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World War II was the largest and most violent armed conflict in the history of mankind. However, the half century that now separates us from that conflict has exacted its toll on our collective knowledge. While World War II continues to absorb the interest of military scholars and historians, as well as its veterans, a generation of Americans has grown to maturity largely unaware of the political, social, and military implications of a war that, more than any other, united us as a people with a common purpose.
Highly relevant today, World War II has much to teach us, not only about the profession of arms, but also about military preparedness, global strategy, and combined operations in the coalition war against fascism. During the next several years, the U.S. Army will participate in the nation's 50th anniversary commemoration of World War II. The commemoration will include the publication of various materials to help educate Americans about that war. The works produced will provide great opportunities to learn about and renew pride in an Army that fought so magnificently in what has been called "the mighty endeavor."
World War II was waged on land, on sea, and in the air over several diverse theaters of operation for approximately six years. The following essay is one of a series of campaign studies highlighting those struggles that, with their accompanying suggestions for further reading, are designed to introduce you to one of the Army's significant military feats from that war.
This brochure was prepared in the U.S. Army Center of Military History by George L. MacGarrigle. I hope this absorbing account of that period will enhance your appreciation of American achievements during World War II.
M. P. W. Stone
Secretary of the Army
After securing strategically located bases during its war with China, Japan set out to create its long-coveted greater east Asia co-prosperity empire. Opening with a crushing attack upon Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 that temporarily neutralized the U.S. Pacific Fleet, the imperial High Command quickly followed by dispatching large forces to seize the Philippines, Malaya, and the Netherlands East Indies and preparing plans for new bases from which to strike Australia and India. By June 1942 Japanese authority on the Asian mainland had extended beyond Malaya into Thailand and Burma. In the western Pacific, it encompassed most of the larger islands north of Australia and east of Midway.
In the wake of such astounding military success, Japan decided to push onward rather than consolidate its gains. Its next objectives, New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, were clearly to be used as steppingstones to Australia. Between those objectives and the Australian continent was the Coral Sea, where in early May the American Navy had checked a powerful Japanese fleet in a battle that frustrated the enemy's hope for an early invasion of Australia.
Remaining on the defensive throughout the Pacific, the United States hurriedly fortified island bases along a great arc extending from Pearl Harbor to Sydney to keep open the shipping routes to Australia. With only limited numbers of troops available, it nevertheless joined Australia in planning an offensive in New Guinea and the Solomons to halt Japanese advances. To command this offensive in what became known as the Southwest Pacific Area, President Franklin D. Roosevelt selected General Douglas MacArthur, leaving the remainder of the Pacific theater under the direction of the Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet, Admiral Chester W. Nimitz.
Nimitz's command was divided into three combat areas (north, central, and south). The North Pacific Area extended west from the continental United States, Canada, and the Territory of Alaska across the Pacific to the Asian mainland. Included within Nimitz's North Pacific Area were Japan's northern islands, the Kuriles, and, just 650 miles to the east, Alaska's Aleutian chain.
Protruding in a long, sweeping curve for more than a thousand miles westward from the tip of the Alaskan Peninsula, the Aleutians
provided a natural avenue of approach between the two countries. Forbidding weather and desolate terrain, however, made this approach militarily undesirable. While spared the arctic climate of the Alaskan mainland to the north, the Aleutians are constantly swept by cold winds and often engulfed in dense fog. The weather becomes progressively worse in the western part of the chain, but all the islands are marked by craggy mountains and scant vegetation. Despite such inhospitable conditions, neither the United States nor Japan could afford to assume that the other would reject the Aleutians as an impractical invasion route.
Japanese concern for the defense of the northern Pacific increased when sixteen U.S. B-25 bombers, led by Lt. Col. James H. Doolittle, took off from the carrier Hornet and bombed Tokyo on 18 April 1942. Unsure of where the American raid originated, but suspicious that it could have been from a secret base in the western Aleutians, the Imperial High Command began to take an active interest in capturing the island chain.
The Aleutians first appeared as a Japanese objective in a plan prepared under the direction of one of Japan's most able commanders, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. With help from the Japanese Army, Yamamoto intended to "invade and occupy strategic points in the Western Aleutians" as well as Midway Island on the western tip of the Hawaiian chain. He envisioned these two sites as anchors for a defensive perimeter in the north and central Pacific. His plan also included the final destruction of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. By using the Aleutians and then Midway as bait, he intended to lure the already weakened American fleet from Pearl Harbor and annihilate it before new construction could replace the losses it had sustained on 7 December.
An attack on the Aleutians in early June 1942, Yamamoto believed, would draw the U.S. fleet north to challenge his forces. With the departure of the U.S. warships from Pearl Harbor, he would then move his main fleet to seize Midway. Because of Midway's importance-the island was within bomber range of Pearl Harbor-he concluded that Nimitz would redirect his fleet from the Aleutians to Midway to prevent the loss of the island. Waiting off Midway to intercept that force would be the largest concentration of naval power ever assembled by Japan. After overwhelming the American fleet, Yamamoto would have undisputed control of the central and western Pacific.
Yamamoto commanded an armada of 176 warships and auxiliaries. A portion of that force, the Northern Area Fleet, with 2 small aircraft
carriers, left the Kurile Islands to attack the Aleutians, while the remainder of his fleet, which included 4 large aircraft carriers, 9 battleships, and 12 transports, converged on Midway. The Aleutian attack was a sideshow, yet it would reduce Yamamoto's overall available strength in carrier aircraft during the fight for Midway on 4-5 June, one of the decisive battles of all time and the turning point of the Pacific war.
Before Japan entered World War II, its navy had gathered extensive information about the Aleutians, but it had no up-to-date information regarding military developments on the islands. It assumed that the United States had made a major effort to increase defenses in the area and expected to find several U.S. warships operating in Aleutian waters, including 1 or 2 small aircraft carriers as well as several cruisers and destroyers. Given these assumptions, Yamamoto provided the Northern Area Fleet, commanded by Vice Adm. Boshiro Hosogaya, with a force of 2 small aircraft carriers, 5 cruisers, 12 destroyers, 6 submarines, and 4 troop transports, along with supporting auxiliary ships. With that force, Hosogaya was first to launch an air attack against Dutch Harbor, then follow with an amphibious attack upon the island of Adak, 480 miles to the west. After destroying the American base on Adak (in fact, there was none), his troops were to return to their ships and become a reserve for two additional landings: the first on Kiska, 240 miles west of Adak, the other on the Aleutian's westernmost island, Attu, 180 miles from Kiska.
Because U.S. intelligence had broken the Japanese naval code, Admiral Nimitz had learned by 21 May of Yamamoto's plans, including the Aleutian diversion, the strength of both Yamamoto's and Hosogaya's fleets, and that Hosogaya would open the fight on 1 June or shortly thereafter. Nimitz decided to confront both enemy fleets, retaining his three aircraft carriers for the Midway battle while sending a third of his surface fleet (Task Force 8) under Rear Adm. Robert A. Theobald to defend Alaska. Theobald was ordered to hold Dutch Harbor, a small naval facility in the eastern Aleutians, at all costs and to prevent the Japanese from gaining a foothold in Alaska.
Theobald's task force of 5 cruisers, 14 destroyers, and 6 submarines quietly left Pearl Harbor on 25 May to take a position in the Alaskan Sea 400 miles off Kodiak Island, there to wait for the arrival of Hosogaya's fleet. In the meantime Theobald established his headquarters on Kodiak and met with Maj. Gen. (later Lt. Gen.) Simon B. Buckner, Jr., the commander of the Army's Alaska Defense Command.
Command authority in the North Pacific Area was divided and cumbersome. Upon reaching Alaska, Theobald became commander of all Allied naval and air forces, authority over the ground forces, which remained under Buckner, with whom he was to work in a spirit of "mutual cooperation." While Theobald reported directly to Admiral Nimitz as his agent in the North Pacific Area, Buckner answered to the commander of the San Francisco-based Western Defense Command, Lt. Gen. John L. DeWitt, who was responsible for the defense of Alaska and western Canada. Any differences between Nimitz and DeWitt in the North Pacific Area would be referred to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) in Washington for resolution.
As of 1 June 1942, American military strength in Alaska stood at 45,000 men, with about 13,000 at Cold Bay (Fort Randall) on the tip of the Alaskan Peninsula and at two Aleutian bases: the naval facility at Dutch Harbor on Unalaska Island, 200 miles west of Cold Bay, and a recently built Army air base (Fort Glenn) 70 miles west of the naval station on Umnak Island. Army strength, less air force personnel, at those three bases totaled no more than 2,300, composed mainly of infantry, field and antiaircraft artillery troops, and a large construction engineer contingent, which had been rushed to the construction of bases.
On Theobald's arrival at Kodiak, he assumed control of the U.S. Army Air Corps' Eleventh Air Force, commanded by Brig. Gen. (later Maj. Gen.) William C. Butler. This force consisted of 10 heavy and 34 medium bombers and 95 fighters, divided between its main base, Elmendorf Airfield, in Anchorage, and at airfields at Cold Bay and on Umnak. Theobald charged Butler to locate the Japanese fleet reported heading toward Dutch Harbor and attack it with his bombers, concentrating on sinking Hosogaya's 2 aircraft carriers. Once the enemy planes were removed, Task Force 8 would engage the enemy fleet and destroy it.
