friendly fire

war art by E.J. Hughes

Patrol, Kiska (1944) Patrol Dismissing in Camp (1945) & The Lookouts at Barley Cove (1944)

E.J. Hughes (1913-2007) was a Canadian painter, born in my home town, North Vancouver, well known for his landscapes of the coast of British Columbia. He was also commissioned as a war artist during WWII and produced hundreds of drawings and paintings. One of his assignments was Kiska of the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. In 1943, Hughes joined over 5,000 Canadians and nearly 30,000 Americans in Operation Cottage to retake the island from the Japanese occupiers. Unbeknownst to them, however, the Japanese had already evacuated two weeks before they arrived. What ensued, with bad weather, booby traps, trench foot and friendly fire, resulted in nearly 200 casualties, friendly fire accounting for the tragic loss of 4 Canadians and 28 Americans.

Ballad of Friendly Fire

The men on patrol don’t know where they are.
They know the name of the place, it is Kiska,
of the Rat, the Aleutian, Islands, of Alaska.

What they don’t know is in the fog,
the enveloping fog, white with snow and wind, 
nor who is enemy, who friend.

For Kiska is not a pin on a map. 	
Where you are is: what will be, what led to;
and what you need or wish to be true. 

It is not the white that blinds.
Time, a volcano fitfully dormant,
dispatched the enemy, saw an end. 

The men on patrol don’t know where they are.
It is themselves the fog will betray.
They themselves are the men they slay. 

Kiska Volcano, Kiska, Alaska

Kiska, Alaska