Report From the Aleutians

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Report From the Aleutians - 10/22/2010 9:34:21 PM

Central Blue

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http://www.archive.org/details/Report_From_The_Aleutians

"Report from the Aleutians," directed by John Huston, follows the daily
life of American soldiers serving in the Aleutian Islands, which extend
in sequence off the shores of Alaska. Despite being cold, barren, and
generally disagreeable, the Aleutians held military bases of immense
strategic value in the Pacific theater of World War II. The film
describes the geographic importance of the islands, and provides a
portrait of daily wartime operations, such as attack planning and
bombing raids, that take place at the bases. Huston pays particular
attention to life on the island of Adak in the wake of the Battle of
Dutch Harbor, culminating in a first-person perspective of an actual
American bombing run against the Japanese.

Check it out if you haven't seen it. Interesting to note how low some of the 4e bombers are flying. I guess they haven't heard about the penalty.

On the other hand, the actual bomb footage looks a lot higher than what is described in the previous scenes.

Either way, lots of interesting footage of planes taxiing through water.

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RE: Report From the Aleutians - 10/22/2010 10:08:24 PM

lolz

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nice!,thanks for sharing!

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RE: Report From the Aleutians - 10/22/2010 11:21:35 PM

Misconduct

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Pretty cool thanks, I always wanted to read about the Aleutians theater, never got around to getting any books on the subject.

I can't imagine being stationed up there around Kodiak, just watching Deadliest catch makes me want to hurl overboard 15 times.

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RE: Report From the Aleutians - 10/23/2010 3:45:07 AM

Reg

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That site also has a couple of John Huston's other films for the US Army:

The Battle of San Pietro
Let There Be Light

Brutally honest is how I think you would describe them.

< Message edited by Reg -- 10/23/2010 3:47:01 AM >

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RE: Report From the Aleutians - 10/23/2010 10:25:29 AM

Wikingus

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Absolutely brilliant, thanks for the link.

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RE: Report From the Aleutians - 10/23/2010 1:11:55 PM

War History

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Nice link, but pure propaganda. For example they said they ran daily bombing raids over Kiska. In fact only 7 missions were flown in Oct 42, and 2 of them turned back because they couldn't find the island. No more raids were flown until spring (meaning May 43). Army estimates of Japanese strength there was only 5200 not the 10,000 in the film (actual strength was far below this). If you watch the film of the bombing there is a grand total of 2 puffs of AA fire in the entire film. It was hardly the super fortress the film would have you believe. The troop morale on Adak wasn't nearly as good as claimed either. But it is interesting.

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RE: Report From the Aleutians - 10/23/2010 1:42:06 PM

War History

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Interesting story from the Canadian side. Learned some things. For instance the Winnipeg Grenadiers (which starts the game in Hong Kong) was part of the 13th Canadian Bde. I believe this unit should have a "going away date" much like the 4th Marine rgt does (actually all forces in Hong Kong should imho).

Also, I found this paragraph particularly interesting (the bolded portion at the end of the paragraph):
As the Canadians at Adak accustomed themselves to the harsh environment and received extensive training in battle drill, patrolling tactics, weaponry, hill climbing and amphibious assault, more than 30,000 American troops boarded heavily armed ships in California and began steaming west for what was officially still a secret mission. The success of the mission, they were told, would depend largely on the element of surprise. The men on the ships played pinochle and endless card games, told stories and wrote to sweethearts and wives as they made preparations for battle. Rumours circulated that they were bound for enemy-occupied Burma or the Japanese island of Hokkaido or maybe the Aleutian Islands. The ships made a sudden turn to the north. Any doubts about their destination were dispelled. Tokyo Rose interrupted the sweet warblings of the Andrews Sisters on shortwave radio. "All you boys headed for Kiska Island," she warned, "are in for a big surprise." She then listed their unit names, location and numbers, as well as the size of their assembling fleet at Adak, and informed the men of the exact time and date of their secret invasion.

The Japanese intel in the game is a joke compared to what it was in real life.

http://canadianheroes.org/henri/henri2.htm

http://canadianheroes.org/henri/the-battle-for-kiska-story.htm

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RE: Report From the Aleutians - 10/25/2010 9:42:18 PM

LeeChard

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From: Michigan
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A good book on the subject "The 2000 mile War". I can't remember the author's name.

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