May 11

U.S. Forces Land on Attu — Aleutian Islands Campaign

American forces landed on Attu to recapture the only American soil occupied by Japan since the island's seizure in June 1942. The three-week campaign in brutal Arctic conditions ended with a suicidal Japanese banzai charge that overran the American field hospital.

Attu demonstrated that Japanese forces would fight to annihilation rather than surrender and gave U.S. planners a grim preview of the fanatical resistance they would encounter across the Pacific.