On the afternoon of 2 June a naval patrol plane spotted the approaching enemy fleet, reporting its location as 800 miles southwest of Dutch Harbor. Theobald placed his entire command on full alert. Shortly thereafter bad weather set in, and no further sightings of the fleet were made that day.
Early the next morning, despite dense fog and rough seas, Hosogaya launched some of his aircraft to attack Dutch Harbor. Only half reached their objective. The rest either became lost in the fog and darkness and crashed into the sea or returned to their carriers. In all, seventeen planes found the naval base, the first arriving at 0545. As the Japanese pilots looked for targets to engage, they came under intense antiaircraft fire and soon found themselves confronted by U.S.
fighter planes sent from Fort Glenn on Umnak Island. Startled by the American response, they quickly released their bombs, made a cursory strafing run, and left to return to their carriers. As a result of their haste they did little damage to the base. But Hosogaya's fleet remained unlocated, and the U.S. planes based at Cold Harbor had received no word of the attack because of a communications failure.
The next day the Japanese returned to Dutch Harbor. This time the enemy pilots were better organized and better prepared. When the attack finally ended that afternoon, the base's oil storage tanks were ablaze, part of the hospital was demolished, and a beached barracks ship was damaged. Although American pilots had finally located the Japanese carriers, attempts to destroy them proved fruitless. As bad weather again set in, all contact with the enemy fleet was lost. In all, the Japanese raid claimed 43 U.S. lives, of which 33 were soldiers. Another 64 Americans were wounded. Eleven U.S. planes were downed, while the Japanese lost ten aircraft.
During the two-day fight, Task Force 8 had remained south of Kodiak Island, taking no part in the action. Not until the 5th did Theobald send it to investigate a report of enemy warships in the Bering Sea
heading south toward Unalaska Island, which he interpreted to be a landing force intent upon seizing Dutch Harbor. In the meantime, he instructed Butler to attack the enemy ships with all available aircraft. Rapidly developing clouds in the area where the enemy ships were reported prevented Butler's pilots from finding the enemy. Six recently assigned B-17 Flying Fortress bombers equipped with radar reported scoring hits upon enemy ships, but these later proved to be uninhabited islands in the Pribilofs chain-north of Dutch Harbor.
While Task Force 8 entered the Bering Sea, Hosogaya's fleet moved south to join Yamamoto, who had just suffered the loss of his four large carriers off Midway. Unable to lure U.S. surface ships into range of his battleships, Yamamoto ordered his fleet to return to Japan. Rather than have the Northern Area Fleet join him, Yamamoto now instructed Hosogaya to return to the Aleutians, execute his original mission, and thereby score a success to help compensate for the Midway disaster. Forgoing the planned attack on Adak, Hosogaya moved directly to the western Aleutians, occupying Kiska on 6 June and Attu a day later. He encountered no opposition on either island, but the Japanese public was in fact told that this was a great victory. It learned about the disaster at Midway only after the war was over.
At Japanese Imperial Headquarters, the news of Yamamoto's great loss prompted the dispatch of two aircraft carriers from Japan to reinforce Hosogaya. Having correctly anticipated Nimitz's next move-the dispatch, on 8 June, of his two carriers to destroy Hosogaya's fleet- Imperial Headquarters saw an opportunity to immobilize the U.S. Pacific Fleet by eliminating its only carriers. When Nimitz learned of the capture of Kiska, he countermanded his order. Unwilling to risk the loss of his only carriers in the Pacific to land-based planes from Kiska, and presumably informed that Hosogaya would soon have four carriers at his disposal in the North Pacific, he decided to retain his carriers for spearheading a major advance in the Central Pacific.
For the Japanese, Kiska without Midway no longer had any value as a base for patrolling the ocean between the Aleutian and Hawaiian chains, but Kiska and Attu did block the Americans from possibly using the Aleutians as a route for launching an offensive on Japan. Originally intending to abandon the islands before winter set in, the Japanese instead decided to stay and build airfields on both islands. Although Generals Buckner and DeWitt would in fact argue for a northern approach to Japan along the Aleutians, the real motive for planning the recapture of the two remote islands was mainly psychological-to remove the only Japanese foothold on American soil in the Western Hemisphere.
By mid-June the Joint Chiefs of Staff agreed that the sooner a determined effort was made to oust the Japanese from the Aleutians, the lesser the means required to do it would be. They also theorized that the attack on the Aleutians and the occupation of its westernmost islands might be part of a holding action designed to screen a northward thrust by Japanese forces into Siberia's maritime provinces and the Kamchatka Peninsula. As a result, they informed Theobald and Buckner of their concern about a possible Japanese attack upon the Soviet Union that might also include the occupation of St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea and of nearby Nome and its adjacent airfields on the Alaskan mainland.
Supporting the possibility of an invasion of the Alaskan mainland were reports of a Japanese fleet operating in the Bering Sea. On 20
June alone, three separate sightings placed an enemy fleet somewhere between the Pribilof and St. Lawrence Islands, suggesting that either an enemy raid on or an outright invasion of the Alaskan mainland was imminent, with Nome the likely objective. As a result, a sense of urgency bordering on panic set in that triggered what was to become the first mass airlift in American history. Within thirty-six hours, military as well as commandeered civilian aircraft flew nearly 2,300 troops to Nome, along with artillery and antiaircraft guns and several tons of other equipment and supplies. Not until early July- when U.S. intelligence reported with some certainty the departure of Hosogaya's fleet from the Bering Sea-did the threat of invasion of the Alaskan mainland decline, allowing for the redeployment of many of the troops hastily assembled at Nome.
In keeping with the Joint Chiefs' desire to move quickly to regain Kiska and Attu, Theobald and Buckner agreed to establish a series of airfields west of Umnak from which bombers could launch strikes against the closest of the enemy-held islands, Kiska. First to be occupied was Adak, 400 miles from Umnak. Landing unopposed on 30 August, an Army force of 4,500 secured the island. Engineers completed an airfield two weeks later, a remarkable feat that they were to duplicate again and again throughout the campaign. On 14 September U.S. B-24 heavy bombers took off from Adak to attack Kiska, 200 miles away. Repeated bombings of Kiska during the summer and into the fall convinced the Japanese that the Americans intended to recapture the island. As a result, by November they had increased their garrisons on Kiska and Attu to 4,000 and 1,000 men respectively. During the winter months the Japanese would count on darkness and the habitually poor weather to protect them from any serious attack.
Although continually restrained by the greater importance and more pressing needs of the Solomons and New Guinea Campaigns, the buildup of U.S. Army forces in the Alaska Command continued, reaching 94,000 soldiers by January 1943. By then an additional thirteen bases had been built in Alaska, many of which were in the Aleutians. With an unopposed Army landing on Amchitka Island on 11 January, Alaska Command forces were now within fifty miles of Kiska.
Just surviving the weather on Amchitka was a challenge. During the first night ashore, a "willowaw" (a violent squall) smashed many of the landing boats and swept a troop transport aground. On the second day a blizzard racked the island with snow, sleet, and biting wind. Lasting for nearly two weeks, the blizzard finally subsided enough to reveal to a Japanese scout plane from Kiska the American beachhead on Amchitka. Harassed by bombing and strafing attacks from Kiska, engineers continued work on an airfield on Amchitka completing it in mid-February. Japanese attacks on the island then sharply declined.
As U.S. forces came close to Kiska and Attu, the enemy's outposts became increasingly more difficult to resupply. In mid-March, Rear Adm. Thomas C. Kinkaid, who had replaced Admiral Theobald in January, established a naval blockade around the islands that resulted in the sinking or turning back of several enemy supply ships. When a large Japanese force, personally led by Admiral Hosogaya, attempted to run the blockade with 3 big transports loaded with supplies escorted by 4 heavy cruisers and 4 destroyers on 26 March, the largest sea fight of the Aleutian Campaign took place, remembered best as the last and longest daylight surface naval battle of fleet warfare. Known as the Battle of the Komandorski Islands, the closest land
mass in the Bering Sea, the smaller U.S. force compelled Hosogaya to retire without completing his mission and resulted in his removal from command. Henceforth, the garrisons at Attu and Kiska would have to rely upon meager supplies brought in by submarine.
Of the two islands, Kiska was the more important militarily. Containing the only operational airfield and having the better harbor, Kiska was scheduled to be recaptured first. For that purpose, Kinkaid asked for a reinforced infantry division (25,000 men). When not enough shipping could be made available to support so large a force, he recommended that Attu be substituted for Kiska as the objective, indicating that Attu was defended by no more than 500 men, as opposed to 9,000 believed to be on Kiska. If the estimate was correct, he indicated, he would require no more than a regiment to do the job. Kinkaid also noted that U.S. forces based on Attu would be astride the Japanese line of communications and thus in a position to cut off Kiska from supply and reinforcement, which in time would cause Kiska to "wither on the vine."
After gaining JCS approval on 1 April for the Attu operation (code-named SANDCRAB) and obtaining the needed shipping, work began to recapture the little, fog-shrouded island at the western end of the Aleutian chain. Attu is 35 miles long and 15 miles wide, with snow-capped peaks that reach upward to 3,000 feet. Steep slopes extend down from the peaks to treeless valleys below, carpeted with muskeg, a "black muck" covered with a dense growth of lichens and moss. Because the Japanese current has a moderating effect on temperatures, much of the time in the outermost Aleutians the muskeg is barely firm enough for a man to cross on foot. The same current accounts for the pea-soup fogs, the constant pervading wetness, and the frequent storms that make the outer Aleutians so forbidding.
