Kiska Totally Explained

Everything about Kiska Island totally explained

Kiska (Qisxa in Aleut) is an island in the Rat Islands group of the Aleutian Islands of Alaska located at 52.1° N, 177.6° E. It is about 22 miles (35 km) long and varies in width from 1.5 to 6 miles (2.4–9.7 km)

Discovery

While returning from his second voyage, explorer Vitus Bering discovered most of the Aleutian Islands including Kiska. Georg Wilhelm Steller, a naturalist-physician onboard, wrote:
ť "On 25 October 1741 we'd very clear weather and sunshine, but even so it hailed at various times in the afternoon. We were surprised in the morning to discover a large tall island at 51° to the north of us."

Kiska, the Aleutians, and mainland Alaska would later become fur outposts for the Russian-American Company managed by Grigory Shelikhov, starting in 1775 .
In 1867, U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward negotiated the purchase of Alaska, and with it Kiska, from Russia for the United States.

World War II

The Japanese No. 3 Special Landing Party and 500 marines went ashore at Kiska on June 6, 1942 as a diversionary part of the Japanese plan for the Battle of Midway. The Japanese captured the sole inhabitants of the island: a small U.S. Navy Weather Detachment consisting of ten men, including a lieutenant, along with their dog. One member of the detachment escaped for 50 days. Starving, thin, and extremely cold, he eventually surrendered to the Japanese. The next day the Japanese captured Attu Island.
   The military importance of this difficult-to-supply frozen island was questionable, but the psychological impact upon the Americans of losing U.S. territory was tangible. During the winter of 1942–43, the Japanese reinforced and fortified the islands—not necessarily to prepare for an island-hopping operation across the Aleutians, but to prevent a U.S. operation across the Kuril Islands. The U.S. Navy began operations to deny Kiska supply which would lead to the Battle of the Komandorski Islands. During October 1942, American forces undertook seven bombing missions over Kiska, though two were aborted due to inclement weather. Following the winter, Attu was liberated and Kiska was bombed once more for over two months, before a larger American force was allocated to defeat the expected Japanese garrison of 5,200 men. On August 17, 1943, an invasion force consisting of 34,426 Allied troops, including 5,300 Canadians (the 6th and 7th Infantry Divisions), 95 ships (including three battleships and a heavy cruiser), and 168 aircraft landed on Kiska, only to find the island completely abandoned. The Japanese, aware of the loss of Attu and the impending arrival of the larger Allied force, had successfully removed their troops on July 28 under the cover of severe fog, without the Allies noticing. That night, however, the Imperial Japanese Navy warships, thinking they were engaged by Americans, shelled and attempted to torpedo the island of Little Kiska and the Japanese soldiers waiting to embark. Admiral Ernest King reported to the secretary of the Navy, Frank Knox, that the only things that remained on the island were dogs and fresh brewed coffee. Knox asked for an explanation and King responded, "The Japanese are very clever. Their dogs can brew coffee."
   Allied casualties during the August invasion nevertheless numbered close to 200, all from friendly fire, booby traps set out by the Japanese to inflict damage on the invading allied forces, or disease. There were seventeen Americans and four Canadians killed from either friendly fire or booby traps, fifty more were wounded as a result of friendly fire or booby traps, and an additional 130 men came down with trench foot. The destroyer USS Abner Read hit a mine, resulting in 87 casualties.
This final removal from the Aleutians spelled the end of any Japanese hopes to invade the United States from the north, and Kiska became of little importance as a base for further Allied attacks.
   The remains of a World War II submarine were found on August 22, 2007, more than six decades after the U.S. Navy vessel disappeared with a crew of 70 off the Aleutian Island of Kiska. The submarine is believed to be the USS Grunion.

Kiska Volcano

Kiska Volcano (Qisxan Kamgii in Aleut) is a stratovolcano, 8.5 by 6.4 km (5.3 by 4.0 mi) in diameter at its base and 1221 metres (4006 ft) high, on the northern end of Kiska Island.
An explosive eruption occurred on 24 January 1962 accompanied by lava extrusion and the construction of a cinder cone about 30 m high at Sirius Point on the north flank of Kiska Volcano, 3 km from the summit of the main cone (Anchorage Daily News, January 30 1962). A second eruption that produced a lava flow was reported to have occurred on 18 March 1964 (Bulletin of Volcanic Eruptions, 1964).
Since then the volcano has emitted steam and ash plumes as well as smaller lava flows.

Kiska today

The island is considered a National Historic Landmark (the highest level of recognition accorded to historic sites in the US), and is protected. Around the harbor is one of the best preserved historical scenes anywhere. The slow erosion processes on the tundra have had little effect on the bomb craters still visible on the hills surrounding the harbor.
   Numerous equipment dumps, tunnels (some concrete-lined), Japanese gun emplacements, shipwrecks, and other war relics can be found all untouched since they were last used in 1943.
   There is now a memorial plaque on Kiska placed by the 87th Mountain Infantry Regiment in 1983. The plaque's inscription reads:
"To the men of Amphibious Task Force 9 who fell here August 1943 placed here August 1983 by 87th Mountain Infantry Regiment."
   The island is part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge and contains the largest colony of Least Auklets (over 1,160,000 birds) and Crested Auklets. Research biologists from Memorial University of Newfoundland have been studying the impact of introduced Norway Rats on the seabirds of Kiska since 2001.(External Link

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