Before the victory at Kiska, the Japanese threatened
Alaska, Western Canada and Northwestern United States. After
its occupation, Japan lost the best submarine harbour in the
North Pacific, and strategic base from which to launch aerial
and amphibious assaults on mainland America and harass Canadian
and U.S. navies and coastal shipping. Japan’s advance
in the Western Hemisphere was ended.
On the 60th anniversary of this 1943 operation, the publisher
dedicates this untold story to all those Canadians who participated
in the Aleutian campaign including his own father who was
among the members of the City of London’s Canadian Fusiliers
regiment. The invasion of Kiska might seem small and unimportant
in the bloody drama that was World War II. With relatively
few casualties, about 500,000 American, Canadian and Japanese
warriors fought under terrible conditions in the only naval,
land and air battles in North America.
Publisher Tim Lawson says, the story of Kiska has “global
significance” and “is an important piece of the
WW II puzzle.” London history writer Bill Corfield chronicles
the campaign in the Aleutian Islands revealing how it ended
the Japanese threat to the Western Hemisphere during WWII.
From the memories of survivors, from the diaries, records
and memoirs of those no longer available to be interviewed,
from regimental archives and newspaper stories, poured out
the amazing facts of the assault on Kiska. Silent Victory
gradually came to life, bringing into focus the hardships,
bravery and physical slugging of the American and Canadian
soldiers, as well as their Japanese foes, because the sterile
land and hostile weather of the Aleutians treated both the
same.
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SILENT VICTORY
The Canadian Fusiliers in the Japanese War
By Bill Corfield
93 pages including black and white historical photographs
Online Price
$11.96 + shipping and handling |
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