Kiska Island (Bering Sea, USA): description, history

2024 Author: Harold Hamphrey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:06

Kiska Island is part of the Aleutian Islands, which stretch in an arc from the US state of Alaska to Russian Kamchatka. The coasts of their southern part are washed by the cold waters of the Bering Sea. The number of islands is impressive - 110. The length of the island arc is 1740 km. Let's take a closer look at them.

Aleutian Islands on the map

These islands are divided into five main groups: Near, Rat, Andreyanovsky, Chetyrehsopochnye, Fox. They stretched in this order from west to east. The islands were formed due to the active action of volcanoes located on the archipelago. Nowadays, 25 craters continue their vital activity. Of these, the most famous volcanoes are Shishaldin, Vsevidov, Tanaga, Bolshoy Sitkin, Garela, Kanaga, Segula.

The Aleutian Islands on the map come close to the Commander Islands. Some geographers propose to combine these two groups of islands into a single entity under the common name of the Commander-Aleutian ridge.

Island life

The harsh climate of the islands did not prevent violent germinationforbs. These are Unalashkin arnica and cereal meadows. Above a hundred meters high, you can find thickets of heath and willow. Even higher - loaches and mountain tundra.

Formerly, Arctic foxes, sea otters, sea lions and foxes were found on the islands. Now there are huge flocks of birds that have completely captured the rocky shores, the so-called bird colonies. The main part of this motley community is made up of the Bering sandpiper and Canada goose, arriving on the shores of Kiska Island (Alaska).

To preserve the uniqueness of this place, since 1980, the Aleutian Islands have been included in the state-protected protected areas - the Alaska Marine National Reserve. The islands are inhabited. The indigenous inhabitants of these places - the Aleuts - make up an insignificant part of the population. In total, a little over 6,000 people settled on the islands of the archipelago. They are mainly engaged in fishing. But part of the population is involved in the maintenance of the US military base.

Kiska is a volcano

Kiska Island, like all other parts of the Aleutian Ridge, is of volcanic origin. It consists in a group of islands under an interesting name - Rats. When Fedor Petrovich Litke in 1827, during a trip around the world, found himself on the island, he came up with such a peculiar name for him. All because at every step he came across small animals that looked like rats. There is a version that it was a kind of ground squirrels that lived in those parts at that time. Rat Islands consist of several uninhabited rocky separate parts. There are no permanent residents on them, so these places are considereduninhabited.

Kiska is also a rocky island with steep shores, the main part of which is occupied by the volcano of the same name with a height of 1229.4 meters. The last eruption took place in 1964. It is located in the northern part of the US Kiska Island and is, as it were, separated from the main territory by a narrow isthmus. Three lakes formed nearby: Western, Christina and Eastern.

Kyska Volcano is considered a stratovolcano, or layered. A feature of this type is the explosive nature of the eruption, in which the lava has a dense structure and solidifies before it has time to cover large areas of the earth's surface. The eruption occurs quickly, and the frozen lava forms a specific layered structure of the volcano on the island of Kiska. The description of stratovolcanoes is usually the same all over the world. These are symmetrical mountains with a wide base, with steeper slopes near the crater. During the eruption, magma almost does not flow down the slopes, but densely clogs the crater. Pyroclastic flows of hot material and clouds of ash and gas descend down the sides of the volcano. When such a mudflow hits the snow cover of the mountain, flows of volcanic mud are formed.

Kiska Opening

The island was discovered by the famous explorer of Siberia, Kamchatka and the northern islands of the Pacific Ocean - Georg Steller (in 1741). He was a German physician, botanist and naturalist, working the last years of his life for the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Went to the second Kamchatka expedition of Vitus Bering. He went down in history as the first European to walkto the land of Alaska.

Russian expedition

Somewhat later, a Russian ship with industrialists on board called "Saint Kapiton" also reached the above-named island, but the sailors failed to set foot on the shore, as they were attacked by the Aleuts. After that, the ship could not stand the test of the storm and was thrown onto an inhospitable shore. Russian industrialists wanted to escape and even tried to set up camp on the shore, but the Aleut attack prevented them from doing so.

After minor losses, the indigenous people retreated to the neighboring island, leaving the uninvited guests to spend the winter all alone on the uninhabited island of Kiska. During the winter, the Russians continued to be plagued by misfortune. From starvation and scurvy, 17 passengers of the ship died. The rest barely escaped, having reached the shores of their native Kamchatka in the summer on the wreckage of an old ship. After such an unsuccessful expedition, the Russians for a long time did not dare to go to the deserted wild islands in the cold, inhospitable sea. And already in 1867, after Alaska was sold to America, Kiska Island also became part of the USA.

Events of World War II

In the summer of 1942, Japanese Marines landed on the island and immediately destroyed the US Navy weather station. After that, a huge contingent of Japanese troops was stationed there. According to information received during the intelligence operation, the number of Japanese was about 10 thousand soldiers.

At the very beginning of the operation to seize the islands of the Bering Sea were brought to the coastmilitary units and work detachments of large numbers. There is a submarine base and communications and air defense services. On the small island of Kiska, the population at that time was 5,400 Japanese. For a whole year, the enemy occupied the territory with virtually impunity. The actions of American military personnel were limited to only infrequent and insignificant military air raids and constant patrols of the territory from submarines. The purpose of such sorties was to isolate the Japanese island military units from the rest of the enemy armed forces.

