanese offensive was to be at Midway island.

On the second day, the Japanese carries sailed to less then 100 miles south of Dutch Harbor to launch a second attack. At 4:00 PM on June 4, a second airstrike of nine fighters, 11 dive bombers, and six level bombers took off and less then an hour later, attacked the U.S. facilities at Dutch Harbor again. More targets were damaged including some grounded aircraft, army barracks, oil storage tanks, aircraft hangers, and a few merchant ships in the port. Again no Japanese aircraft were lost at Dutch Harbor, but two dive bombers, damaged by ground fire, failed to return to their carriers. On the way back, the Japanese planes encountered an air patrol of P-40 fighters over Otter Point and an aerial combat ensued in which one fighter and two level bombers were lost, but four out of the six U.S. fighters were lost as well.

The following day, Admiral Kakuta received orders to break off further attacks and withdraw following news of the Japanese defeat at Midway. Feeling that his mission and objectives have been achieved, Kakuta complied with the orders. Two days later, a small Japanese invasion force landed and occupied two of the Aleutian islands, Attu and Kiska, withouth further incident as part of the diversion plans by the Japanese.

Notes

References and further reading

External links

• Logistics Problems on Attu by Robert E. Burks.
• Aleutian Islands Chronology
• Aleutian Islands War
• Aleutian Islands The U.S. Army Campaigns of World War II
• Red White Black & Blue - feature documentary about The Battle of Attu in the Aleutians during World War II
• Soldiers of the 184th Infantry, 7th ID in the Pacific, 1943-1945
• World War II Campaign Brochure for Aleutian Islands, U.S. Army Center of Military History.

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