The Oregon Coast saw action on the night of June 21, 1942 from a Japanese submarine during World War II when several shells were fired at Fort Stevens. Though the wrecked Peter Iredale was in the line of fire, no damage was done to it. The next day, rolls of barbed wire were strung from Point Adams southward to hamper a potential invasion of the United States Pacific Northwest, especially after Kiska and Attu Islands in Alaska fell under Japanese hands two weeks earlier. Peter Iredale was entwined in the wire and remained that way until the end of the war.