Bering Sea

The Bering Sea (Russian: Бе́рингово мо́ре, tr. Béringovo móre) is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean. It comprises a deep water basin, which then rises through a narrow slope into the shallower water above the continental shelves.

The Bering Sea is separated from the Gulf of Alaska by the Alaska Peninsula. It covers over 2,000,000 square kilometers (770,000 sq mi) and is bordered on the east and northeast by Alaska, on the west by Russian Far East and the Kamchatka Peninsula, on the south by the Alaska Peninsula and the Aleutian Islands and on the far north by the Bering Strait, which connects the Bering Sea to the Arctic Ocean's Chukchi Sea. Bristol Bay is the portion of the Bering Sea which separates the Alaska Peninsula from mainland Alaska. The Bering Sea is named for Vitus Bering, a Danish navigator in Russian service, who in 1728 was the first European to systematically explore it, sailing from the Pacific Ocean northward to the Arctic Ocean.

Bering Sea in "Liberating Alaska"

The Bering Sea proved advantageous to Joseph Stalin's efforts to retake Siknazuak, Alaska. Pro-Soviet agitators crossed the Sea to create an uprising against the American garrison there, and then "volunteers" and weapons from the USSR followed. Winter freezing in the sea actually helped these crossings.

In late June, 1929, the U.S. invaded and Siknazuak. A substantial naval force of destroyers and carriers took positions in the Bering Sea in order to give cover to the landing force.