First Banzai PTO (id:#56307)

Avalon Hill (AH:ASL Annual `93a ID: A 57)   [next]   [previous]

Chichagof Harbor, Alaska 1943-05-29 (3 others)

Overview:

When darkness fell on 28 May, the bulk of the American troops on Attu were poised for the final assault on Chichagof Harbor, the last Japanese bastion. General Landrum, in command of the U.S. Army ground forces, had decided to finish off the costly campaign for the island the next morning. But sometime during the evening, Colonel Yamazaki also reached a momentous decision. Of the 2300 Japanese on Attu when the Americans invaded, only about 1000 were still able to fight. Faced with the obvious end for his isolated garrison, he ordered a counterattack. His men would break out of the pocket, with the aim of rushing through Clevesy Pass in the darkness and reaching the American artillery positions. There the Japanese would capture the massed howitzers and turn them on the enemy positions in Massacre Valley. At 0300 on the 29th, Yamazaki personally led his ragtag force, soon split into several waves by the broken ground, up the valley. The Japanese first fell upon Company B of the 32nd Regiment and Company L of the 17th Regiment; the sleeping Gls barely had time to awaken before they were swept away by the heretofore silent rush. The confused survivors fled in all directions. Next the Japanese overran an aid station at the mouth of the pass, slaughtering the medics and wounded. In the pass itself, alerted by the sporadic gunfire below, the divisional engineer battalion had hastily organized a thin defensive line in the dark. Cooks and drivers, officers and engineers, signalmen and quartermasters, grabbed any weapon handy and prepared to make their stand.

Defender: American (13th Engineer Battalion, 7th Infantry Division)  

Errata (source)