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Story Last modified at 2:09 p.m. on Thursday, January 29, 2009
The story is about a group of fighter pilots, the Aleutian Tigers, who defended Dutch Harbor and the Aleutian Islands from Japanese invasion in June 1942.
There is little information remaining from the Aleutian Campaign, including the Tigers’ dogfights. None of the planes remain and the missions were classified for several years, Novak said. The events that happened along the Aleutian Chain in the early ’40s were kept secret for years, Novak said. Maybe the secrets were kept to prevent Americans from panicking at the news of a foreign invasion or maybe because of Alaska’s strategic place on the map, Novak said. The collection began when another member of the Alaskan Commemorative Air Force introduced Novak to the Aleutian Tigers. As a retired Air Force colonel, history buff and veterans advocate who lives in Eagle River, Novak took it upon herself to find out more about the Tigers. Novak approached the Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum to find out if the museum had any artifacts. They only had a few photos in an archive. The museum staff asked if Novak wanted to be involved in creating a display and she jumped at the chance. For the last two and half years, Novak has pieced together information from archives and files she found at Elmendorf’s 11th Air Force history office, tidbits in books and personal collections in Alaska and the Lower 48. The only information Novak had to go on initially about the Tigers was a few photographs of former Air Force Lt. John “Jack” Chennault, son of Lt. Gen. Claire Chennault and leader of the Aleutian Tigers. The father’s name is famous in World War II history for leading the original Flying Tigers in air assaults against the Japanese in China months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Jack Chennault named his crew the Aleutian Tigers as a tribute to his father’s success and had tigers with fierce teeth painted on his planes The Aleutian crews flew similar planes as the Flying Tigers flew in China, P-40E planes, which at the time were state-of-the-art fighter planes. They took on lighter Japanese Zero fighters, which could easily outmaneuver the P-40E. P-40Es were twice as heavy as the Japanese planes because of all their armament. Zeros had no armor around the pilots or gas tanks like the Americans. But once a Tiger caught a Zero, the pilot could easily take it down with its 50-caliber machine guns. The Japanese made their way up through Cold Bay and Dutch Harbor. The Tigers fought them off. “They were the only planes that got up to oppose the Japanese at Dutch Harbor,” Novak said. The Tigers then escorted American bombers to Kiska and Attu, ending the Japanese invasion. The confrontations with the Japanese aren’t as interesting to Novak as the survival of the pilots and planes as makeshift air bases and supplies. In one photo, a pilot wears a helmet from World War I, which was fought more than 20 years prior to the Alaskan assault. Photos like that and others show crude air fields made from rolled-out steel, which either sunk into the tundra or rolled up under planes during take off, and the tough conditions the pilots endured during the war and invasion. Novak is still learning more as she collects artifacts and history. She’s proud of the display and loves to share the stories. “This is a story that Alaskans don’t know... we’re going to make them know the story,” Novak said. The display inside the Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum is located at 4721 Aircraft Drive, near the Ted Stevens International Airport in Anchorage. To learn more about the Alaska Veteran’s Museum visit www.alaskaveterans.com or to find out about the Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum and hours of operation, click on www.alaskaairmuseum.org. Reach the reporter at jillfankhauser.@alaskastar.com. This article published in The Alaska Star on Thursday, January 29, 2009. |
