First Hand Account

 

Robert Larson

 

Ensign Robert Larson, PBY Co-pilot and Navigator, from Monticello, Iowa – on the Aleutian War.

Dutch Harbor, 1942

“When the Japanese came ashore at Attu and Kiska on 6 June, the original intent was never to hold the islands.  The operation was to be a side show to divert the US Navy and draw them into a final destructive battle at Midway.  Admiral Yamamoto had hoped that with the bulk of their fleet destroyed, the Americans would accept some sort of peace settlement that would let Japan consolidate her gains.

Japanese troops on Kiska

“After the landings on Attu and Kiska the only aircraft capable of reaching the islands from the US bases were the Navy PBY’s and the B-17s and B-24s of the Army Air Corps.  Commander Leslie E. Gehres was a 4-stripe regular Navy captain in command of Patrol Wing 4.

US Army in Alaska, 1942

“The Army attempted to bomb the Japanese forces but with little success with the small amount of aircraft at their disposal.  Capt. Gehres notified CINCPAC of the landings and informed them that he had a seaplane tender at Nazan Bay, Atka Island, halfway to Kiska with 20+ PBY’s.  The USS Gillis was the tender.

USS Gillis

“The captain had his hands full servicing many more aircraft with bombs and fuel than his ship was designed or supplied to support.  The crews took over part of an Aleut fishing village and were fed by a school teacher from her small kitchen with the help of some of the willing Aleut natives.  Off the bay, one of the PBY’s bombed a Japanese submarine near Tanga Island that had been on life guard duty for the enemy pilots.

William Thies, pilot

“The PBY’s opened the campaign on 11 June, following up a bombing run by B-24s of the 11th Air Force.  The PBY’s came down through the overcast dive bomber fashion and the Japanese soon got the range with their 20-mm antiaircraft cannon and 13.2-mm heavy machine-guns.

“The air combat went on for 3 days and at the end, the exhausted crews suffered multiple dead and wounded.  The entire supply of pencils and rags of the Aleut village were used for patching holes in the aircraft as the planes continued a non-stop shuttle back and forth to Kiska.  The PBY was a dependable but slow lumbering aircraft (175 mph), not suited to sudden stressful evasive maneuvers.  Often they came back to the Gillis so riddled by AA fire that they almost sank.

Engineers in action.

 

“The Japanese, now wise to the American tactics, brought out more heavy antiaircraft guns, pointed their AA batteries at holes in the low overcast and waited for the PBY’s to emerge.  Finally, with ammunition and fuel almost exhausted and men pushed to the brink of their endurance, the Gillis withdrew from Nazan Bay, urged on by the arrival of Japanese float recon planes from Kiska.

Koga’s gravesite

“Japanese Commander Mukai later stated that the PBY’s interfered considerably with their efforts to develop Kiska into a support base.  Their attacks forced them to withdraw their ships from Kiska Harbor.  The Japanese had brought in their Mavis 4-engine recon planes, but the attacks had kept their supplies out their reach.  Bill, [William Thies, pilot], flew one other support mission at this time.  He returned to Kanga to pick up a weather team of 5 men, who after burning the station, climbed aboard.  When the Mavis’s got operational, they flew over the Aleut village at Atka, and even though it was burned out, they dropped their bombs anyway.  Bill and his crew would soon return to Nazan Bay [within a few weeks] with both the Gillis and Casco and find the fighting worse.  They would fly every day for 33 days.”

Robert Larson would later make Commander while in the reserves and he spent 33 years as Chief of Technical Staff of Boeing.  Cmdr. Larson passed away 21 December 2007.

Click on images to enlarge.

Judy Hardy had 2 relatives in Alaska during the war – try her site for the home front view…HERE!

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The future of the Navy is now…

USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000) expected to be commissioned later 2015

Captain James Kirk

 

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Cold Humor – still….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Farewell Salutes – 

Dean Allgood – Rigby, ID; USMC, WWII, PTO, Purple Heart

Brian Black – Henderson, NZ; RNZ Air Force # 429953, WWII

Raymond Delsart – Sturgeon Bay, WI; US Army, WWII

Aleutians, 1943

Alexander Dyce – Toronto, CAN; RC Air Force, WWII, 413th Squadron

Horace Finch – Griffin, GA; US Army, WWII, PTO

Kurt Landsburger – born: Prague, NJ & FL; US Army, WWII, ETO, translator

John Moingo – Marion, IL; US Navy, Korea, Vietnam, Captain (Ret. 30 years)

Ralph Nittolo – Jupiter, FL; US Navy (19 mos), US Air Force (Ret. 20 years), Korea & Vietnam, tech Sgt.

Joseph Pezzulo – Queensbury, NY; US Air Force, Korea

Anthony Tedeschi Sr. – Endicott, NY; US Army, WWII, ETO

John Wilders, JR. – Merrimack, NH; US Navy, Vietnam, radio operator

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