Today's battle is the Battle of Attu. No, it's not ancient history. It's the western most Aleutian Island, and the site of the only North American WWII battle.  I had no idea! It was not, as I first thought, a lost Japanese pilot. No, it was a serious attack timed to coincide with with Battle of Midway. for all sorts of very valid strategic reasons.

The Japanese army took Attu and held it for a bit, much to our dismay. A counter attack was launched with 15,000 men. I've read varying accounts of between 2,000 to nearly 4,000 US casualties and over 2,000 Japanese casualties.  From all stories, it was an extremely brutal fight. The island is still scarred from land mines, bombings, and all the other nastiness of war. One of the bays is called Massacre Bay for a very good, and ugly, reason.

Fascinating. There's plenty of information about it, but this is a good place for a quick, informative read if you've a mind to: Battle of the Aleutian Islands

I don't actually hunt for war stories.  I came across this doing work-related research, and it was too cool not to investigate further.