Kinkaid, the commander of Northern Pacific Force, pulled together an imposing armada to support the invasion. In addition to an attack force of 3 battleships, a small aircraft carrier, and 7 destroyers for escorting and providing fire support for the Army landing force, he had 2 covering groups, composed of several cruisers, destroyers, and submarines, for early detection of a possible challenge by the Japanese Northern Area Fleet. Reinforcing the naval support, the Eleventh Air Force was to provide 54 bombers and 128 fighters for the operation, holding back a third of the bomber force for use against ships of the Japanese fleet.
Early in the planning phase, U.S. intelligence upgraded the estimated enemy strength on Attu threefold from its original figure of 500 men, prompting a request for additional forces. Because Buckner
had but a single infantry regiment in Alaska, widely dispersed throughout the territory, the War Department provided the needed troops from DeWitt's Western Defense Command, selecting the 7th Infantry Division, then stationed near Fort Ord, California, as the unit to recapture Attu. Trained as a motorized force and at one time scheduled for duty in the deserts of North Africa, the 7th Division was reported to be in a high state of readiness; because of its location near the coast, it could readily undergo the amphibious training required for its new mission. After completing that training during April 1943, the men of the division embarked from San Francisco on transports with their commander, Maj. Gen. Albert E. Brown.
Arriving at windswept, partially snow-covered Fort Randall (Cold Bay) on the 30th, the troops spent the next four days on the crowded transports. The cold, damp Aleutian weather was far different from the warm California beaches they had just left. Because of shortages in cold weather equipment, moreover, most of the men would enter combat wearing normal field gear. While senior commanders realized that the troops would suffer from the weather, most believed that within three days the fight for Attu would be
over, particularly since the assembled naval support for the landings included three battleships along with several cruisers and destroyers.
Three weeks before, a concerted air and naval bombardment of both Attu and Kiska had begun, but it had been largely limited to Kiska because of the continual fog covering Attu. Poor weather caused Kinkaid to postpone the departure of the invasion force from Cold Bay to 4 May, a day behind schedule, and as the convoy neared Attu storms and poor visibility forced yet a further delay until the 11th. The bad weather also seriously reduced the air and naval strikes against Attu.
Despite unremitting fog, the much-delayed assault opened on 11 May at widely separated points on the eastern portion of the island. In a predawn attack the 7th Scout Company paddled ashore from submarines onto a small beach (Beach SCARLET), nine miles northwest of Chichagof Harbor, the location of the main Japanese base and General Brown's ultimate objective. Meeting no opposition, the scout company moved inland. At noon, the 7th Division's reconnaissance troop (less one platoon) landed at SCARLET and moved to join the scout company. Upon linkup, the two units, which con-
stituted a provisional battalion, were to occupy the head of the valley where a pass gave access to one of the valleys leading back from Holtz Bay. In the meantime, at the end of the western arm of Holtz Bay, the 1st Battalion of the 17th Infantry came ashore at Beach RED. If the 1st Battalion encountered opposition when advancing on its first objective, a camel-back hill mass designated as "Hill X," the provisional battalion was to attack the enemy from the rear.
The men of the 1st Battalion, after passing through a rock-studded approach to Beach RED in landing craft, had to scale a steep escarpment that began about 75 yards from the water's edge and rose 200 to 250 feet above the beach. From there they started working their way down the west side of Holtz Bay virtually unopposed until 1800 when heavy enemy fire halted their advance short of Hill X.
When the 1st Battalion came ashore Beach RED, the main attack at Massacre Bay finally got under way as the 2d and 3d Battalion Combat Teams of the 17th Regiment landed unopposed on Beaches BLUE and YELLOW, approximately 6 miles south of Chichagof Harbor. Had the landing not been delayed because of dense fog and high seas, a third combat team-the 2d Battalion, 32d Infantry Regiment, attached to the 17th Regiment-would also have come ashore. As it was, that unit remained aboard ship until the next day.
Slowed by the slippery muskeg, the 2d and 3d Battalions stumbled side by side up Massacre Valley, dividing on either side of a hogback. Both battalions came under fire at 1900; part way up the ridges overlooking the valley, the enemy, occupying dug-in positions obscured in a thin mist, pinned them down. Attempts by the 3d Battalion, on the left (southwest), to reach Jarmin Pass, the regimental objective at the head of the valley, failed, resulting in heavy losses. (A platoon from the 7th Reconnaissance Troop made subsidiary landings at Alexai Point and joined the main body at Massacre Bay without opposition.)
The fog, which had hampered the landings, likewise concealed the attackers from the enemy. Not until midafternoon did the Japanese commander, Col. Yasuyo Yamazaki, order his men from their caves to the prepared outer defenses surrounding Chichagof Harbor, a trace that extended from Hill X on the west arm of Holtz Bay, southward to Jarmin Pass, and then eastward to Sarana Bay.
When General Brown came ashore at Massacre Bay toward the end of D-day, the tactical situation was far from clear, but what information was available would not have indicated that a long drawn-out struggle was in prospect. By 2130, five hours after the main landings commenced, he had a total of 3,500 men ashore; 400 at Beach
SCARLET, 1,100 at Beach RED, and 2,000 at Beaches BLUE and YELLOW. On the northern front, the 1st Battalion was close to Hill X and within twenty-four hours the 32d Regiment, with its 1st and 3d Battalions, was due to arrive from Adak. In the southern sector, the 2d Battalion of the 17th reported that it was within 1,000 yards of Sarana Pass, and the 3d Battalion indicated that it was about 600 yards short of Jarmin Pass. The next day, the 2d Battalion, 32d Regiment, on ship in Massacre Bay, was to come ashore to reinforce the 17th Regiment. If additional forces were needed, General Buckner had agreed to release the 4th Infantry Regiment, an Alaska unit, on Adak Island. Everything considered, it would not have been unreasonable to suppose that within a few days Attu would be taken.
The next day, with naval and air support, Brown's men continued their two-pronged attack toward Jarmin Pass. Frontal assaults from Massacre Bay by the 17th Infantry failed to gain ground. As patrols probed to develop enemy positions, the 2d Battalion, 32d Infantry, came ashore at Massacre Bay. In the meantime, in the northern sector, the 1st Battalion, finding the enemy dug in on Hill X, made a double envelopment which succeeded in gaining a foothold on the crest of the hill, but the Japanese held firm on the reverse slope. That night the first casualty report of the operation revealed that forty-four Americans had been killed since the start of the invasion.
Further efforts of the Massacre Bay force on the 13th to gain Jarmin Pass again failed, even with the 2d Battalion, 32d Infantry, entering the fight to reinforce the 3d Battalion, 17th Regiment. As U.S. losses continued to mount, front-line positions remained about the same as those gained on D-day. Vicious and costly fighting occurred to the north as the enemy attempted to drive the 1st Battalion troops from Hill X, but the crest remained firmly in American hands at nightfall. The 3d Battalion, 32d Regiment, by then had landed on Beach RED and was moving forward to reinforce the hard-pressed 1st Battalion on Hill X. Naval gunfire and air support of the ground troops continued insofar as weather conditions allowed.
Weather as well as the enemy continued to frustrate the American advance. Although surface ships continued to bombard reported enemy positions ashore on the 14th, close air support was extremely limited due to incessant fog that engulfed the island. In an attempt to hasten the capture of Jarmin Pass, Brown ordered a combined attack by his North and South Landing Forces, by then each with three battalions. While the South Landing Force attempted to inch forward up Massacre Valley to gain the pass, North Landing Force was
to drive the enemy off the reverse slope of Hill X, continue on to seize Moore Ridge, and then take Jarmin Pass from the rear.
Each attack quickly bogged down. In the northern sector the provisional battalion that had landed on Beach SCARLET remained checked, unable to break out to reach the immobile 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry, and when 3d Battalion, 32d Regiment, failed to reach its assault positions in time, Brown canceled the combined attack. That evening in a report to higher headquarters, he summarized the four days of fighting, concluding that "progress through passes will, unless we are extremely lucky, be slow and costly, and will require troops in excess to those now available to my command."
The next morning, the 15th, success remained elusive until 1100 when the fog lifted in the northern sector, revealing that the enemy had withdrawn to Moore Ridge in the center of Holtz Valley, leaving behind food and ammunition. The pullback by the Japanese allowed the provisional battalion to break out and eventually link up with the two battalions near Hill X. As the men of North Landing Force then entered the valley in chase, the relatively clear sky allowed enemy troops on occupying Moore Ridge to place accurate fire upon them. Already slowed by that fire, the pursuit ended when a friendly air strike hit advancing American troops by mistake.
Back on Adak, the forward command post for Admiral Kinkaid and General DeWitt, the reported situation at Attu appeared grim. Of special concern to Kinkaid was the exposed position of the ships directly supporting Brown's forces ashore. A Japanese submarine had already attacked (unsuccessfully) one of Kinkaid's three battleships, and reports persisted that a Japanese fleet would soon arrive to challenge the landing. As a result, Brown was told that the Navy would withdraw its support ships on the 16th, or in any event no later than the 17th, leaving him with an unprotected beachhead and a major reduction in supporting fire.
Communication problems between Brown and Kinkaid and DeWitt, located more than 400 miles away, coupled with Brown's continued requests of reinforcements-the latest, on the 15th, for part of Buckner's 4th Infantry Regiment-and a long dispatch requesting large quantities of engineer and road-building equipment, and the lack of any positive indications of a speedy breakthrough on Attu persuaded Kinkaid that Brown had bogged down. When he consulted with DeWitt and Buckner, both agreed with him that Brown should be replaced. Upon their recommendation, Kinkaid appointed Maj. Gen. Eugene M. Landrum to take command of Attu on the 16th.
An advance by North Landing Force broke the deadlock on Attu the same day Landrum assumed command. By then a foothold on the northern end of Moore Ridge had been won in the center of Holtz Valley, thereby gaining control of the entire ridge. The Japanese, greatly outnumbered by the Americans and in danger of being taken from the rear, withdrew that night (16-17 May) toward Chichagof Harbor for a final stand.
