The ‘forgotten front’
This Veterans Day is an appropriate time to acknowledge the service of the Hot Springs soldiers who were stationed in Alaska during World War II.
The defense of Alaska, and in particular the Aleutian Island chain, is described by historians as “our forgotten front.” Military censorship severely restricted information so that the American public did not know much about the fighting in the Aleutian
Islands. But for the U.S. soldiers stationed in the Aleutian Islands, it was cold and arduous duty subject to deadly surprise air raids from Japanese bombers.
Early in the planning of World
War II, the U.S. military realized that the Alaska territory could be used as a staging area by the Japanese for bombing runs on the continental United States. In response to this threat, over 200,000 American troops were stationed in Alaska during the war and a number of military bases were constructed to defend against possible Japanese attack. The government even took the precaution of building the 1,700-mile Alaskan Highway that stretches across northwest Canada and was the first road to connect United States and Alaska.
Several small military bases were constructed in the Aleutian Islands, a chain of islands that run some 1,000 miles to the southwest of the Alaskan mainland. In these isolated islands, both the American and Japanese soldiers were faced with a common enemy, the dreadful weather of the northern Pacific. The weather in the Aleutian Islands is often described as the worst weather in the world with continuous high winds and thick fog. Winds can reach
140 mph and there are very few clear days each year.
The 206th Coast Artillery Regiment of the Arkansas National Guard was mobilized in January 1941 and after training in Texas was deployed to Alaska in August 1941. This included approximately 150 men from H Battery of the regiment that was based in Hot Springs. At first, the Hot Springs soldiers were stationed in Fairbanks, but after the Pearl Harbor attack most were transferred to Dutch Harbor Naval Operating Base and U.S. Army Fort Mears both located on Amaknak Island. Dutch Harbor is located halfway down the long Aleutian chain of Islands, and almost 2,000 miles west of Seattle. The Hot Springs Unit was an anti-aircraft battery.
In June 1942, Japanese bombers attacked U.S. military bases in the western Aleutians. This was the beginning of 15 months of fighting in the Aleutian Islands. Japanese soldiers invaded two remote Aleutian islands and built military bases there. This was the only time in World War II that American soil was occupied by the enemy.
Soldiers from Hot Springs were among the troops that successfully defended Dutch Harbor against two Japanese carrier launched air attacks in June 1942. The Japanese planes strafed and bombed the island, destroying a number of facilities including a hospital, oil storage facilities, and barracks. Members of H Battery provided anti-aircraft fire to repel the attack. Twenty-five American soldiers were killed in the attack including two casualties from the Hot Springs unit. These soldiers spent the next two years at Dutch Harbor in harsh conditions preparing for a possible Japanese invasion.
In 1943, one group of the Hot Springs soldiers stationed in Anchorage took on the challenge of establishing a Baptist church. Surprisingly, there were no Baptist churches in either the city of Anchorage nor anywhere else in the Alaskan Territory. These Hot Springs soldiers, with the support of the Second Baptist Church of Hot Springs, established the First Baptist Church in Anchorage. This church is still in operation today with over 1,000 members.
The 206th unit served in Alaska from August 1941 until they were redeployed to Europe in 1944. The proud heritage of the
206th Coast Artillery Regiment is still carried on today by members of the Arkansas Army National Guard, which was mobilized for two deployments in 2004 and 2008 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
If you would like to learn more about the role of the 206th National Guard Regiment, and its many members from Hot Springs in the Aleutian war, the late William A. Lerz wrote an excellent article about this in the 2002 Record, the annual publication of the Garland County Historical Society. This is available at the Garland County Archives reading room or at the Garland County Public Library.