Biak Island, Battle of
Publié le 22/02/2012
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During the New Guinea Campaign, elements of
the 41st U.S. Division under Maj. Gen. Horace Fuller
landed on Biak (an island off the northern coast of
Dutch New Guinea) on May 27, 1944. Their objective
was to take this important Japanese air base and
seize it for basing U.S. aircraft to support the campaign
to retake the Philippines. The Japanese garrison
of 11,400 made a typically tenacious stand
and, despite a U.S. naval cordon around the island,
managed to land 1,200 reinforcements. The rugged
terrain of the island favored the defenders.
Anticipating little resistance on Biak, the often
impetuous Gen. Douglas MacArthur had prematurely
announced victory on the island when he
learned that Biak had yet to be taken. Embarrassed
and also deeply dissatisfied with the slow progress
of the American advance on Biak, MacArthur
relieved Fuller and replaced him with Lt. Gen.
Robert Lawrence Eichelberger on June 14.
Under new leadership, the 41st Division began
quickly rolling up the defenders, except for holdouts
at Ibdi (the so-called Ibdi Pocket), who held
off the attackers until July 28. Although victory was
now announced again, mop-up operations continued
on Biak until August 17.
American forces lost 400 killed and 2,000
wounded, with another 7,000 disabled by endemic
tropical diseases, including typhus and a fever of
mysterious origin that was never identified. Japanese
losses exceeded 5,000 killed. Some 800 were
taken prisoner. Others slipped off into the dense
jungle, and a very few holdouts continued to resist
as late as January 1945.
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