Well before dawn, troops controlled by the 32d Regiment in the northern sector moved forward and by daylight discovered that the enemy had gone. Patrols reported that the east arm of Holtz Bay was free of the enemy, allowing for much-needed resupply by sea. In the meantime, the 17th Regiment in the southern sector (at Massacre Valley) also found previously defended enemy positions abandoned, and it occupied Jarmin Pass.
The Japanese pullback to Chichagof Harbor followed by the linkup of U.S. forces on the 18th provided the turning point of the battle. While nearly another two weeks of hard, costly fighting remained, the uncertainty and frustration of the first few days on Attu never recurred. It was slow business taking the machine-gun and
mortar nests left manned on the heights by the retreating Japanese, but eventually the combined American force, reinforced with a battalion of the 4th Infantry, drew a net around Chichagof Harbor. The end came on the night of 29 May when most of the surviving Japanese, about 700 to 1,000 strong, charged madly through American lines, screaming, killing, and being killed. The next day the enemy announced the loss of Attu, as American units cleared out surviving enemy pockets. Although mopping-up operations continued for several days, organized resistance ended with the wild charge of 29 May, and Attu was once more in American hands.
The Americans reported finding 2,351 enemy dead on the island; an additional few hundred were presumed to have been buried in the hills by the Japanese. Only 28 Japanese surrendered. Out of a U.S. force that totaled more than 15,000 men, 549 had been killed, another 1,148 wounded, and about 2,100 men taken out of action by disease and nonbattle injuries. Trench foot was the most common affliction. Most of the nonbattle casualties were exposure cases, victims of the weather and inadequate clothing.
Taking heed of the Attu experience, Kinkaid sought to ensure that the final assault in the Aleutians, against Kiska, would be made with better-equipped and more seasoned soldiers. For the coming invasion his assault troops would wear clothing and footwear better suited for the cold weather; parkas were substituted for field jackets and arctic shoes for leather boots. The landing force would consist of either combat veterans from Attu or troops trained at Adak in the type of fighting that had developed on Attu.
U.S. intelligence now upgraded its earlier estimates of enemy strength on Kiska to about 10,000 men. In keeping with that increase, Kinkaid arranged for his ground commander, Maj. Gen. Charles H. Corlett, U.S. Army, to receive 34,426 troops, including 5,500 Canadians, more than double the original strength planned for the operation earlier in the year. Code-named COTTAGE, the operation was to begin on 15 August, onto an island 3 to 4 miles wide with a high, irregular ridge dividing its 22-mile length and with a defunct volcano at
its northern end. The Japanese had occupied only the central, eastern portion of the island, locating their main base and airfield at Kiska Harbor. They also had small garrisons on Little Kiska Island and south of the main harbor at Gertrude Cove.
Unlike Attu, Kiska was subjected to a heavy preinvasion bombardment. Reinforced during June and operating from new airfields (at Attu and nearby Shemya), the Eleventh Air Force dropped a total of 424 tons of bombs on Kiska during July. During the same month, a strong naval task force lobbed 330 tons of shells onto the island. The combined air and surface bombardment continued into August, interrupted only by bad weather.
Starting in late July, most pilots reported no signs of enemy activity on the island, although a few noted that they had still received light antiaircraft fire. These reports led intelligence analysts to conclude that the Japanese on Kiska had been evacuated (as was done from Guadalcanal six months before) or had taken to the hills. Convinced that the later contention was more probable, Kinkaid ordered the attack to take place as scheduled, noting that if the Japanese were not there the landings would be a "super dress rehearsal, good for training purposes," and the only foreseeable loss would be a sense of letdown by the highly keyed up troops.
Departing Adak, the staging area for the invasion, an amphibious force of nearly a hundred ships moved toward Kiska, reaching the island early on 15 August. Unlike the dense fog experienced at Attu on D-day, the seas were strangely calm and the weather unusually clear. After threatening to land at Gertrude's Cove on Kiska's east side of the island, Corlett's men went ashore on the west side of the island; by 1600 a total of 6,500 troops were ashore. The next day Canadian troops came ashore onto another beach farther north. As with the fight for Attu, the landings were unopposed. As Allied troops pushed inland, the weather returned to the more normal dense fog and chilling rain and wind. Veterans of the Attu campaign, in particular, expected that the enemy was waiting on the high ground above them to take them under fire.
The only guns that were fired, however, were those of friend against friend by mistake; partly on that account, casualties ashore during the first four days of the operation numbered 21 dead and 121 sick and wounded. The Navy lost 70 dead or missing and 47 wounded when the destroyer Amner Read struck a mine on 18 August. By the time the search of the island, including miles of tunnels, ended, American casualties totaled 313 men.
The Allies had attacked an uninhabited island. The entire enemy garrison of 5,183 men had slipped away unseen. To make the embarrassment complete, the Kiska evacuation had been carried out on 28 July, almost three weeks before the Allied landing. The original plan of the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters had been to withdraw the garrison gradually by submarine, but this scheme had been abandoned in late June because most of the submarines assigned to the operation had been lost or damaged. The Japanese also feared that by gradually weakening the garrison over a prolonged period, the operation might fail. It was then decided to evacuate the force at one time, in one movement, using cruisers and destroyers as transports. The date, at first set for early July, was postponed until 28 July. Between then and D-day, Kiska had been under attack and close surveillance by American naval units and the Eleventh Air Force, but the erroneous reports of flak and Japanese activity-which inexperienced observers brought back-had gone unquestioned. Surprise was achieved, but it was not the Japanese who were surprised.
On 24 August 1943, Corlett declared the island secure, marking the end of the Aleutian Islands Campaign. By year's end, American and Canadian troop strength in Alaska would drop from a high of about 144,000 to 113,000. By then the North Pacific Area had returned to complete Army control. During 1944 the Canadians would leave and U.S. Army strength in the Alaska Defense Command decrease to 63,000 men. Although interest in the theater waned, it was in the Aleutians that the United States won its first theater-wide victory in World War II, ending Japan's only campaign in the Western Hemisphere.
In clearing the Japanese invaders from the Aleutians, the objective had been partly to eliminate a potential military threat but mainly to eradicate a psychological blot. Japan's foothold in the Western Hemisphere was gone. Starting in June 1942 the Japanese had threatened America's northern flank. Fourteen months later the reverse was true, although the idea of using the western Aleutians as steppingstones to Japan had no official approval. General DeWitt and others from time to time urged an assault by this route upon Japan's Kurile Islands, but commitments to other theaters, and the desire of the Soviet Union not to have its neutrality with Japan compromised, thwarted sanction of the proposal.
From the Japanese perspective, however, the threat remained. The bored American troops stationed in the Aleutians during the
last two years of the war were not involved. But harassing attacks by the U.S. Eleventh Air Force from bases in the Aleutians against the Kurile Islands during that period resulted in Imperial Headquarters' maintaining a large defensive force in the area which, toward the war's end, amounted to about one-sixth of Japan's total air strength.
The centerpiece of the campaign was the battle for Attu. In terms of numbers engaged, Attu ranks as one of the most costly assaults-in the Pacific. For every 100 enemy found on the island, about 71 Americans were killed or wounded. The cost of taking Attu was thus second only to Iwo Jima. Of some consolation, the invasion of Rendova in the Solomon Islands during June proceeded well largely because of the struggle for Attu. In an attempt to either reinforce or evacuate Attu, the Japanese Imperial Headquarters had ordered the Fifth Fleet north from Truk in May to the western Aleutians, thereby greatly reducing Japanese naval strength in the Solomons area. While the fleet never reached the Aleutians, its absence from the Solomons allowed the American landings at Rendova to be virtually unopposed.
Stung by the brutal fight for Attu, Admiral Kinkaid sought to avert the same mistakes at Kiska. While the full-blown attack three months later upon the deserted island was an embarrassment, the detailed preparation for Kiska was worth the effort. Lessons learned by the Army in preparing and equipping troops to survive the rigors of combat in wretched weather and difficult mountain terrain would prove useful during the upcoming Italian campaign. Many amphibious warfare techniques developed during the Attu landings were refined for Kiska and were further improved and applied to advantage in later amphibious operations in the Pacific.
In one sense the departure of the Japanese from Kiska without a fight was unfortunate. It gave American commanders a false picture of what might be expected from the enemy when the odds were hopelessly against him. Instead of fighting to the death, as at Attu, he had faded into the fog without a struggle. But Attu, not Kiska, was to provide the pattern of future battles against the Japanese.
For those who wish to study the Aleutian Islands Campaign in more detail, the following official histories provide a carefully documented account of the operation: Stetson Conn, Rose C. Engelman, and Byron Fairchild, Guarding the United States and Its Outposts (1964); Samuel Eliot Morison, Aleutians, Gilberts, and Marshalls, June 1942-April 1944 (1964); and Wesley F. Craven and James L. Cate, eds., The Pacific: Guadalcanal to Saipan, August 1942 to July 1944 (1950), The Army Air Forces in World War II. The best known popular history of the campaign is Brian Garfield's The Thousand-Mile War: World War II in Alaska and the Aleutians (1969). Another book that provides a vivid account of the ground fighting on Attu, one with personal anecdotes from all ranks, is The Capture of Attu as Told by the Men Who Fought There (1944).
CMH Pub 72-6
Cover: The reinforcing 4th Infantry moves inland from Massacre Bay.
(DA photograph)


