Evening star., 1942-12-26
Army Removes Hills,
Turns Rivers 10 Build
Base in Andreanofs
Airfield Ready in II
Doys for Raids on
japanese at Kisku
BY WILLIAM l.. WORDEN.
Associated Press CORRESPONDENT.

Associated Press Correspondent.
AN ARMY BASE IN THE AN
DREANOF ISLANDS, Dec. 10 De-
layedD-After a hundred days and
a bombing, this looks like a different
island.
When the first wave of troops
pushing United States Army and
air bases closer to the Japanese
occupied Western Aleutians came
ashore on this treeless, grassy is
land shortly after the first of Sep
tember, I came with them.
There was literally nothing here.
One abandoned trapper's shack hud-
died in a cove, but, except for that.
there was no sign that any other
human had visited the seashore, the
meadows of belt-high grass or the
g-shrouded mountains. There
were no paths, no trails, nothing
but tundra and grass and sand.
Today, the hills by which we set
out courses across country in Sep
tember have suffered one OF two
fates-they either are civilized or
gone, literally gone If hill suited
the Army, huts were built on it,
guns mounted on its crest, tents
pitched on its sides. II hill was in
the Army's way the Army moved
the hill Frequently 1t was simpler
than going around.
Streams Turned Around.
Streams which interfered with
military activities have been turned
around and made to run the other
way. (What will happen to the con-
fused salmon who returns next year
to the river mouth he remembers Is
not clear, because the new mouth
is now a couple of miles away and
on another ocean bay0
For 10 days in September. an
overturned canvas boat being made
to do for quarters brought envious
glances from lieutenants and colo
nels alike. 1t was as roony as the
average cave built in single night,
and considerably more dry.
Today, the officer who does not
sleep in a winteriZed tent with
coal stove-or a sound building
with Oil heat and electric lights
either has absolutely no influence
or is assigned to the far suburbs
of this 100 per cent military city.
Where there were no trails, there
is now a network of usable roads.
not paved too smooth, but roads
nonetheless to get men from beaches
to camps, from camps to possible
fighting areas.
Airfield Ready In Four Days.
The airfeld was a dream from
the beginning. -Four days after the
landing, plane touched its wheels
to the new field. A bare IL Gays
later it was the starting poiar for
an integrated raid whicb began
running the Japanese air force and
! land installations at Kska.
Today, this field is living up to
its early promise Fleets of planes
take off from what was a tide fiat
in October The grassy hills hide
the nerve centers of an aerial sys-
tenn which Is threatening to starve
out what invading Japs are not
killed by its bombs.
In September, a comparatively few
men for days were at the mercy of
any japanese planes which might
have come across the hills. None
came in those critical periods when
munitions and equipment piled on
the beaches offered ideal targets for
almost any kind Of plane and only
few guns were prepared to resist
aerial attack. When plane did
| come, weeks later, 1t was too late.
A few bombs were dropped, few
soldiers, weary with months OF
training and building, got their first
view Of an enemy aircraft. But no
damage was done, no personnel
either injured or killed.
Construction Booms.
Today. in the welter of construc-
ton which still goes on. night and
day, across the snowy island, even
the craters left by those bombs are
obliterated under new roads, air.
fields. gun emplacements and living
quarters.
Cargo moves across docks now
where in September men unloaded
barges in st-deep water. Ships
come and go unchallenged in wa
ters where 100 days ago no ship was
believed safe without a destroyer at
its side.
On shore, men who stood In line
for field rations in those first days
of occupation stand in line now for
books from the post library. And,
among both officers and men, there
is now as definite social demarca-
ton as in any frontier town.
The men who came in September
are the old settlers, and each of
them is ready at any opportunity to
tell tall tales of how it was in "the
old days"