Supply Shortage The Scouts had reached the highest peak of Attu on the end of the first day when there was a B-42 spotted above them that dropped some food but even more ammunition for the Scouts. Ralph claimed that he climbed 28,000 feet on only two cans of beans for 4 days and nights. There was snow all around the Scouts but it was too cold for the snow to melt to water, causing an addition of a shortage of water to the already low food reserves. Ralph himself offered $5.00 per quart of water at one point and no one gave anything. Combat The fighting on Attu was brutal for both sides with the Japanese being an representation of just how violent things were with there being more than 1,700 Japanese soldiers on Attu before the fighting began and with only 4 prisoners taken out of the Japanese. Even though that had a surplus of ammunition, the scouts had been forced to resort to hand to hand tactics with knives and axes on multiple occasions because of the enemies charging methods. The Seventh Scouts fought through snipers and machine gun nests that were supported by Japanese tunnels stretching all under Attu because of the nine months given to the Japanese to set up defenses. Weather Despite all the challenges faced by the Japanese along with food and water shortages, the largest enemy of the Scouts and all Americans on Attu was the climate, since they were trained for tropical battles and equipped for the opposite of Attu with leather boots instead of rubber boots. The boots along with the rivers and mushy ground contributed to the frostbite in soldiers legs and feet, which the soldiers didn’t feel at all on account that their feet were frozen solid until they started to thaw their feet where they felt the reported screaming and the most agonizing pain that they’ve ever felt.