237 The Royal Canadian Legion MANITOBA & NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO COMMAND www.mbnwo.ca VANDERSTEEN, Bert WWII Bert enlisted in Winnipeg on January 8, 1942, did basic training at Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, and then joined the Royal Canadian Field Artillery. He completed advance training in Fort Garry, Manitoba, lodging in the residential buildings of the University of Manitoba, which were much better quarters than the coal heated barracks of Portage la Prairie. After two months advance training, Bert was assigned to 49 Battery, 24th Field Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery stationed at Nanaimo, BC. There he passed his tests as qualified gun layer on August 19, 1942. Pay was increased from $1.00 to $1.50 per diem. During the summer of 1942, his regiment was sent to Shilo, Manitoba to train with live ammunition, and fire 25 pounders. Then they returned to Nanaimo to play a defensive role on Vancouver Island. Japanese subs were seen quite frequently in this area during the summer months, at one point shelling a weather station along the coast. There were many alerts and they conducted maneuvers at most coastal points on the Island, such as Victoria, Comox, Port Alberni, and Campbell River. The circumstances that resulted in these undertakings was the fact that in June 1942, Japan launched an attack on the Aleutians, with a large task force consisting of two aircrafts carriers, several heavy cruisers, and three destroyers, also troop transports and submarines. They bombed Dutch Harbor (an air and naval base) twice, then proceeded to invade and occupy two islands, Attu and Kiska. They captured 42 Aleuts on Attu, killing the radio operator. On Kiska they captured ten sailors at a weather station, who were taken to Japan as Prisoners of War. They now had two bases from which land-based planes could potentially bomb northwestern United States andWestern Canada. With these events taking place, the west coast became fearful that an air raid would occur, so a complete black out was put into effect. The concern was that defenses were not sufficient to protect the cities and towns along the Pacific Coast. Japanese nationals, some of them Canadian, were interned and put in concentration camps, their property confiscated. In the meantime, the Americans acted to remedy the situation by establishing forward air bases on Adak and Amchitka and proceeded to bring in heavy bombers, inflicting serious damage to Attu and Kiska installations. The enemy airfields never did become fully operational. The defenders, however, dug in and the heavy bombing could not dislodge them. In spite of the bombing, their anti-aircraft fire was extremely accurate and deadly, downing many U.S. planes. When the battle for Midway failed, the Japanese suffered a great defeat in the South Pacific, losing four aircraft carriers and several war ships. The Americans now had supremacy in air and naval power and successfully blockaded the Aleutians. However, enemy subs occasionally slipped through to resupply their garrisons on Attu and Kiska. On May 11, 1943, 16,000 U.S. troops attacked Attu. It took 28 days of bloody fighting to regain possession of the island. The Japanese fought until their ammunition ran out, then staged a counter offensive to try to seize the food and ammunition dumps of the Americans. They broke through the American lines, overrunning a field hospital and bayonetting the wounded inside. Eventually they were stopped and before the end of the day 500 committed suicide rather than surrender. (continued)
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