But already in August 1942, the US warships delivered the first decisive blow to the enemy, located on the American island of Kiska. The history of the liberation of the territory occupied by the enemy was just beginning. After a decisive blow from the sea, which was inflicted by the friendly efforts of cruisers and destroyers, during the following months, aircraft from America and Canada launched airstrikes on the captured islands.

The start of a rebuff

At first, the first bombardments did not have much effect on the Japanese command. However, the invaders still decided to strengthen the defense, to dig in well, but the military faced a number of unsolvable problems. The harbor of the island was always in fog, and the constant dead swell also created big problems. The Japanese only had seaplanes, which contained light weapons and had no armor at all. They could not compete with heavy American bombers.

Enemy floating bases did not dare to constantly be near the coastalline due to the constant attacks of Allied aircraft. The Japanese kept them on the high seas and only under the cover of night darkness or in bad weather brought them closer to the island in order to unload equipment or seaplanes. Japanese aircraft carriers, which were at the beginning of the operation off the coast of the Aleutian Islands, left their location a month later.

Accumulation of resistance forces

The Americans were accumulating their military potential on the nearest islands. On about. Adah was built in the shortest possible time the airfield, which became the largest in the region. Submarines activated. Thus, the American submarine "Triton" sank the Japanese destroyer "Nenohi" in the middle of summer, taking the lives of 200 people on board. Three destroyers, which moored the cruiser "Tiyoda" to the harbor, also suffered at the same time. The Growler submarine was able to launch three torpedoes that accurately hit the ships. Helped coastal fog.

Strengthening the defense of the Japanese

The Japanese had a passionate desire to keep these islands for themselves. In the autumn of the same year, they began to actively strengthen their positions. By order of the imperial command, troops were transferred to the islands in order to build defensive structures. They were supposed to build an airfield on the island of Kyska and next to about. Attu, on a small unnamed island. By the end of winter, the work was planned to be completed, but the Allied forces did not give them this chance.

Although these deserted islands had absolutely no meaning for America, they did not give up their landswere going to. An offensive was being prepared at full speed with the aim of finally defeating the Japanese troops. Completely cut off from the rest of the world, the invaders experienced a shortage of supplies, and the cold of the inhospitable islands of the Aleutian arc did not bode well.

Fights for Attu

On May 11, the allies launched a grandiose operation to liberate Attu Island. Bloody battles continued for three weeks. Hundreds of fighters were killed, more than a thousand were maimed and injured, but most of all people lost from frostbite. The harsh climate of the Aleutian Islands could not withstand the warriors who were not accustomed to such conditions.

Japanese also died about 3000, several dozen were taken prisoner. After such a hard battle for Attu, the Allied command decided to release Kiska without fail. Such an operation to clear the last island played a big role, as it opened the way for the allies to the shores of Russia. If the path would be free, then the Americans would be able to transfer military equipment to help our troops. A large-scale operation was planned, and huge funds were raised for the decisive battle.

Operation Cottage

According to the intelligence received, the Americans believed that more than 10,000 soldiers had gathered on the island. For the assault operation, more than 100 American and Canadian ships were drawn to the shores of the bay. The number of military personnel exceeded 34,000 people, of which 5,300 were citizens of Canada. From the air, aviation provided every possible support, making frequent shuttle bombardments.

In early August, early in the morning, an expedition of paratroopers landed on the island. The Japanese were nowhere to be seen. The military considered that the enemy dug in in the mountains in order to take up defensive positions. The next day, additional troops went to help. Only at the end of the second day it became clear that there were no Japanese on the island. They left him. How did this happen?

Escape under cover of fog

Foreseeing the enemy's attack on their positions, the Japanese, under the cover of heavy fog, carried out a lightning-fast operation to withdraw troops from the Aleutian arc. On the afternoon of July 29, at great speed, two cruisers and a dozen destroyers circled the island of Kyska from the north side and anchored. To dive on board, the Japanese spent only 45 minutes. During this short time, 5400 soldiers entered the ships.

On their way to their base, they quickly left the place of deployment, while there was heavy fog, and American aircraft could not take off, and patrol ships at that time replenished their fuel supplies. The Japanese at that time calmly and brilliantly carried out an operation to rescue their military, who were safely transported to Paramushir.

Reproaches and arguments

As a result, the Americans, as part of an army of thousands and 100 ships, not counting aviation, fought with an empty island. At the same time, several hundred people died as a result of the so-called "friendly" fire. Operation Cottage is being called a failure by some. But it must be borne in mind that, firstly, the winners are not judged, and secondly, the Japanese fled from such a terrible force, fearingengage in open battle.

You must also take into account the harsh conditions of Kiska Island, described above. The constant dense fog and extreme cold brought a lot of trouble to the soldiers, forced to carry out the operation in such harsh conditions. To this day, the entire island is covered with the remnants of destroyed guns, half-submerged rusty ships stand in the bays. The island resembles, rather, an open-air museum that tells people who visit it about the terrible days of the war.