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Persephone was the Greek goddess of the Underworld and the wife of Hades. Romans identified Persephone with Proserpina. Hades fell in love with her at her first sight. He decided at once to carry her off to his kingdom.
Demeter was the mother of Persephone. She wandered the world in search of her daughter. When she learned her daughter's fate, she pleaded with Zeus to obtain the release of Persephone.
Unfortunately, Persephone had eaten some seeds of a fruit during her stay in the lower world, and this stopped her from leaving forever. After much crying and sadness, Persephone was allowed to spend half of each year on Earth with her mother, and the other half in the underworld. She became an allegory of death and rebirth of seasons.

subset: commoncrawl


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Profiling Dione's Wisps
PIA Number | PIA12608 |
Language |
Wispy terrain winds across the trailing hemisphere of Saturn's moon Dione in this Cassini view taken during the spacecraft's Jan. 27, 2010 non-targeted flyby.
Cassini came within about 45,000 kilometers (28,000 miles) of the moon during this flyby, but this image was acquired at a distance of approximately 137,000 kilometers (85,000 miles) from Dione. See Highest Resolution View of Dione for an older, closer view of Dione's wispy fractures. This view looks toward the anti-Saturn side and trailing hemisphere of Dione (1,123 kilometers, or 698 miles across). North on Dione is up.
The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Jan. 27, 2010. The view was obtained at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 38 degrees. Image scale is 819 meters (2,687 feet) per pixel.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov . The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org .
Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute


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… I would recommend watching. HERE is a link. {If the video is choppy for you, change Best to 480p in the bottom right of the screen}.
Right now {Saturday @ 10:45 PST}, it's still the first session. She was talking about how Project Life came about for her, what problems she was trying to solve as a busy working woman, etc.
Even if you don't do or "get" PROJECT LIFE, I highly recommend watching this FREE* series. They talk about memory keeping in general, the feelings and reasons behind it, and multiple ways to capture our beautiful lives.
– digital photography, getting better more meaningful pictures, iPhone photography
– organization for actual photos, digital photos, memorabilia, art work and homework, etc.
– much more
I have other things to do around here today but I plan to have it running in the background. I had it running in a window this week next to my work window so I've already caught most of it. But there is so much to learn here … plus I just love hearing people talk about scrapbooking! She tears up several times as do some of the audience members – one of my favorite things is hearing the emotional ties we have to this amazing hobby.
I have to say … I'm a real Becky fan after watching this series. For all the griping that may go on about product errors, company growing too fast, etc., she's just a real person, a real mom, going through all the same things we are, trying to do her best. Her love of family and memory keeping is so palpable and I really relate to that on a deep level.
*It's on a free rebroadcast right now but I think this is our last chance to watch it for free. It's an amazing opportunity. To purchase this course, it's either $99 or $149 depending upon when you buy it.
Are you watching? Please leave a comment about what you think of it!


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Perth Ultimate League FAQ
About: The Perth Ultimate League (PUL) is Perth's premier weekly competition managed by WA Ultimate. This mixed-team league has been running since 1998. Going through many different formats, it has been the backbone of developing Ultimate players and competition within Perth.
Welcome to the Perth Ultimate League (PUL) guide.
All you need to know about how to register a team for a league, registration opening and closing dates, "how-to" manuals, which websites are relevant, who to contact and much more! PUL is a mixed-gender competition hosted weekly at UWA Sports Park.
Guiding principles that determine league formats are based on team registration numbers:
- Up to 10 teams will be a single pool, round-robin variation followed by finals.
- 11-15 teams will be a two-pool system including round-robin followed by finals
- 16 teams plus will be set up to include a divisional structure determined by team strengths with relevant round-robin and finals formats.
- After reading this page you should have a solid understanding of how our league works. We have provided a simple checklist for key areas and a comprehensive guide follows.
Check List
- Have you got enough players to enter a mixed-gender team?
- Have all your players got a membership via www.afda.com?
- Have you registered your team on the registration site by the set deadline?
- Do you understand the league rules and requirements?
- Do you know how and when to make the team payment?
- Do you know how and when to submit rules accreditation proof?
- How to complete and submit game and spirit scores?
- How to record picks up and fill in players?
- How to find game fixtures?
- Who to contact if there are any issues?
Three websites to watch!
We work across three separate websites, this may seem confusing at first but it won't take long to get comfortable with the setup.
- WA Ultimate: This is our official WA site www.waultimate.com All information relevant to activities and the latest news here in Western Australia. This is where we advertise local league and tournaments unique to WA. Don't worry we always put direct links to registration pages in all our articles so you shouldn't have to go looking at an unfamiliar external site.
- AFDA: The Australian Flying Disc Association (AFDA), www.afda.com (this is our National Sporting Organisation) they take care of insurance, membership databases and event hosting registration systems. Every single tournament and league has a unique registration page specific to that event only. You not registered for an event unless you appear on the registration page for each league and tournament via this site.
- WFDF: The World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) website, www.wfdf.org (our international governing body). This site will be visited less frequently but it where players will need to be directed to in order to get their rules accreditation (more on this later in the help guide).
How to register a team for League?
Firstly all players on your team will need to become a member of WA Ultimate. Becoming a member is simple and free, each player needs to head to www.afda.com and join, see the link "How to become a member" below for more information. Once you are a member you can then either create a new team for a league, see How to enter a team, or you can register for an existing team, see How to register as an individual in an existing team. If you are the Captain or an Administrator of the team you will be able to add players to your roster using the email address they used when signing up, or simply by typing in their full name. To do this you will need to be logged into the AFDA website using your membership. Links for each leagues registration page can be found on the WA Ultimate website or you can search for them on the AFDA website. "How to" manuals are below to assist with registration:
Team Role Requirements
To help us contact the right people when required the following roles must be designated on the registration system
- Captain (main team contact for fixtures, finalising the registration process, payments, assuring their team is present and ready to play each week)
- Spirit Captain (see definition below)
Teams may appoint an Administrator or Team Manager role on the registration system to be the contact for team payments or be able to make changes to the team roster (if this is not specified then the default contact is the Captain).
Spirit of the Game (SOTG)
The core of Ultimate is the governing concept of SOTG. As a self-adjudicated sport, Spirit is the key that allows the competition to be conducted at any level, from social to elite play. Respect (for teammates, opponents and the rules of the game), sportsmanship, fair play and integrity are concepts of particular importance.
Spirit Captain
The Spirit Captain role is separate from the role of Team Captain. The Spirit Captain must be committed to upholding the ethos of SOTG while focusing on helping their team to be rated as one of the most spirited teams in the competition, and potentially win the Spirit of the Game award. About the Spirit Captain:
- The tasks of the Spirit Captain are only undertaken when they are OFF THE FIELD
- The Spirit Captain should always be open to discussion regarding the rules
- The Spirit Captain should possess a solid understanding of the rules of play.
- Coordinate the discussion and collection of the Spirit score for the opposing team following each match
- Be the point of contact for your team for all matters relating to Spirit of the Game
- They do not hold the position of Team Captain or Team Manager
- They should be able to maintain a clear, calm, objective view of the game
- They should be willing and able to approach opposing Spirit Captains and their own players and communicate clearly and respectfully in a pressure situation.
Spirit of the Game Scoring System
Your whole team should be consulted when determining a score for your opposition. Determine the score in each of the five categories and sum up the points to determine the SOTG score for the other team. Most scores will be between 8-13 pts. A "2" in any category is considered normal - you award or subtract points based on the examples provided in the help sheet. "10" is a good, average score.
There are five (5) key areas you will address when rating your opposition for the game you just played. Each category is rated out of a total of 4 points and will determine a final score out of 20 for your opponent.
- Rules Knowledge and Use - Examples: They did not purposefully misinterpret the rules. They kept to time limits. When they didn't know the rules they showed a real willingness to learn
- Fouls and Body Contact - Examples: They avoided fouling, contact, and dangerous plays.
- Fair-Mindedness - Examples: They apologised in situations where it was appropriate, informed teammates about wrong/unnecessary calls. Only called significant breaches
- Positive Attitude and Self-Control - Examples: They were polite. They played with appropriate intensity irrespective of the score. They left an overall positive impression during and after the game
- Communication - Examples: They communicated respectfully. They listened. They kept to discussion time limits
Spirit of the Game scoring help sheet can be downloaded here.
All teams are expected to pay their fees by the start of round three in any Perth Ultimate League. This is done in one team payment. Pricing structure and deadlines are clearly outlined in each registration article link on both websites we work with.
Insurance is included in your team fee and is a mandatory portion charged by the Australian Flying Disc Association to cover insurance. Only players that are registered on the AFDA league registration page will be covered by insurance. Please ensure any player that plays for your team, whether for one game or more, is registered on the AFDA league registration page. Players can be registered at any time during the league. A breakdown of coverage and links to claim forms and procedures can be found here.
Discussion and informal communication relating to the Perth Ultimate League and local events. Forget your cleats, need players, general Perth related events & items - then check in here. Formal communication will still occur via formal methods as per usual. THINK BEFORE YOU WRITE - Any negative or abusive actions will result in members banned from this group. Request to join here.
WA Ultimate produces a monthly e-newsletter. It is highly recommended that all members subscribe to this newsletter to ensure they are kept up to date with all the latest news and announcements. You can subscribe here.
League Rules
Information on format, duration, forfeits and general rules of play for the Perth Ultimate League can all be found here. It is every players' responsibility to be aware of the rules that govern the competition they take part in.
Fixtures and score updates are all advertised on the WA Ultimate website. Simply head to www.waultimate.com and click the "Events" heading and select the league you are playing in.
Whilst not ideal for anyone involved, from time to time, circumstances may lead to a team needing to forfeit. As soon as you know your team needs to forfeit you need to email the League Director and notify them of the situation. The League Director will assist you with notifying your opposition team. Please note there are penalties associated with a forfeit and they are outlined in the League rules here.
Submitting Scores
All scores are submitted online. The League Director will provide a link to Captains in order to be able to make your submission by the deadline each week. Failure to submit scores on time will incur penalties. The link to the score sheet is also included on the fixtures page on the WA Ultimate website. Simply head to www.waultimate.com and click the "Events" heading and select the league you are playing in. Example score sheet can be found here to help you be familiar with the process.
Game Advisors and Line Assistants
From time to time we have Game Advisors and Line Assistants that use Perth Ultimate League games for training purposes. Ideally, you will never even notice them. Their role is to provide game support only. As Ultimate is a self-officiated sport they hold no other role other than to assist and communicate on-pitch activities during the game. They use hand signals to echo calls made by players and can be called upon to clarify rules. Their advice is NON-BINDING, you do not have to accept any advice they give you however it may assist your team in rules knowledge and make the playing experience better for all. They will ALWAYS introduce themselves and clarify their role prior to a game starting.
Mixed-gender, how does it work?
The Perth Ultimate League is a 7-a-side mixed gender competition. The assumed ratio is 4 male and 3 females OR 3 male and 4 females on the pitch for any one point. We decide the gender split based on the following:
At the start of the game, after the first disc flip, an additional disc flip happens with the winner selecting the gender ratio for the first point. For the second and third points, the ratio must be the reverse of the first point. For the fourth and fifth points, the ratio must be the same as the first point. This pattern of alternating the ratio every two points repeats until the end of the game.
Roster Size
The minimum roster size is nine (9). It is recommended that you aim to have at least one (1) extra male and one (1) extra female substitution outside the standard seven (7) to ensure your team is able to play the whole game.
Uniform Requirements
The minimum uniform standard for the league is that all players wear a matching colour t-shirt E.G. if your team elects to be red then BE RED - not shades of light pink to dark pink. It is advised to pack an alternative in your bag just in case. Navy blue v black is not always easy to differentiate under lights. Shoes are NOT negotiable. All players must have appropriate footwear to take part in our league. Sneakers are more than adequate however you will notice that many players wear cleats (football/soccer boots) given the game requires you to change direction often and the studs help with this. Please note, no metal studs are allowed.
Rules Accreditation
All teams must have at least one (1) player with advanced rules accreditation and at least four (4) players with standard rules accreditation. The proof is to be submitted to the League Director by week four (4) for any Perth Ultimate League. A rules accreditation lasts for 18 months so for each league you do not need to retake the test if you are already accredited but you must submit proof of accreditation of your whole team for each league you take part in. In order to check the status of your teammates' accreditation, you will need their WFDF ID number (help below).
Players can gain accreditation at http://rules.wfdf.org/accreditation
Players can register to login at http://rules.wfdf.org/register
Your league director will request the certificate copies from each team as proof of Accreditation.


