Remnants of Attu's Jap defenders were herded this week into three tiny pockets of bitter-end resistance on the northeast tip of the Aleutian outpost. Because most of them would probably choose death to surrender, several days of mopping-up operations were in prospect; but U.S. troops, in less than two weeks of fighting, had won their most important victory in the Pacific since Guadalcanal.
Seventeen days out of their embarkation port, in the early subarctic dawn, crowded American troop transports raised the headlands of the bleak volcanic island. Mothered by destroyers, fleets of tank lighters nursed their way through rock-infested bays...