As evening approached on May 11, 1943, units from the 7th US Infantry Division that had landed on the island of Attu moved north in heavy fog and encountered elements of the Japanese 303rd Independent Infantry Battalion that were dug in on Gilbert Ridge. By 1845 hours, the American units were beginning to take fire from both mortars and HMG’s on the ridge. They advanced across the muskeg, reaching the ridge about 1945. As darkness set in, there were US units on the lower ridge and meeting stiff resistance from the Japanese troops that had gathered there. Although slowed by the Japanese fire, five US platoons made it to the top of the ridge by 1930. They were able to eliminate the Japanese HMG platoon at 2200 and took control of the south end of the ridge before calling it a day, but several troops were still bivouacked below the ridge.

This scenario has it all in terms of Aleutian conflict: muskeg, arctic hills and cold weather. Objectives include control of the 40-meter ridge hexes and step elimination for the US, and prevention of US ridge control for the Japanese. The US strategy here was to move quickly toward the ridge, not even taking turns to return Japanese fire. Movement across the muskeg went fairly well for the Americans, getting as far as possible before the cold weather rules set in and made it harder to recover from the inevitable disruption of the muskeg. With most of their firepower intact, the Americans were able to eventually overpower the limited Japanese resources and get some viable units to the 40-meter ridge, but not enough for the victory. It was close as the US ended up with 17 VP’s (9 steps on the ridge and 8 Japanese steps eliminated), while the Japanese had 10 VP’s (7 US steps still on the muskeg and 3 eliminated), so the US did not achieve double the Japanese total needed for victory.