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Chinese state media are expressing concern over the latest U.S. defense plan, warning that it could damage U.S.-Chinese relations.
The Communist Party-affiliated Global Times newspaper quoted a Chinese defense expert Friday saying the U.S. blueprint announced a day earlier is clearly targeted at China.
The newspaper quoted Renmin University analyst Jin Canrong saying the United States feels threatened by China's rapid development. He warned the new American strategy will make Beijing uncomfortable and could affect bilateral relations.
U.S. President Barack Obama announced the reorganization Thursday. He said the United States will strengthen its presence in the Asia Pacific region even as it cuts billions of dollars from overall defense spending.
The announcement came amid a major buildup in the capabilities of China's military, which in the last year tested its first aircraft carrier and its first stealth fighter jet. Chinese forces are engaged this week in major exercises in Fujian and Liaoning provinces and in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
China's official Xinhua news agency also commented on the U.S. defense plan, saying the United States is welcome to contribute to peace and stability in the region, but that any militarism will cause ill will and be met by strong opposition.
In its generally restrained commentary, Xinhua said the United States should abstain from flexing its muscles as this will not help solve regional disputes.
Some Western analysts also see the U.S. defense plan as aimed at least in part at countering China's growing power.
Britain's influential newspaper, The Times, reported Friday that, with the reorganization, President Barack Obama was sending "a clear warning signal to China."
The U.S.-based Associated Press news agency, meanwhile, published an analysis saying the new defense strategy was intended to focus on Asian security risks - mainly China and North Korea.


