Status
Available
Collection
Publication
Bantam (1988), 345 pages
Description
The Thousand-Mile War, a powerful story of the battles of the United States and Japan on the bitter rim of the North Pacific, has been acclaimed as one of the great accounts of World War II. Brian Garfield, a novelist and screenwriter whose works have sold some 20 million copies, was searching for a new subject when he came upon the story of this ""forgotten war"" in Alaska. He found the history of the brave men who had served in the Aleutians so compelling and so little known that he wrote the first full-length history of the Aleutian campaign, and the book remains a favorite among Alaskans.
User reviews
LibraryThing member TomVeal
In June 1942, as part of the operation that led to the Battle of Midway, Japan bombed the U.S. naval base at Dutch Harbor, Alaska, and landed troops on two remote Aleutian islands, Kiska and Attu. Neither was defended. The invaders took prisoner the ten-man crew of the Kiska weather station and 38
Thus began a 14-month campaign waged more against relentless weather than human enemies. American and Canadian forces in Alaska, starting from almost nil, reached a peak of 300,000. The Japanese garrisons never totaled more than 10,000 men. Admiral Yamamoto's original plan had been to withdraw from the conquests as soon as winter set in, but he later changed his mind, seeing merit in maintaining a shield against a possible northern thrust toward the Kurile Islands and the major air-naval base at Paramushiro. The Americans, reasoning similarly and pricked by enemy occupation of our soil, reached a decision to reclaim the lost ground.
One battle was fought at sea, one on land. In the former, off the Soviet-held Komandorski Islands, hundreds of miles west of Attu, the Japanese had a crushing superiority in numbers and quality. In a three and half hour engagement - the last major naval action fought anywhere without the intervention of aircraft - they immobilized the only American vessel capable of holding its own in the contest. Then, on the verge of victory, they withdrew, spooked by a false report of approaching American bombers.
The land battle was the reconquest of Attu. Leap frogging past Kiska, the U.S. allocated 16,000 troops to the assault, expecting to rout an estimated 1,000 Japanese defenders in three days. In fact, there were over twice that many, and the fight lasted nearly three weeks. American losses were higher, as a percentage of troops engaged, that in any other Pacific land battle except Iwo Jima. The victors took only 26 prisoners. Of the rest of the force, half were killed in action; half committed suicide.
Attu exposed numerous weaknesses in American planning and preparation. No margin of error was allowed in the re-invasion of Kiska. The upshot was a stunning anti-climax. Thanks to either astonishing luck or one of the most brilliant deceptions in naval history (to this day, no one is sure which), the Japanese were able to slip a task force through the blockade and take off more than 5,000 troops without being detected. Over two weeks after the evacuation, a reinforced division of Americans and Canadians hit the beaches. Before it became clear that not an enemy remained, friend fire and cruel weather inflicted some 300 casualties.
A notable virtue of The Thousand-Mile War is that it instills excitement and suspense into what was, in essence, a campaign of bombing runs, base building and struggles against wind, fog and storms. Filling the gaps in the documentary record through interviews with scores of veterans, Brian Garfield has put together as nearly definitive account of the war in the Aleutians as we are ever likely to have. Not only does he cover military events in depth; he also gives a sense of what it was like to live and fight one of the world's least hospitable climates, with an excellent eye for the telling detail and apposite anecdote.
Regrettably, but unavoidably, the enemy side receives only limited attention. The local Japanese commanders destroyed all of their records. While some information can be gleaned from surviving diaries kept by officers and soldiers, the enemy remains a somewhat ghostly presence in this story.
The book has one small and one larger fault. The minor complaint is that the portrayals of the principal commanders tend to be strongly opinionated. The opinions may, for all I know, be correct, but the presentation is hardly fair and balanced. Second, and more seriously, there are no notes giving the sources of the statements in the narrative. The author's excuse is that extensive footnoting would have been unduly cumbersome, particularly where the facts making up a paragraph were taken from a multitude of fragmentary sources. That is a fair point. Nonetheless, there are occasions when one would like to see how well supported an individual fact is or have a clue about how to learn more about an interesting person or incident.
Only one map is provided: an overview of the Aleutians with an inset of the battle for Attu. Given the nature of the campaign, no more is needed. Also included are 32 pages of photographs. They are of great interest, though my paperback copy reproduces them poorly.
