Charles Alverson was born on 19 September 1919 to Frank and Alice Alverson in Arkansas. According to the 1930 Census Frank was a night watchman at a coal mine. Charles had five siblings. By the 1940s Charles had moved to California, Charles had a grammar school education and was listed as working in construction on his enlistment.

Charles Alverson was drafted and enlisted in the US Army as a Private (PVT) on 25 April 1941 in Los Angles, California. Charles Alverson was assigned to “G” Co. 2nd Battalion 17th Infantry, 7th Infantry Division and had been promoted to Corporal (CPL) by May 1943. The 7th ID was training in the Mojave Desert in 1942 in preparation for combat as a Motorized Infantry Division to deploy to North Africa. The 7th ID was tasked in March 1943 to be the assault element to retake Attu Island, Alaska from the Japanese Army.

Attu and Kiska Islands are part of the Aleutian Chain in Alaska and had been seized by Imperial Japanese Forces on 6 June 1942 as part of large Japanese Naval Offensive. There was no opposition to either landing. A small US Navy Weather Reporting Station on Kiska consisting of 10 personnel was captured and the US Navy sailors were sent to Japan as prisoners of war. The Island of Attu was captured by a Japanese Army Infantry battalion. Attu village at the time consisted of 43 Aleuts (Unanagin) and a female schoolteacher and her husband. The Japanese later transported the Aleuts as prisoners to Japan. The schoolteacher Etta Jones was also transported to Japan as a prisoner. Etta’s husband Foster Jones was executed by the Japanese on 6 June 1942 and buried by the Attu Villagers at the Russian Orthodox Church graveyard. At the end of the war 25 of the original 43 Aleuts from Attu were repatriated to the US. The remaining 18 died of disease and malnutrition in Japan.

On 11 May 1943 the 7th ID made three landings on Attu the main effort at Massacre Bay (Southern Force), a supporting effort at Red Beach north of Holtz Bay (Northern Force) and another supporting effort at Austin Cove by the 7th ID Provisional Scout Company. CPL Charles Alverson was assigned to 2-17IN and landed in Massacre Bay on 11 May 1943 as part of the main effort in Massacre Valley. CPL Charles Alverson fought up Massacre Valley and was killed on 25 May 1943, on the 14th day of battle for Attu. The date of CPL Alverson’s death is consistent with 2-17IN attack up and along what is now called Brewer’s Peak and Fishhook Ridge on 25 May 1943 toward Chicagof harbor and Attu Village, the Japanese last remaining strong point on Attu. The battle of Attu lasted from 11 May to 29 May 1943. The original plan called for a three to four-day operation. The battle took 18 days and was ended in a climatic Banzai charge led by the Japanese Commander COL Yamazaki out of Chicagof Harbor/ Attu Village area. CPL Alverson’s Battalion took heavy casualties in the assault up Massacre Valley and during the final Banzai charge of the remaining Japanese Soldiers on 29 May 1943.

CPL Charles Alverson was killed on 25 May 1943 on Attu Island, Alaska Territory. CPL Alverson is buried at the Steep Hill Cemetery, Fort Smith Arkansas. CPL Alverson was originally interned at the Holtz Bay Cemetery on Attu in May of 1943 and was later disinterred with all the other US Military and known Japanese WW II casualties. CPL Alverson was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart Medal. CPL Alverson would have qualified for the Combat Infantryman Badge (CIB) for his actions on Attu, but he was killed in action prior to the issue of the award in November of 1943.

This story was written by Dennis V. Dupras of Alaska, former Paratrooper (Airborne Infantryman of the 1st BN 325th AIR, 82nd ABN DIV), Infantry Officer of 1st BN 17th Infantry, and graduate of the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) Class of 1990. This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smart phone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.

SOURCES:

Find a Grave.com

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/40662852/charles-d.-alverson

US Headstone Application for Military Veterans

https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/2375/images/40050_2421401755_0392-02173?treeid=&personid=&hintid=&queryId=d94881354069e130b636d1b799a80d37&usePUB=true&_phsrc=OtU1869&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&pId=974517

US Draft Card

https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/2238/images/43995_05_00006-00305?treeid=&personid=&hintid=&queryId=d94881354069e130b636d1b799a80d37&usePUB=true&_phsrc=OtU1871&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&pId=18094272

US 1930 Census

https://www.ancestryinstitution.com/imageviewer/collections/6224/images/4532452_00967?treeid=&personid=&hintid=&queryId=d94881354069e130b636d1b799a80d37&usePUB=true&_phsrc=OtU1872&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&pId=23773834

US Army WW II Enlistment Records

https://search.ancestryinstitution.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=8939&h=2854829&tid=&pid=&queryId=d94881354069e130b636d1b799a80d37&usePUB=true&_phsrc=OtU1873&_phstart=successSource

News-Pilot (San Pedro, California) · 20 Aug 1943, Fri · Page 3

Attu: The Forgotten Battle, John Haile Cloe, US Government Printing Office 2017

Charles D Alverson