Operation Cottage

Operation Cottage was a tactical maneuver during the Aleutian Islands campaign.

In the operation, which took place on August 15, 1943, Allied military forces landed unopposed on Kiska Island, which had been occupied by Japanese forces since June, 1942. The Japanese forces, however, had secretly abandoned the island two weeks prior. The operation completed the Aleutian Islands campaign.

Captain Takeji Ono landed on Kiska at approximately 01:00 on June 7, 1942, with a force of about 500 Japanese marines. Soon after arrival, they stormed an American weather station. Here they killed two and captured eight United States Navy officers. The remaining eight were sent to Japan as prisoners of war.

Another 2,000 Japanese troops arrived, landing in Kiska Harbor. At this time, Monzo Akiyama, a Rear-Admiral, headed the force on Kiska.

In December 1942, additional anti-aircraft units, engineers, and a negligible number of reinforcement infantry arrived on the island.

In the spring of 1943, control was transferred to Kiichiro Higuchi.

Having learned bitter lessons at Attu, American commanders made certain that their soldiers had better equipment and proper clothing for the assault on Kiska, code-named Operation Cottage, where they expected to encounter several times as many Japanese troops as they'd faced on Attu. However, when U.S. ships arrived at Kiska on August 15, 1943, the weather was strangely clear and the seas quiet, and the approximately 35,000 soldiers landed unopposed.