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inhabitants of Attu. One civilian was killed trying to flee to the hinterland.Thus began a 14-month campaign waged more against relentless weather than human enemies. American and Canadian forces in Alaska, starting from almost nil, reached a peak of 300,000. The Japanese garrisons never totaled more than 10,000 men. Admiral Yamamoto's original plan had been to withdraw from the conquests as soon as winter set in, but he later changed his mind, seeing merit in maintaining a shield against a possible northern thrust toward the Kurile Islands and the major air-naval base at Paramushiro. The Americans, reasoning similarly and pricked by enemy occupation of our soil, reached a decision to reclaim the lost ground.
One battle was fought at sea, one on land. In the former, off the Soviet-held Komandorski Islands, hundreds of miles west of Attu, the Japanese had a crushing superiority in numbers and quality. In a three and half hour engagement - the last major naval action fought anywhere without the intervention of aircraft - they immobilized the only American vessel capable of holding its own in the contest. Then, on the verge of victory, they withdrew, spooked by a false report of approaching American bombers.
The land battle was the reconquest of Attu. Leap frogging past Kiska, the U.S. allocated 16,000 troops to the assault, expecting to rout an estimated 1,000 Japanese defenders in three days. In fact, there were over twice that many, and the fight lasted nearly three weeks. American losses were higher, as a percentage of troops engaged, that in any other Pacific land battle except Iwo Jima. The victors took only 26 prisoners. Of the rest of the force, half were killed in action; half committed suicide.
Attu exposed numerous weaknesses in American planning and preparation. No margin of error was allowed in the re-invasion of Kiska. The upshot was a stunning anti-climax. Thanks to either astonishing luck or one of the most brilliant deceptions in naval history (to this day, no one is sure which), the Japanese were able to slip a task force through the blockade and take off more than 5,000 troops without being detected. Over two weeks after the evacuation, a reinforced division of Americans and Canadians hit the beaches. Before it became clear that not an enemy remained, friend fire and cruel weather inflicted some 300 casualties.
A notable virtue of The Thousand-Mile War is that it instills excitement and suspense into what was, in essence, a campaign of bombing runs, base building and struggles against wind, fog and storms. Filling the gaps in the documentary record through interviews with scores of veterans, Brian Garfield has put together as nearly definitive account of the war in the Aleutians as we are ever likely to have. Not only does he cover military events in depth; he also gives a sense of what it was like to live and fight one of the world's least hospitable climates, with an excellent eye for the telling detail and apposite anecdote.
Regrettably, but unavoidably, the enemy side receives only limited attention. The local Japanese commanders destroyed all of their records. While some information can be gleaned from surviving diaries kept by officers and soldiers, the enemy remains a somewhat ghostly presence in this story.
The book has one small and one larger fault. The minor complaint is that the portrayals of the principal commanders tend to be strongly opinionated. The opinions may, for all I know, be correct, but the presentation is hardly fair and balanced. Second, and more seriously, there are no notes giving the sources of the statements in the narrative. The author's excuse is that extensive footnoting would have been unduly cumbersome, particularly where the facts making up a paragraph were taken from a multitude of fragmentary sources. That is a fair point. Nonetheless, there are occasions when one would like to see how well supported an individual fact is or have a clue about how to learn more about an interesting person or incident.
Only one map is provided: an overview of the Aleutians with an inset of the battle for Attu. Given the nature of the campaign, no more is needed. Also included are 32 pages of photographs. They are of great interest, though my paperback copy reproduces them poorly.
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LibraryThing member jamespurcell
Well told story of a little kn own area of operations in WW2
LibraryThing member sonofcarc
The Aleutian campaign can best be characterized as a folie a deux. This admirably paced narrative will leave you with one overwhelming feeling: Gratitude that you weren't there for it.
LibraryThing member DinadansFriend
The title is expressive. The Aleutian Campaign was conducted in a very difficult environment. Men and machines were driven very hard, and in the final analysis it was a side-show. But it was also a potent threat to either side of the Pacific War. For the serious student this is an important book.
