Battle of Dutch Harbor

Battle of Dutch Harbor
Part of the American Theater of World War II
Buildings burning after Japanese air attacks on Dutch Harbor, circa 3 June 1942.
Date 3-4 June 1942 Location Amaknak Island, Aleutian Islands, Alaska 53°53′15″N 166°32′32″W / 53.88750°N 166.54222°W / 53.88750; -166.54222 Result Japanese victory
Belligerents
United States	Japan
Commanders and leaders
Robert Theobald Simon Buckner Archibald Arnold	Kakuji Kakuta
Strength
37th Infantry Regiment 206th Coast Artillery (AA) 1 search light battery 6 anti-aircraft batteries U.S. Marines 30 aircraft	2 light carriers 3 cruisers 5 destroyers 86 aircraft
Casualties and losses
43 killed 50 wounded 14 aircraft destroyed 1 barracks ship destroyed	10 killed 5 captured 8 aircraft destroyed 1 aircraft captured[1]

The Battle of Dutch Harbor took place on 3-4 June 1942, when the Imperial Japanese Navy launched two aircraft carrier raids on the Dutch Harbor Naval Operating Base and U.S. Army Fort Mears at Dutch Harbor on Amaknak Island, opening the Aleutian Islands campaign of World War II. The bombing marked the first aerial attack by an enemy on the continental United States and was the second time in history that the continental U.S. was bombed by someone working for a foreign power, the first being the accidental bombing of Naco, Arizona, in 1929.