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Abstract
Archaeological and cultural resource management analyses of sites of conflict of the recent past regularly draw on archival intelligence sources, in particular on aerial imagery. Like any other data source, they have their limitations. Using a case study, the World War II battlefield of Kiska in the Aleutians, this paper outlines the processes that generated these intelligence resources, as well as the factors that influenced their survival to the present day. Understanding these processes is necessary when using such sources to understand the development of cultural landscapes as well as specific sites.
Notes
1 Such as Japanese AA Defenses of Kiska, Intelligence Memorandum no. 163, 1 February 1944. Fort Trotten, New York: AA-2 Section, Headquarters Anti-Aircraft Artillery Command, E.D.C. Irving P. Payne, The Enemy on Kiska. US Naval Intelligence, Section G-2. AC/G-2, Advance Command Post, Hdqtrs. Alaska Defense Command, and Advance Intelligence Center, North Pacific Area. US Confidential, 1943. George W. Huff, Information on Japanese Aircraft, Kiska Island. By George W. Huff, Crash Intelligence Officer, October 1943. Crash Intelligence Section, Office of Assistant Chief of Staff, Field Headquarters, 11th Air Force. APO 980. NASM microfilm IP 1913.
2 While some of these captured Japanese documents can be drawn upon (captured after the fall of Kiska, on Tarawa/Kiribati and on Saipan but pertaining to the Kiska operation), the bulk of such material would normally been captured in the Aleutians.
3 Rufus S. Bratton, Japanese Forces in the Aleutians. Memorandum for the Chief, Strategy Section, C. P.D. Dated 5 February 1943. MID 370·2 Aleutian Is. NARA RG165, Entry 77, Box 46, Folder ‘Alaska Japanese Potentialities’.Enemy installations on Kiska Island as known 24 February 1943. Headquarters Western Defense Command and Fourth Army, Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2, Presidio of San Francisco, California, to Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2, Military Intelligence Service, Washington, DC. Dated 25 February 1943. NARA RG165, Entry 77, Box 46, Folder 6800 Alaska-Western Defense Command.Enemy Installations on Kiska Island as known 1 May 1943. Headquarters Western Defense Command and Fourth Army. Presidio of San Francisco, California. Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff G2. Dated 5 May 1943. NARA RG165, Entry 77, Box 50, Folder ‘Kiska Operation’.A study of enemy defensive installations on Kiska Island as known on 5 July 1943. Intelligence Memorandum no. 6 prepared by G-2, Western Defense Command and Fourth Army. Headquarters Western Defense Command and Fourth Army. Presidio of San Francisco, California. Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff G2, pp. 19–20.Provisional Estimate Enemy Strength Kiska. R. G. Jacobs, Jr, Executive Officer G-2, to Assistant Chief of Staff, G-3, Western Defense Command, Presidio of San Francisco, California. Serial MD320·2 Japan. Dated 10 July 1943. NARA RG165, Entry 77, Box 3229, Folder ‘San Francisco’.
4 Photographic Interpretation Kiska Island, Aleutian Islands. Prepared by staff, Photographic Interpretation School, 13 July 1942. Photographic Interpretation School, Naval Air Station Anacostia, DC [based on sortie Patwing Four Photographic Reconnaissance of 18 June 1942]. NARA RG165, Entry 77, Box 50 Folder Kiska Operation.Photographic Interpretation Report no. 21. North Head and Little Kiska. Photographic Interpretation Unit, Advanced Intelligence Center, North Pacific Area, Kodiak, Alaska. Dated 3 March 1943. NARA RG165, Entry 77, Box 50, Folder ‘Kiska Operation’.Photographic Interpretation Report no. 30. Kiska Island. Photographic Advanced Intelligence Center, North Pacific Area, c/o F.P.O. 230, San Francisco. Dated 1 June 1943. NARA RG165, Entry 77, Box 50, Folder ‘Kiska Operation’.Photographic Interpretation Report no. 33. Kiska and Segula Islands. Photographic Advanced Intelligence Center, North Pacific Area, c/o F.P.O. 230, San Francisco. Serial SO33/AIC. Dated 14 July 1943. NARA RG165, Entry 77, Box 52, Folder 9135.Aerial Photo Interpretation Report (no. 35?) Kiska Island, 27 July to 4 August 1943. J. V. Smythe, 4th AAF PID to Commanding General, Army Air Forces, Washington DC. Dated 5 August 1943. Field Headquarters Eleventh Air Force, Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff A2, APO 980. NHL File Kiska, NPS-ARO (ex Elmendorf History Office. Folder-Intelligence Reports, Kiska, Various).[List of changes to enemy installations on Kiska Island for the period 25 February to 23 April 1943]. Kiska. Military Intelligence Service, North American Unit, Pentagon Building, Washington, DC. NARA RG165, Entry 77, Box 46, Folder 6800 Alaska-Western Defense Command.
5 Rufus S. Bratton, Japanese Forces in the Aleutians. Memorandum for the Chief, Strategy Section, C. P.D. Dated 5 February 1943. MID 370·2 Aleutian Is. NARA RG165, Entry 77, Box 46, Folder ‘Alaska Japanese Potentialities’.
6 The Japanese Navy (IJN) used equivalent units both handheld (e.g. Rokuoh Sha SK-99 [6 in.] and F-8 [10 in.]) and fixed (e.g. Konishiroku K-8 [20 in.]). In addition there are Japanese Army (IJA) aerial cameras, such as the Konishiroku SK-100 (with exchangeable 20 cm and 40 cm) and the small hand-held GSK-99 with a 7·5 cm lens. In the case of Kiska, all Japanese aerial capability was in the hands of the IJN, which operated by long- and medium-range reconnaissance patrols.
