Battle of Alaska (1941) (Britain Thrives)

The Battle of Alaska (Japanese: アラスカの戦い, Russian: Битва при Аляске) codenamed by the Japanese as Operation North America (Japanese: オペレーション北米) and by the Soviets as the Alaska Defensive Operation (Russian: Оборонительная операция в Аляске) was an attack by the Japanese 5th Army against the Red Army's Alaskan Front.

The attack began on January 5, 1941, with aerial and ground assaults on Soviet defensive positions in the Alaskan Soviet Socialist Republic. The battle lasted until November 4, 1941 when the entire Alaskan Front surrendered, resulting in the capture of 784,224 Red Army troops, approximately 1,001,300 Soviets were killed in the battle. The Japanese lost 105,529 to death and 203,452 to injuries.

The Alaskan SSR was an important target for the Imperial Japanese Forces, due to its extreme abundance in natural resources, especially in the two most valued ones: oil and gold.

As usual, while the Red Army had the numerical advantage, they lacked the proper supplies, and were cut off from the rest of the Soviet Union from recieving armaments supplies. The Soviets however, put up a valiant resistance, with Japanese military leaders being surprised, let alone impressed by the Soviet ability to hold them off for months.

After conquering Alaska, the Japanese established the Republic of Alaska, a puppet-state under direct Japanese leadership, since the Japanese forces persecuted and killed non-Japanese people, which would comprise the majority of Alaska. All others were used as slave labor.