Hurricane Biak PTO (id:#66516)

(ASL Journal #14 ID: J240)   [next]   [previous]

Biak Island, Dutch New Guinea 1944-06-02 (3 others)

Overview:

General MacArthur had ordered Hurricane Taskforce to take the airfields on Biak Islands by mid-June. In late May, the initial American sortie from the beachhead on the southern part of the island to the airfield was rebuffed by determined Japanese defenders. Changing plans, the Americans sought to approach the airfield from both the shoreline route and an island route. On 1 June, Colonel Oliver Newman's 186th Infantry Regiment, assigned the island route, moved north from the American beachhead at Bosnek over the nearby costal cliff which dominated the entire southern portion f the island. Newman's regiment would sweep in a westerly direction north of the ridgeline. Once north of Mokmer airfield, the regiment would attack southwards. The northern sweep would bypass the Japanese defenses along the coastal road that had repelled the American 162nd Infantry Regiment a few days earlier. The Biak defenders had no intention of allowing Newman's men to advance unopposed along the inland route however, and on 2 June Captain Goemon Saito's 1st Battalion of the Japanese 222nd Infantry Regiment moved into position to repel Colonel Newman's GIs.

Defender: American (Company K, 186th Infantry Regiment, 41st Infantry Division)  

Errata (source)