7 The relevant formula is: focal length of the camera (in inches)/altitude of the camera above ground (in inches) (War Department 1944a). Thus a photo shot by a 6-inch camera at 3000 feet would have a scale of 1∶6000 (i.e. 6/3000*12). It is also worth noting for the interpretation of historic air photos is that the prints are contact prints of negatives without any enlargement and thus lend themselves to estimates of broad-scale spatial distribution. However, where historic air photos are to be used for accurate measurements of distances, we have to correct the altitude to be entered in the calculation by deducting the elevation (above to sea level) of the terrain photographed (because the altitude of flight was determined by an aneroid barometer).
8 A standard approach since 1941 was the Tri-Metrogon, where a set three K-17, each fitted with a 6-inch Metrogon lens, would seated at right angle to the aircraft’s flight axis. While the middle unit shot a vertical, the other two, set at 60°, shot obliques to port and starboard. As all three cameras were fired simultaneously they provided an effective 180° coverage (War Department 1944a, p. 38 ff.).
9 It should be noted that images relating to Kiska were also found in files ostensibly dealing with Attu. This may serve as a timely reminder that the level of archival diligence exercised in the final stages of war, when bases were closed, may have been rather patchy.
10 While at first sight it may appear nonsensical that one might wish to print images that were deemed useless at the time, we should consider that only part of the image may have been unusable, that a part sought after by the intelligence officer at the time; yet other parts of the image are usable for modern heritage needs as they might provide information on sequencing of bomb craters, for example, of when examining vegetation change or differential snow cover.
11 It is quite possible that they ended up as fuel for heaters and workshop furnaces.
12 Much of the UK material can be accessed online at <http://aerial.rcahms.gov.uk>, <accessed 1 May 2012>.
13 That this occurred is evidenced by the smattering of original prints that are occasionally offered at on-line auction houses such as eBay.
14 The underlying topography was based on K-17 (single lens) aerial photography with horizontal control by compiled from US Coast and Geodetic Survey 1873 and 1904, as well as US Navy mapping in 1933 and 1935. Compiled by 29th Engineers, US Army. Produced by 29th Engineers Production Plant, Portland, Oregon. Edition of July 1943.
15 Map ‘Kiska Island’ (a series of target maps, broken into sheets). Second edition 28 July 1943. Based on Kiska map by Corps of Engineers, US Army Scale 1/25,000, 1943. Prepared by Photographic Interpretation Unit, Advanced Intelligence Center, North Pacific Force and Photographic Intelligence section A-2, 11th Air Force.
16 Designation and Nomenclature of Target Areas, Kiska Island. T. C. Kincaid, Cmdr North Pacific Force to North Pacific Force A16-3/H1-3, dated 12 July 1943. NARA RG165, Entry 77, Box 51 Folder ‘Maps for Kiska Operations’.
17 The map collection of the Bishop Museum in Honolulu holds some models of Japanese bases in Micronesia.
18 Given that Kiska was evacuated on 29 July 1943, with the soldiers carrying only essentials (and even ditching their rifles in the harbour on approaching the evacuation vessels), we can assume that the body of locally collected Japanese aerial imagery was destroyed prior to departure.
19 I am indebted to Dr Wakako Higuchi (Guam) for her support in these visits and the time and research effort she kindly provided in searching out these images.
20 Japanese Tanks and Tank Tactics. Military Intelligence Service, Special Series No. 26, 15 November 1944; Washington, DC: War Department.
21 Payne, ‘The Enemy on Kiska’.
22 The tanks were removed for evaluation by US technical personnel: Mack Morriss and Ralph Stein, ‘At Aberdeen’s Ordnance Research Center, inquisitive experts finds what makes an Axis vehicle tick, and their tests produce facts worth remembering’, Yank, 2·31, 21 January 1944, unpaginated.
23 Payne, ‘The Enemy on Kiska’, p. 35.
24 After the US occupation of Kiska, on 15 August, evidence of small-scale gardening emerged, such as radishes planted next to a Japanese barracks (on-ground photograph taken during assessment of Japanese base, Fleet Air Wing Four, 23 August 1943. Image FAW4#5623. NARA RG-80-G-80762).
25 Note the area where the sods of tundra have been cut to cover the revetment wall and the roof. The individual spade cuts are visible. Also note the deep borrow pits from which the soil for the revetment had been taken. The small cutouts in the hillside are personnel shelters. The building is connected with power and telephone. (Sortie FAW 4-5346, Alt. 300’, F.L. 8·25 II. Taken by Fleet Air Wing Four (FAW4), Cameraman, PhoM1/c D.R. Terry, 21 August 1943. NARA RG-80-CF-7825-80517-4 and also in RG-807825-80517-4.)
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Dirk H R Spennemann
Dr Dirk Spennemann is Associate Professor in Cultural Heritage Management at the School of Environmental and Information Sciences, Charles Sturt University, Albury, Australia. He is a Research Associate at the Micronesian Area Research Center, University of Guam, and serves in a number of other capacities, including Special Advisor to the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, Republic of the Marshall Islands. He has published widely on cultural heritage management and has a specific interest in the legacies of World War II in the Pacific.
Correspondence to: Dr Dirk Spennemann, Institute of Land, Water and Society, Charles Sturt University, PO Box 789, Albury NSW 2640, Australia. Email: [email protected]