Destination Biak

To reach the Philippines the Allies used two routes of advance: one through the central Pacific Area via the Gilberts, Marshalls, Marianas, Carolines, and Palaus; the other through the Southwest Pacific Area via the north coast of Irian/Papua (New Guinea parts of Indonesia). These two routes also described as the “twin drive” in Pacific War Theater.

Biak Island lay next in the line of General Mac Arthur’s sweeping advance. This island possessed one of the two remaining major groups of Japanese airdromes between Hollandia (now Jayapura) and Halmahera and therefore constituted a valuable military asset to the Allied scheme of operations.

On 27 May 1944 General Mac Arthur commands 4rst Division, less the 163rd Regimental Combat Team to made the first assault on Biak, they beach-landing and fired down at Bosnik on southern Biak by the Japanese defense.

Their immediate objectives were the three airdromes at Mokmer, Borokoe, and Sorido near the southwest coast of Biak.

The General Misjudgments

The US intelligence estimate put the Japanese defense at about 2000 troops. In actuality the island was defended by nearly 12,000 Japanese under the command of Colonel Naoyuki Kuzume, a long-time veteran whose first service was in China before the war began.

His forces included the veteran and excellently trained 222nd Regiment, as well as small units of light tanks, field artillery, anti-aircraft guns, and engineers and, a naval guard unit of 1500 men under the command of Rear Admiral Sadatoshi Senda. At Biak, Kuzume had 4.7″ and one 6″ gun for coastal defense in addition to his 75mm field guns.

In this instance, the Japanese had purposely withheld his main forces until the United States troops had advanced to the rugged terrain beyond the beaches. Then, from the dominating cliffs and caves overlooking the moving Allied columns, the Japanese launched a savage counterattack and, aided by 5-ton tanks, succeeded in driving a block between the beachheads and invading forces. Enemy frontal pressure increased considerably and a temporary retirement and regrouping on Owi island near on Southern Biak

For the Japanese defense of Biak, as General Eichelberger’s report described it, “was based on brilliant appreciation and use of the terrain.”

The situation remained critical, General Mac Arthur command Major General Fuller and his 41st Division on Operation Hurricane to take the island.

41st Division was brought in from Wakde to bolster and strengthened the United States positions in Biak, then they renewed its drive toward Mokmer at dawn on 2 June and, after several days of severe and violent fighting, they seized the important airdrome at Mokmer on 7 June.

Even then, the struggle continued unabated as the Japanese poured a heavy fire into the newly established airfield positions. It was another week before the strip could be brought into use.

Behind Enemy Lines

At first, the Imperial High Command wrote off Biak as a lost cause. But, because of Colonel Kuzume’s tenacious and effective defense it was decided to try and reinforce Biak and possibly even retake the island.

The Japanese made a determined effort to reinforce Biak Island; they assembled sufficient naval strength to destroy naval units under Mac Arthur’s control and sent about half their land-based aircraft in the Carolines and the Marianas to airfields in western New Guinea, where they were within easy range of Biak.

Between roughly on 1 June 1944 the Japanese started to send convoys of troops to Biak to reinforce it. Most met with failure and only about one or two thousand men arrived mostly without arms and equipment.

The Japanese then decided to make one last, serious effort to reinforce Biak before it fell. The operation was code named KON and scheduled for 22 June 1944. Operation KON was including the world biggest battleships ever built; Yamato, and her sibling Musashi to fight U.S. Marines in Northern New Guinea, Biak.

On 2 June, from eleven to fifteen Japanese planes bombed Allied positions on Biak and Owi Island, causing many red alert till 4 June

No sooner after this redeployment of naval and air forces been accomplished than the Japanese learned of the presence of the U.S. naval force in the Marianas, and the reinforcement was canceled.

On 3 June, The KON Operation was called off.

The forces were reassigned to assist the Combined Fleet in the Philippines Sea with Admiral Ozawa’s Mobile Fleet. This would become the battle of the Marianas and lead to the destruction of much of the remaining air strength of the Japanese Navy.

Latter on Biak, the Japanese defenders fought desperately “with no thought of withdrawal.” to retain the island without any naval or air reinforcement.

Kuzume also choose not to fight the US on the beaches. Instead, he hides the troops on honeycomb alike coral cliff that overlooked the coastal strip.

His forces denied the US use of the airfields his engineers were building and kept the US from construction of new ones. The jungle and rugged terrain kept US ground forces at bay almost as effectively as his on men did.

Japanese defenses made General Krueger, the U.S. Sixth Army Commander, did not declare the operation over until 20 August 1944.

Lieutenant Colonel Naoyuki Kuzume put up a fierce defense that included tanks, which was rare for Japanese troops in this theater of the Pacific War. Kuzume utilized his knowledge of the island’s topography and devised a brilliant defense plan that fully utilized the terrain.

His effective defense even rendered the airfields, newly captured by the Allies, useless.

Additional United States reinforcements were sent in and, despite the enemy’s fierce and valiant attempts to hold the remaining airfields at Sorido and Borokoe, the two strips were finally wrested from the Japanese.

The Rundown

On 28 Jun, Kuzume’s command post, located in one of the numerous caves, was breached. Frustrated American troops soon discovered the brutal tactic of simply dynamiting the caves, causing the cave roofs to collapse on the defenders hiding inside.

The Garrison Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Naoyuki Kuzume, committed seppuku (suicide) while the remaining caves continued to fight ferociously.

Old people in Biak which witnessing this sadistic action call to remember the use of gasoline barrels as bomb and fire-thrower. They also said that numbers of Allied Forced was burn alive because friendly fired and weapon malfunctions.

Mopping-up operations continued with amphibious shore-to-shore landings in August at Korim Bay, Wardo, and Warsa Bay. Other landings on Soepiori Island in September brought the campaign to a close.

After some of the most fanatical fighting of the Pacific War, The entire garrison of 11,400 men was wiped out on Biak. Some Japanese troops refused to surrender, and during the battle escaped into the jungle where they continued to sporadic resistance throughout the rest of the year until January, 1945.

Allied forced figures over 7,200 enemy killed by 20 January 1945 indicates the tenacity with which the Japanese fought to keep Biak from falling to the Allies, but according to Japanese and the evidences founded in Biak, there is more, a lot more.

Japan Biak War 1944

Biak turned out to be an important battle for another reason. It was the first time Japanese troops effectively used caves as defensive strongholds. Before this point, Japanese troops defended the islands at the beach; when all was lost, surviving troops formed a banzai charge, and the battle was over. After the battle, the Japanese began to include caves as an option, which dramatically increased American casualty rates during operations to secure the subsequent islands.

American Biak War 1994

The Americans, similar to other Pacific actions, lost more men from the front lines to diseases than deaths and battle wounds. Despite a lack of water, the poor allocation of U.S. forces, and the large number of the enemy troops defending, the American soldiers acquitted themselves very well to achieve a clear victory, under terrible conditions. Little publicity went to the sacrifice and achievement at Biak because individuals of the high command did not want to publicize their own mistakes.

Biak was an intense battle, fought in some of the most brutal terrain and enemy defenses of the Pacific theater.

Source

• The Undisclosed Truth Of Biak - May 27,1944
• Medical Department Activities in New Guinea
• Biak at Wikipedia(nl) Entries
• World War II Data Base, New Guinea Campaign
• American Military History, Chapter 23 - World War II: The War Against Japan
• American Military History, Mac Arthur Report, Chapter X - Western New Guinea Operations
• New Guinea, by Gordon R. Sullivan
• US Army in WWII: The Approach to the Philippines, Chapter XII, XII, XIV, XV, XVI