The Forgotten Campaign: The True Story of the Alaskan Front during the SGW Part 1
A Union Soldier in his foxhole at a forward position in American Columbia near the border with Russian Alaska, circa 1941.
When the Second Great War commenced in North America, the Union High Command would strip many of their occupation forces from Canada to go fight the Confederate Forces in the South. However, there were a few regions of Canada where none of the Occupational Forces were stripped from such as American Columbia and the Yukon due to their proximity to Russian Alaska. Those regions would be immediately put under the Pacific Northwest Command with General Hugh Aloysius Drum as it's commander. Drum's forces were 87,000 US Army soldiers backed up an additional 12,000 US Marines 9,000 local Collaborationist Auxiliary Troops, 850 artillery pieces (much of them dating from the First Great War), 1,020 motor vehicles, 36 armored cars, 20 barrels (which were all M2A4 Light Barrels), 66 fighter aircraft (which were P-24 Hawk and the older P-16 Peashooter), 28 A-17 Nomad light bombers, and 16 coastal patrol aircraft of various types. The local naval forces in support with Task Force 36 under the command of Admiral Spruance had the new Battlecruiser USS Constellation, the heavy cruiser USS York, the light cruisers USS Saint Louis and Brooklyn, 13 destroyers, and 7 submarines.
In addition to the various ground forces, there were numerous coastal artillery batteries that were built following the Pacific War in order to protect the coastal regions of American Columbia, Vancouver Island, and Graham and Morseby Islands from a possible Japanese Invasion. Pictured here is a 14 inch gun from Fort Roosevelt on Vancouver Island, circa 1940.
Opposing the Union Military Forces was the Imperial Russian Forces of the so-called Alaskan Front commanded by General Alexi Antonov. By August of 1941, Antonov's forces had included about 105,000 troops, 761 artillery pieces, 896 motor vehicles, and 54 armored cars along with 54 fighter aircraft (which most of them were obsolete Polikarpov I-153 biplanes), 24 Polikarpov R-Z light bombers, and 12 Tupolev SB-2 bombers. The Russians would also have elements of it's Pacific Fleet based out of the port of New Archangelsk in Alaska with the heavy cruisers Pallada and Rynda, the light cruisers Oleg and Izumrud, 15 destroyers (six of which were new destroyers), and 12 submarines.
An illustration of a BA-6 armored car of the Imperial Russian Army in Alaska, circa 1938. The BA-6 was the Russian Forces in Alaska's most advanced armored fighting vehicle (which there were 10 of them in Alaska.) The remainder of their armored forces were made up of older D-12 (12), BAI-M (15), FAI-M (5), and BA-27 (12) armored cars.
The first opening moves of the Alaskan Front would in fact be made by the Union Forces, following about two months of calm on the front which would later be dubbed as the "Phoney War." On October 15th, 1941, the Union Army forces under General Lloyd Fredendall launched an attack into the South-Eastern portion of Alaska with the 18th and 21st Infantry and the 9th Mountain Divisions. At first, the Union Forces made some progress when they captured the settlement of Stakin along with the Marines capturing Chirikov Island* with little resistance and even fewer (around 15) casualties. However, the offensive would stall when the Union Army and Marines made an amphibious landing attempts at Mitkof and Kupreanof Islands, where the local Russian forces under General Lev Dovator. For about a month, the fighting on those two islands proved to be a stalemate until the Union forces there withdrew, with the cost of 544 men killed, 1,932 wounded, 31 captured, and 4 missing along with 24 field artillery pieces lost, 2 armored cars destroyed, 2 fighters and a bomber shot down, and the Destroyer USS Porter badly damaged by R-Z torpedo bombers.
Union Army troops during the Battle of Mitkof Island on Halloween of 1941.
Shortly after the Union withdrawal, General Antonov would order a counter-attack to the north, which had commenced on December 4th, 1941. The Russian counter-offensive would prove to be successful as they were able to reach as far as the shore of Kluane Lake in Yukon. Encouraged by this success, the Russians would launch another offensive to the south, where they made an attempt to retake the south-eastern tip of Alaska from the Yankees. They would successfully reverse most of Fredendall's successes by retaking all of the territory (expect for Chirikov Island.) Then their forces would cross into American Columbia, seizing a small strip of land on Alaska southeastern border. But their further advance would be halted by the Union Army's 9th Mountain Division during the Battle of Mount McLeod.
A photograph of soldiers from the Russian 107th Rifle Division attacking Union positions during the Battle of Mount McLeod on Christmas Eve, circa 1941.
Union Army soldiers defending a trenchline near Clements Lake against an attacking Russian battalion. This was a still from a made for TV American movie about the Alaskan Front during the Second Great War called the Forgotten Front (1988).
Following the Battle of Mt. McLeod, the Russian Offensive would stall, by then, the Russians had have 954 men killed, 1,043 wounded, and 62 missing along with 6 armored cars and 19 aircraft destroyed. At this point, this would only prove to be just the beginning of a bloody side-show.
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* = OTL's Prince of Wales Island