Into the Endless Mist

At the beginning of June 1942, in the wake of the enormous Japanese struggle to bring a conclusive victory in the Pacific War, the Imperial Japanese Navy commenced Operation AL ( AL Sakusen ). Among the objectives of this bold plan was the 2nd Kidō Butai ’s carrier-borne strike on the American military base at Dutch Harbor and seizing part of the Aleutian Archipelago in the North Pacific. Operation AL, elaborated by the Navy General Staff and the Combined Fleet, was an initiative that could expa