Nome

Nome (165.4W 64.50N) was a gold-mining town on the Seward Peninsula of western Alaska. It had some port facilities and an airstrip in late 1941.

In a rare gaffe, Allied code breakers incorrectly concluded that the Japanese intended to take Nome in late June of 1942. When PBY Catalinas spotted a large Japanese force in the Bering Sea, Buckner responded with the first massive airlift operation by Allied forces, which began on 20 June and flew 2272 men and 20 antiaircraft guns into the town over a period of 24 hours. As it turned out, the invasion never developed. The fleet sighting was genuine, but was of Kakuta's 2 Mobile Force lingering in the area after the Midway debacle in hopes of ambushing its American counterpart. However, the airlift became a model for later operations.

References

Creed (1985)

Garfield (1965)

The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia © 2007, 2013 by Kent G. Budge. Index

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