Description
At the beginning of June 1942, in the wake of the enormous Japanese struggle to bring a conclusive victory in the Pacific War, the Imperial Japanese Navy commenced Operation AL (AL Sakusen). Among the objectives of this bold plan was the 2nd Kidō Butai’s carrier-borne strike on the American military base at Dutch Harbor and seizing part of the Aleutian Archipelago in the North Pacific. Operation AL, elaborated by the Navy General Staff and the Combined Fleet, was an initiative that could expand the Japanese perimeter far eastwards to secure the northern approach to the home islands and prevent the potential of US-Soviet military cooperation against Japan. By conquering Attu and Kiska in the Aleutians, the Japanese Army and Navy intended to turn them into bastions that, supplied directly from the Kurile Islands, would check any American advance from the north until at least the summer of 1943.
The great disaster at Midway foiled the Japanese plan to create a greater defensive perimeter, though, ironically, as a result of the same battle, the Americans lacked the forces to reconquer the two lost islands. A Japanese presence on US land, remote on maps but seen as a natural highway to Alaska and America’s back door, also caused chaos among military personnel and politicians alike in Washington D.C., sharing the fear of an attack on the West Coast and the inability to predict Japanese intentions.
Volume 1 of Into the Endless Mist covers the events of Operation AL from the Japanese raid on Dutch Harbor and the invasion of Attu and Kiska to the American landing on Adak in late August 1942, and is illustrated throughout with original photographs along with the @War series’ signature colour artworks.
“The author does a great job of calling out the details and importance of these air battles for the Alaskan archipelago.” ARGunners.com
“….This book fills in a lot of gaps in the Pacific War timeline and strategies. This often-overlooked theater was often described as a diversion and has been subject to many misconceptions. The author and his research prove that the Japanese had a deep interest in the North Pacific, even before Pearl Harbor. Both sides were forced to fight in the Aleutians with what they had on hand as other factors required the bulk of forces in other theaters. While small in scale, the fight had huge ramifications for both sides. This story is fascinating and well told…..The author and illustrators have provided a fantastic reference source for modelers, vignettes, and dioramas for an often neglected, yet crucial theater of the Pacific War.” IPMS USA
“The book is an absolute necessity in studying the Aleutians during the war…” The National Maritime Historical Society
