- 78 - Pacific War - West Hubei Offensive and Changjiao Massacre, May 16-23, 1943

Last time we spoke about the battle for Attu. The allied commanders responsible for the frigid northern pacific theater finally unleashed a major campaign to kick the Japanese off American controlled soil. However the battle of Attu was to be by no means a cake walk, far from it. The men of the 7th and 35th divisions were about to receive a baptism under ice. As they stormed multiple beaches on Attu all was eerily quiet, there was no enemy to be seen. However upon marched a bit up the rugged hills and ridges they found extremely well concealed and well defended positions of the enemy. The Japanese rained pure hell upon the Americans causing a bloodbath. Despite the incredible numerical superiority, the Americans struggled to claim each hill, slope and ridge against a tenacious enemy. Today we are going to finish that story and jump back over to China for another bloody conflict. This episode is the West Hubei Offensive & Changjiao Massacre Welcome to the Pacific War Podcast Week by Week, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about world war two? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on world war two and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel you can find a few videos all the way from the Opium Wars of the 1800’s until the end of the Pacific War in 1945.  We left off at Attu with Colonel Zimmerman taking command after Colonel Earle was killed by a Japanese sniper. The Southern force was pinned down at Massacre Valley just in front of Jarmin Pass. Colonel Culin’s Northern force and Willoughby’s Scouts were making gradual progress over in the Holtz Bay area, preparing to launch an all out offensive in 35 hours. The weather was terrible for the allies. The misty fog was concealing the Japanese positions upon the peaks, while the Japanese could fully see the allies down below. To make matters worse, casualties were mounting as a result of the brutality of mother nature. The clothing issued in San Francisco was  not nearly warm enough for fighting in Attu trenches. More than 100 Americans suffered death, injury, cripping frostbite and trench foot by May 14th alone, and the casualties were continuing to pile. The allied artillery were stuck in mud along the beaches. Supplies on the beaches sprawled in great clogged heaps which the men were forced to carry on their backs, causing them to sink further into the snow and mud. The transport ship Perida which was carrying vital supplies and beached herself after hitting a pinnacle rock. Landing crafts were running double time carrying supplies to the beaches and wounded men from them through crashing frigid waves. The air force were grounded because of the terrible weather, already 4 Wildcats had been smashed into mountainsides because of gusts of wind. Continuous radio pleas for supply drops were heard with men demanding sleeping bags and food.  General Brown decided to prod the enemy defenses with another assault on May 14th, tossing Zimmerman’s 3rd battalion against the Jarmin Pass, this time with some support from the USS Nassau. Yet as usual the weather was brutal and 3 Wildcats would get caught in a williwaw in the early morning crashing them. The troops assault likewise was just as disastrous. 4 company commanders were put out of action, two killed and two wounded. The casualties were high and the battalion was forced to run right back to their trenches. Zimmerman was forced to relieve the battered unit by bringing up the 2nd battalion of the 32nd regiment. Further south, the newly arrived 1st battalion, 32nd regiment we