Warfighter WWII Pacific Exp 60 Attu 1

“I have always considered the landing of the Seventh in the fog of Attu, on May 11, 1943 an amphibious landing without Parallel…” Maj. Gen. Holland M. “Howling Mad” Smith USMC. On May 11th, 1943, 16000 soldiers of the United States 7th Infantry Division made amphibious landings on Attu, a remote and windswept Island in the Aleutians. The 7th Division had spent eighteen months preparing to fight in North Africa – training as a tank division for hot desert conditions, not as a light infantry amphibious force for arctic island warfare. The commanding General De Witt assured the high command that the Island defences would crumble in three days. It took 19 days of battle and over 500 U.S. Soldiers killed in action with more than 1200 injured. The Battle of Attu, which began with an unopposed landing, would end with unrestrained violence. The battle ended with a Japanese banzai counterattack that left almost all of the Japanese dead. It was one of the deadliest fights in the Pacific during WW2