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Lingqu Canal
National Commission of the People's Republic of China for UNESCO
Xing'an County, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region
The Tentative Lists of States Parties are published by the World Heritage Centre at its website and/or in working documents in order to ensure transparency, access to information and to facilitate harmonization of Tentative Lists at regional and thematic levels.
The sole responsibility for the content of each Tentative List lies with the State Party concerned. The publication of the Tentative Lists does not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever of the World Heritage Committee or of the World Heritage Centre or of the Secretariat of UNESCO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its boundaries.
Property names are listed in the language in which they have been submitted by the State Party
The Lingqu Canal, also known as Dou Canal or Xing'an Canal, is located in Xing'an County, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. It is an ancient canal that connects the Xiang River and Li River, joins the Yangtze River Basin and Pearl River Basin and links up Central China and Lingnan region. Its overall length is 36.4 km running through towns of Xing'an, Yan'guan, Rongjiang and Xiang'li. Its main projects include the Canal Head Complex, the South Canal and the North Canal.
After the Qin Empire unified China, Shi Lu was assigned by Emperor Qinshihuang to build a canal for grain transport. The project was completed in 214 B.C., which is known as the Lingqu Canal today. It has directly secured the South China with military significance. The Canal has been in service for over 2000 years as the major water transport route between Lingnan (today's Guangdong and Guangxi) and Central China till completion of the Yuehan Railway and Xianggui Railway in modern times.
The Canal's main design philosophy is to use weirs to elevate water level of the Xiang River, and they further divert one stream (today's South Canal) into an upper branch of Li River and directs another stream through a new canal (today's North Canal) which meanders into Xiang River. In this way, the two rivers are connected to allow communication between the river systems of the Yangtze and the Pearl River. At the canal head, overflow dams, training dikes and side overflow dams are used to divert water and control flood. Moreover, the Canal was built by combing excavation and dam construction, the degree of slope is eased by curves, use of water was controlled by Doumen(ancient locks) and weirs, and existing natural waterway (former course of Xiang River) was utilized or new canals were dug to discharge flood. This is a comprehensive project with multiple hydraulic facilities and making use of all available natural resources. It exhibits the distinctive style and the scientific achievements of ancient Chinese hydraulic projects.
The Lingqu Canal was also built as an irrigation project which turned Xing'an an agriculturally developed area. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Canal was completely renovated and well preserved as an ancient project. Though it no longer serves navigation and the irrigation function is weakened, related waterways and hydraulic facilities are preserved. Today, the Lingqu Canal stands as an important cultural heritage and a multifunctional hydraulic project serving irrigation, flood control, water supply and tourism.
The technological system created by the Lingqu Canal is of great significance in the world history of canal. It is the evidence for the unique canal technology of ancient China, and an outstanding example of early canals that reflect the Asian hydraulic technology and navigation technology of ancient civilizations. It has innovative and representative achievements in design of a mountain-crossing canal, curved navigation route with locks, and accurate control over water flow by comprehensive hydraulic facilities. Constructed in 214 B.C., it had vital importance for the success of the Qin Empire's conquest of Baiyue ethnic group and Lingnan region, and helped maintain stability in the southern territory of a unified multinational country. Meanwhile, as a typical example of Chinese ancient canal landscapes, the unique landform and winding waterways as well as the rurality of the Lingqu Canal have great aesthetic value.
Justification of Outstanding Universal Value
The technology system created with the construction of the Lingqu Canal is of great significance in the world history of canal. It is the evidence for the uniqueness of canal technology of ancient China, and an outstanding example of early canals that reflect the Asian hydraulic and navigation technology of ancient civilization. It has innovative and representative achievements in design of a mountain-crossing canal, curved navigation route with locks, and accurate control over water flow by comprehensive hydraulic facilities. In addition, it integrates navigation, irrigation and flood control functions and is an outstanding example of comprehensive, sustainable and effective use of natural resources in traditional Chinese agricultural society. Constructed in 214 B.C., it had vital importance for the success of the Qin Empire's conquest of Baiyue ethnic group and Lingnan region, and helped maintain stability in the southern territory of a unified multinational country. Meanwhile, as a typical example of Chinese ancient canal landscapes, the unique landform and winding waterways as well as the rurality of the Lingqu Canal have great aesthetic value.
Criterion (i): The site selection, planning and design of the Lingqu Canal reflect the ancient Chinese people's creativity in building canals. From the perspective of location and concept, the Canal sits at the "Five Mountains" region in south China and links up the Xiang River in the north and the Li River in the south of the mountains, thus successfully connects the water systems of the Yangtze and the Pearl River. It is not only the first mountain-crossing canal in the world but also one of the earliest successful practices in human history in connecting two different water systems through an artificial canal. From the perspective of design of navigation routes, it uses curves with locks to ensure water depth and speed of water flow for navigation demands. The concept of "curves with locks" was originated from China with the Lingqu Canal as the earliest existing application and technical representative.
Criterion (iv): Constructed since 214 B.C., the Lingqu Canal is an outstanding example of Chinese canal transportation technology in the Qin Dynasty, a rare example and masterpiece of the ancient canal transportation technology in Asia and even the world, and an outstanding example of comprehensive, sustainable and effective use of water and land resources in Chinese traditional agricultural society. Its main technological feature lies in its use of water resources. The hydraulic facilities are simple but fully operational to accurately control water flow and serve navigation purpose as well as irrigation and flood control. Supplementation, reduction and renovation of hydraulic facilities and historical evolution of irrigation branches, ponds and surrounding farmlands explain how Chinese ancient comprehensive hydraulic technology constantly renovated and formed its distinctive system along with natural and social evolution over 2000 years. On the other hand, the winding waterways gradually blends with surrounding natural and cultural settings and forms unique landscape, making the Lingqu Canal an outstanding example of rural canal landscapes in Chinese traditional agricultural civilization.
Criterion (vi): The construction of the Lingqu Canal was closely related to the military conquest of the Lingnan region by the Qin Empire. It witnessed the important historical progress that the Central China Dynasty conquered the Baiyue ethnic group in the south and achieved stability of the southern territory, a vital moment of the history of Asia and even of the world when Chinese agricultural civilization expanded and reached a unified empire.
Statements of authenticity and/or integrity
The nominated property of the Lingqu Canal meets the requirements on authenticity specified in the Operational Guidelines. It also meets the requirements of the Information Document on Heritage Canals (Experts meeting, Canada, 1994) on canal authenticity. In terms of design and form, the most distinctive heritage elements of the entire project design including naturally bending waterways, water diversion complexes, overflow dams and discharge channels for flood discharge, Doumen and weirs generally stay in the form of the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China; in terms of material, original materials are used in hydraulic facilities and the modern restorations also showed respect to the history; in terms of function, the overall hydraulic system remains its ancient functions, and the water diversion system, flood discharge system, irrigation system and water elevation facility operate as usual, and most canal sections are capable for navigation; in terms of tradition, techniques and management system, the ancient navigation system, management system and rules as well as production/construction techniques of some hydraulic facilities are conserved in historical files or research papers; in terms of location and setting, most heritage elements are preserved in original locations; in terms of spirit and emotion, the Lingqu Canal has become an important spirit symbol for the regional community and the unification of China witnessed by the Canal has become an important element of Chinese people's sense of pride. To sum up, the Lingqu Canal has high authenticity in all aspects.
The nominated property of the Lingqu Canal meets the requirements on integrity specified in the Operational Guidelines. First of all, the hydraulic system of the Canal has all the core elements supporting its function. Second, the whole Canal is linked up for traffic whilst each section of the Canal remains intact, and hydraulic facilities, except the dismountable components (locks) of Doumen and weirs and some missing components (e.g. some posts of Doumen), are preserved with sufficient scale and fully operational. Third, the overall property is not under urgent and severe threat. Traditional agricultural production and ecological landscape are preserved in most of the region. In some areas (e.g. inside the Xing'an County) with pressure of urbanization, regulations and plans have been developed for effective conservation.
Comparison with other similar properties
From a technological perspective, we see nine waterways (including canals) inscribed on the World Heritage List or the Tentative List. They represent three technology systems from different periods and civilizations, namely the Western canal technology from the industrial revolution, the Middle East irrigation technology, and the ancient Chinese canal (and irrigation) technology. According to the International Canal Monument List, the technology of the Lingqu Canal is representative in time and region and is an outstanding example of ancient Chinese canal technology. It has many noteworthy features – durability, geographical flexibility, adaptable hydraulic structures, the emphasis on accurate water flow control to cope with rainy and dry seasons, and the integrated navigation, irrigation and flood discharge functions. All features mentioned above prove that the Lingqu Canal has a unique technology system that can distinguish it from the waterways in the West, Africa, Middle East and South Asia. Comparison with hydraulic heritage inscribed on the List of World Heritages or the Tentative List in China reveals that: first, the Lingqu Canal is the precursor to later mountain-crossing canals; second, it always balances functions of transportation, irrigation and flood control and optimizes use of water resources. Comparatively, the Grand Canal and the Dujiangyan System in China emphasize one function (either transportation or irrigation), therefore are left behind of the Lingqu Canal in terms of coordination and comprehensive use of water resource; third, the Lingqu Canal typically exhibits the navigation principle of "curves with locks" which is more distinctive and representative compared with other domestic and international cases.
From a historical perspective, it was the Chinese people who first used canals for military purpose. This idea hadn't been widely accepted in the West until modern times. The Lingqu Canal stands as a forerunner and excellent example of military canals. In China, the Grand Canal also had military function which, however, was secondary comparing with transport function and was limited in certain sections of the canal. The entire Lingqu Canal was designed to serve the military strategy for conquest and was directly associated to the conquest of Lingnan region. Therefore it is more typical as a military canal.
From a scenic perspective, the curves of the Lingqu Canal can offer a different voyage. Seldom canal heritages have such curves to form similar landscape. In addition, from the perspective of landscape elements, the Western canals mostly reflect classical aesthetics or industrial beauty; the waterways in the Middle East reflect a unique landscape based on its geographical features (desert); the Lingqu Canal, however, has perfectly blended the waterways with its surrounding environment to present a picture of harmony between the nature and Chinese farming tradition.
In conclusion, the Lingqu Canal has its outstanding universal value supported by above mentioned comparative analysis.


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Lesson plans for ages 15-18 in Geography: Internally Displaced People
Lesson plans for ages 15-18 in Geography: Internally Displaced People
Refugees and other civilians who are affected by fighting have moved from the periphery to the centre stage of wars. Forced human displacement has become a dominant factor that complicates the outcome of conflicts and the stability of peace. Forcing people to abandon their homes has become one of the objectives of war with a view to re-engineering the ethnic or political composition of entire areas, and thus serve long-term political objectives even after conflicts have ended. Internal displacement, as opposed to movements of refugees across borders, is a growing phenomenon, and the complexity of contemporary conflicts is reflected in the increasingly complicated patterns of forced population movements
In this module of lessons, students will realise that not all people who are forced by conflict to leave their homes are considered refugees. They will learn that there are international legal differences between a refugee and an internally displaced person. But they will see that the ever-increasing numbers of individuals who fall into either category have similar needs for protection and assistance, from UN and non-government aid agencies, from the international community, as well as from their own governments.


text: Connection CardThank you for connecting with us. We would love to answer any questions you may have and have a free gift for you for taking the time to give us some information. Name* First Last Email* PhoneI would like to: Get more information about the church. Learn more about Jesus. Have a staff member contact me. Ask some general questions. How Can We Help You? Δ


