ALEUTIAN ISLANDS
HEAVY BARGE, loaded with a crane and other heavy machinery, in the Massacre Bay area on 31 May 1943, having been towed to shore by tugs. In order to get the crane off, it was necessary to make a sand ramp leading from the shore to the deck of the barge. Tractor at right is a 7-ton, high-speed tractor M2 (top). An oil and gas dump; at the left can be seen a motor pool (bottom). The battle for Attu ended on 30 May but mopping-up operations continued for several days.
ALEUTIAN ISLANDS
FIRST FIGHTER STRIP ESTABLISHED ON AMCHITKA, located about seventy miles from Japanese-held Kiska. The P-40, on taxiway ready to take off, was used before twin-engined fighter planes were obtained. Often two 500-pound bombs were put on each of these planes, which were used as dive bombers.
ALEUTIAN ISLANDS
THE AIRPORT AND HARBOR OF ADAK ISLAND operating in full swing, August 1943. Truck in right foreground is 2½-ton 6×6. Bombers used advanced airfields, set up in August 1942 on Adak and Amchitka Islands, to attack Attu and Kiska, two islands of the Aleutian chain which the enemy had occupied in June 1942 in an effort to limit American air and sea operations in the North Pacific. During the first half of 1943, 1,500 tons of bombs were dropped on enemy positions in the Aleutians.