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Mr. Garfield has done his research and has also achieved a good level of verisimilitude, and an engaging text. For the general reader, this is also a good time. Show Less
LibraryThing member hardlyhardy
More than 75 years after the fact, few Americans know that the Japanese army occupied U.S. territory during World War II. Even at the time, few Americans knew about it, even though it resulted in one of the most important American invasions of the war and one of the most costly battles for both
Brian Garfield tells about it in his 1969 book “The Thousand-Mile War: World War II in Alaska and the Aleutians,” now mostly forgotten, like the battles themselves, but still worth reading.
The Aleutian Islands stretch so far into the Pacific that they cross the International Date Line, meaning that Alaska can be called both the most western state and the most eastern. Protecting all those islands proved an impossible task, although the severe weather, even in summer, helped. In 1942 the Japanese landed thousands of men on the islands of Kiska and Attu, viewing them as both a potential base from which to launch air attacks against the United States mainland and a means to prevent similar attacks by the U.S. against Japan. Conditions discouraged actually building much of a base on these islands, however, and the Japanese were preparing to withdraw when the military minds back in Washington finally decided to take the threat seriously and ordered an attack.
The invasion plans were something of comedy of errors. Garfield offers up the great line: "The War Department worked in mysterious ways its blunders to perform." In fact, much of this book proves humorous, as he devotes entire chapters to the dark humor of those Americans unlucky enough to be stationed in the Aleutians and ridicules generals who outfitted men for battle in the tropics, then sent them to Alaska.
The fight to reclaim these otherwise insignificant islands included, writes Garfield, "the last and longest classic daylight naval battle in the history of fleet warfare." That's a lot of qualifiers, but basically it refers to a sea battle involving just warships, not aircraft. Later he refers to the Battle of Attu as "the second most costly battle of the war in the Pacific," next to Iwo Jima. The invasion taught lessons that would prove valuable on D-Day.
As for Kiska, the bigger prize, the Japanese troops had evacuated under the cover of fog and darkness by the time the Americans invaded. The invaders found an island occupied only by a few dogs.
So why didn't this World War II campaign receive more attention? Garfield cites a couple of reasons. First, there were no Marines involved. It was the Army that invaded, and historically the Army gets less attention than the Marines. Second, there were too many blunders. The generals and admirals preferred that it all be ignored.
Garfield is best remembered as a novelist, especially for “Death Wish” and “Kolchak’s Gold.” This book proves he could write excellent military history, as well.
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sides.Brian Garfield tells about it in his 1969 book “The Thousand-Mile War: World War II in Alaska and the Aleutians,” now mostly forgotten, like the battles themselves, but still worth reading.
The Aleutian Islands stretch so far into the Pacific that they cross the International Date Line, meaning that Alaska can be called both the most western state and the most eastern. Protecting all those islands proved an impossible task, although the severe weather, even in summer, helped. In 1942 the Japanese landed thousands of men on the islands of Kiska and Attu, viewing them as both a potential base from which to launch air attacks against the United States mainland and a means to prevent similar attacks by the U.S. against Japan. Conditions discouraged actually building much of a base on these islands, however, and the Japanese were preparing to withdraw when the military minds back in Washington finally decided to take the threat seriously and ordered an attack.
The invasion plans were something of comedy of errors. Garfield offers up the great line: "The War Department worked in mysterious ways its blunders to perform." In fact, much of this book proves humorous, as he devotes entire chapters to the dark humor of those Americans unlucky enough to be stationed in the Aleutians and ridicules generals who outfitted men for battle in the tropics, then sent them to Alaska.
The fight to reclaim these otherwise insignificant islands included, writes Garfield, "the last and longest classic daylight naval battle in the history of fleet warfare." That's a lot of qualifiers, but basically it refers to a sea battle involving just warships, not aircraft. Later he refers to the Battle of Attu as "the second most costly battle of the war in the Pacific," next to Iwo Jima. The invasion taught lessons that would prove valuable on D-Day.
As for Kiska, the bigger prize, the Japanese troops had evacuated under the cover of fog and darkness by the time the Americans invaded. The invaders found an island occupied only by a few dogs.
So why didn't this World War II campaign receive more attention? Garfield cites a couple of reasons. First, there were no Marines involved. It was the Army that invaded, and historically the Army gets less attention than the Marines. Second, there were too many blunders. The generals and admirals preferred that it all be ignored.
Garfield is best remembered as a novelist, especially for “Death Wish” and “Kolchak’s Gold.” This book proves he could write excellent military history, as well.
Show Less
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Original language
English