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Summer is officially over, and I've had my first two days with students. I needed a name refresher activity that my students would enjoy, and "Jump In, Jump Out" was the perfect start to our school year. When a sixth grade student lingers after class, beams, and exclaims, "Thank you! That was SO much fun," you know you've picked well.
There are different versions of the poem floating around, and there are different ways to perform it. I usually tweak things a bit, so I came up with the following format:
Jump in, jump out! Turn yourself around.
I said, jump in, jump out! Introduce yourself.
Soloist: (Class)
My name is__________ (yeah)
And I like __________ (yeah)
And I can __________ (yeah)
All right, all right, all right!
Circle game:
- Jump in, jump out: everyone jumps in the circle and back out
- Turn yourself around – turn in place one time
- Jump in, jump out (repeat as before)
- Introduce yourself – one student steps to the center of the circle to speak the solo part. (I placed a polyspot in the center and instructed children to step to the spot to speak.)
- Class answers each statement with, "Yeah" and copies the action of the soloist on "All right, all right, all right!"
- Repeat poem with the next person in the circle stepping forward as the soloist. Continue until everyone has had a turn. Students can add claps or teacher can add a drum to help them speak in rhythm.
Here is a video of 4th graders and 6th graders demonstrating the game:
I created a PowerPoint presentation with a few examples for students to read and practice speaking in rhythm. I displayed the final slide with blanks for them while they played so the soloist could look at the lyrics if they needed assistance.
The complete PowerPoint presentation is available at my TpT Store:
Teaching Process:
The complete PowerPoint presentation is available at my TpT Store:
Teaching Process:
- Teach poem by rote, using the first lyric slide and completing the blanks with personal information. Demonstrate speaking in rhythm and performing an action on the "I can" statement.
- Lead the class in reading the next 3 slides together in rhythm. Divide into two groups and take turns reading the solo and class parts. Point out the option of "My name is" or "My name's," depending on which works best with the name.
- Display the final slide with blanks. Instruct students to think of what they plan to say for each blank. Remind them the "I can" statement should include a movement for students to copy. They should silently practice speaking the poem in rhythm while they wait for everyone to get ready. Students could also practice with a partner to make sure they are prepared with good choices.
All in all, "Jump In, Jump Out" was a great way to start back to school with my 4th-6th grade classes. Thinking about using this game with your students? I suggest that you go ahead and "Jump In!"


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With the Macarena long past, a new European dance craze is set to invade U.S. shores.
The Tecktonik began just outside Paris — and is spreading to nightclubs and onto the streets across Europe.
At the Metropolis, one of the biggest nightclubs in the Paris region, the music goes by a lot of different names. Electro. Jump style. Hard style. Hard core. But the only dance is the Tecktonik.
The customers at the club are mostly in their teens and early 20s, middle class, and from every ethnic background. They look as if they were raised by Madonna and Marilyn Manson.
Neon colors are the order of the day, as are slim jeans, tiny T-shirts and outrageous haircuts — a cross between a mohawk and a mullet.
The Tecktonik, involving a lot of arm movements, is all the rage.
Explaining the Dance
"I move my hands up in the right, in the left, put your hands up for Detroit, on every side," says patron Vlad Vladsy.
Others try to explain the dance in their own ways.
Jeremy Vachayeiu says it's sort of like you're an elastic band.
Fabien Amadeau says it's like a windmill. He says it's a mix of a lot of different dances – vogue-ing, hip hop, the moonwalk, smurfing — and the point is pure hedonism.
Any sort of accident or catastrophe could happen to our generation at any time, he says. So this dance is a way of living life to the fullest, in case we're not here tomorrow or two days from now, he adds.
Growing Popularity
Seven years ago, Tecktonik was limited to a few dance clubs in Paris. It moved into the mainstream about a year ago, when dancers started posting videos of themselves on DailyMotion and YouTube.
In one video explaining the dance, the dancer says "you need big sunglasses, a ridiculous haircut, a flashy belt and a tight T-shirt. And above all you must know how to move your body."
Now, the Tecktonik is also a fashion movement and a brand name. There's a Tecktonic brand T-shirt and a Tecktonik haircut — the official version of the mohawk-mullet cross costs $140. Soon there'll even be a Tecktonik brand mobile phone.
The dance also has moved onto the street. Here on the square at the Trocadero in Paris, dozens of dancers gather every Saturday afternoon to make up and share new moves.
Narcos Vidrine, 21, says he and his friends don't just dance for pleasure. They dance because they want to prove something, that they're better than others. But instead of fighting with fists, they fight with the dance.
And then there are the apprentices. Riot Jimere, 11, has been dancing since November. He says he really likes dancing, but that he gets exhausted if he dances too much.
Jimere and his friends can already be seen on the Internet.
Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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by Elizabeth Bishop
At six o'clock we were waiting for coffee,
waiting for coffee and the charitable crumb
that was going to be served from a certain balcony
—like kings of old, or like a miracle.
It was still dark. One foot of the sun
steadied itself on a long ripple in the river.
The first ferry of the day had just crossed the river.
It was so cold we hoped that the coffee
would be very hot, seeing that the sun
was not going to warm us; and that the crumb
would be a loaf each, buttered, by a miracle.
At seven a man stepped out on the balcony.
He stood for a minute alone on the balcony
looking over our heads toward the river.
A servant handed him the makings of a miracle,
consisting of one lone cup of coffee
and one roll, which he proceeded to crumb,
his head, so to speak, in the clouds—along with the sun.
Was the man crazy? What under the sun
was he trying to do, up there on his balcony!
Each man received one rather hard crumb,
which some flicked scornfully into the river,
and, in a cup, one drop of the coffee.
Some of us stood around, waiting for the miracle.
I can tell what I saw next; it was not a miracle.
A beautiful villa stood in the sun
and from its doors came the smell of hot coffee.
In front, a baroque white plaster balcony
added by birds, who nest along the river,
—I saw it with one eye close to the crumb—
and galleries and marble chambers. My crumb
my mansion, made for me by a miracle,
through ages, by insects, birds, and the river
working the stone. Every day, in the sun,
at breakfast time I sit on my balcony
with my feet up, and drink gallons of coffee.
We licked up the crumb and swallowed the coffee.
A window across the river caught the sun
as if the miracle were working, on the wrong balcony.
Last updated November 21, 2022


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I'm making a declaration – The Law of Two Feet will apply to all aspects of my life for the entire month of November.
I learned about the Law of Two Feet at my first Podcamp (now called TechPhx). At this unconference, it is perfectly acceptable to leave in the middle of a session if your needs aren't being met in the session you're sitting in. The responsibility is on you to get your needs met and to take action if that's not happening.
Over the past few weeks I've found myself in situations where I realize 10 minutes into a meeting or an event that it's not what I thought it was going to be and there was no benefit or point for me to be there. I wanted to leave, but I didn't know how to excuse myself without feeling like I was being rude.
This month I'm going to figure that out. If I feel like my presence at a meeting or event was unproductive, I'm going to take myself somewhere else.
This is going to be like an assignment I got when I was taking improv acting at Jester'z. For a week we had to act on every impulse we had as long as it wasn't going to get us fired or arrested. I was a 3L at the time so that week I walked out of meetings, wrote weird things on white boards, and randomly sat on tables.
This is going to be fun. Feel free to join me in this endeavor and let me know how it goes!


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Bryan had it made. With help from The Jewish Agency for Israel, he fulfilled his dream of trading LA smog for clean Galilee air. Every day, he returned from work to greet his wife and children, and grab a cold brew from a stocked fridge. Life was ideal.
Then it happened. Celiac disease, which left Bryan unable to enjoy his favorite drink. But when life gave this relentless optimist a severe gluten intolerance, he decided to brew gluten-free beer from Israeli staples like dates, buckwheat, and chickpeas.
Once again, The Jewish Agency was there to help him make his dream come true. Their Small Business Loan Fund helped him—like more than thousand other Israeli entrepreneurs—expand his business, Meadan Craft Brewing, which sold 40,000 bottles during Passover alone last year. This year, he expects that number to triple.
Image courtesy Meadan Brewing, Ltd. and The Jewish Agency for Israel.


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Snack Cup (Mustard)
Kids love snacking independently and Eizzy portable snack cups are essential tools for the adventurous child. This collapsible, silicone cup is designed with a secure, reach-through lid that prevents spills, making it great for snacking on-the-go. The handle is designed for small, grabbing hands and for meticulous adult ones alike. This antibacterial, BPA-free cup makes snack time tidier and convenient, leaving for more time to play.
- Foldable, space-saving design
- Secure, reach-through lid designed to prevent messes
- Hygienic, dust-resistant lid
- Easy open and lock features to add snack and meal items
- Antibacterial, BPA-free, PVC-free, food-grade FDA silicone
- Lightweight, ergonomically-designed handle
- A greener, eco-friendly alternative to disposable sandwich bags
Material: 100% silicone
Increased Durability: This well-designed/seamlessly connected tumbler is hard to break, unlike plastic parts on other snack cups.
Cleaning Instructions: Top-drawer dishwasher safe, freezer safe, microwave safe. Stains can be removed by washing with hot soapy water.
Eizzy cleaning pro-tip: Collapse the cup before placing it in the dishwasher's top drawer for a soapy, deep crevice steam-cleaning.


text:
Achievement and Attainment in Chicago Charter Schools
Published Apr 27, 2008
This document has been superseded.
Go to superseding documentThis report is part of the RAND technical report series. RAND technical reports may include research findings on a specific topic that is limited in scope or intended for a narrow audience; present discussions of the methodology employed in research; provide literature reviews, survey instruments, modeling exercises, guidelines for practitioners and research professionals, and supporting documentation; or deliver preliminary findings. All RAND reports undergo rigorous peer review to ensure that they meet high standards for research quality and objectivity.
RAND is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.