The Daily Alaska empire., 1946-01-15
Famous Battle of komandorskie Isle
 Given Explanation
tBy Russell Brines)

Navy captain and a Japanese Ad- miral pushed matchsticks to and fro on their table today-fighting again the famous battle of Roman dorskie Island in which both had participated on March 26, 1943. And both were learning, for the first time, the answers to several puzzles that had baffled them from that day to this.
 We were here" said Capt. Pey- ton Harrison, arranging his battle line of matchsticks, when you opened fire. Did you know how close you came?"
 No replied Rear Adm. Akira Soji-"but you hit us with your first salvo"
 They met in purely social fashion today, but in the icy Aleutians in '43, Harrison had been operations officer for Rear Adm. Charles H. McMorris, then Commander of the U. s. Naval Task Force in the Aleutians. Soji, then a captain, commanded the enemy heavy cruis- CT Nachi, flagship of a Japanese task force attempting to convoy three transports of endorsements to Attu Island.
 First Shell Lands
 "One shell landed in our chart house." said Soji; T was on the bridge about IS feet away
 Well, your first two rounds came close" Harrison told him. We turned, and the third round landed exactly where we would have been, but the Qight cruiser) Richmond wasn't hit throughout the engage ment."
 Soji then clarified one phase of the battle which long had n1ystified the Americans-wiiy the Nachi. with guns pointing skyward, sud- denly stopped firing for several minutes.
 Another Knockout Our fire control system was knocked out by your first hit" he said, and our orders weren't trans mitted to our gunners. At about the same time, someone closed a power valve so we had no power and couldn't get the guns to proper level"
 Another thing that always pug zled us was why the Japanese broke off the engagement when they did" Harrison remarked
 We were running short on fuel and ammunition" Soji replied. And we thought your planes from Adak might attack us soon, and maybe we would have to fight an- other engagement"
 Besides the ugnt cruiser Rich- mond, the Americans had the heavy cruiser Salt Lake and four destroyers. Against this slender force, the Japanese had two heavy, two light cruisers and at least four destroyers.
 Kiska Evacuated
 We hadn't expected to run into you,' Soji acknowledged, but the results of the battle convinced To- kyo that the Aleutian outposts couldn't be supplied by ordinary surface craft. Consequently orders soon were given for evacuation of Kiska Island, he said.
 Two cruisers and seven or eight destroyers took all the Japanese off Kiska in less than two hours, he explained-slipping through the fog undetected.
 Soji added that the fact the battle of Komandorskie Island kept transports from taking reinforce ments to Attu decreased to some extent the subsequent bitter fight ing when Americans landed there.
 They turned away and waited around Komandorskie Island for a while, then returned to Paramu- shiro. They were lucky, because they were unprotected all that time" Soji said.
 Wed have liked to have known that!" Harrison exclaimed.
 The bespectacled, civilian-suited Soji laughed. Maybe it was mu- tually poor battle," he commented.