Ed Helms

which is basically nature's kind of like frozen wet sponge.

Add in relentless rain near constant fog and temperatures that hover just above freezing, and you've got one of the most brutal landscapes the U.S.

has to offer.

It's beautiful, but absolutely out to get you.

I know, right?

Well, regardless of the unforgiving landscape, the Aleutian Islands were still American territory.

So when Japanese forces started snatching them up in June of 1942 to build airfields and submarine bases, let's just say we were not amused.

It might be a frozen hellscape, but it's our frozen hellscape, damn it.

And by the way, hold on a second.

Don't we happen to have a special team of soldiers trained specifically for frozen hellscapes?

Why, yes.

Colonel Frederick, get your fancy new first special service force out there and take our dang foggy islands back.

Yeah.

You're on.

Colonel Frederick and the first special service force actually missed the first –

World War II battle in the Aleutians, which was the Battle of Attu, another island.

And that had been a very rough one.

There were less than 3,000 Japanese troops on the island of Attu, but it took American troops three weeks to fight through the muddy bogs and capture the Japanese defenses up on the mossy ridges.

And when it was all said and done, the US lost 549 soldiers with total casualties approaching 4,000.

This is a lot of people and action going on in a very remote place.