Z-Day The Battle For Biak

Save up some money and go on a tour to Biak. Its cheaper than what you might imagine.

 

My Uncle was a Sgt. in the 41st Division in New Guinea. Here's a link to a site.

The 41st Infantry Division

Check out this guy's memories:

The 41st Infantry Division

Home of the Jungleers

Kenny Rogers, E Co., 163rd Infantry, Heavy Weapons Platoon




"My training at Camp Roberts in California before going overseas included a lesson I never forgot. I was an eager young recruit (a little too young as I had lied about my age.) I was enthusiastically engaged in bayonet training, learning all the right moves. Then an old grizzled veteran called to me 'Tennessee, come over here. I see you're taking all this bayonet training very seriously.' 'Yes, sir,' I replied. 'Well, I want to tell you how to take care of the best bayonetter the Germans have and the finest swordsmen in the Japanese army.' 'How's that sir?' was my reply. 'Never run our of ammunition,' was his advice. I never forgot it. Never used my bayonet much either, except for opening K rations.


I never remember going hungry in the army. We were occassionally short of ammunition (in spite of the best advice), and often short of cigarettes, but seldom short of food. We were good at improvising. If you didn't have the right ingredients you could generally swap with somebody for something. Ted Funk was our mess sargeant and really knew his way around. One time he had 3 or 4 cases of canned peaches he didn't know what to do with so he threw them in the back of the truck, dropped by a few other places, and asked 'Whatcha got to swap?'. He was always so calm about it. And he would always come back with something you could use. Some people were cooks, and some were butchers. But Funk was good. Even the officers from other units came over to eat his fixins.


One time we ended up with 56 lbs of bacon in tins. Since I had 'liberated' a large frying pan and had several cans of sterno, I took some of the bacon and rendered it. Then took my 22 and shot one of the local chickens. Hailing from Tennessee, fried chicken was my speciality. Pretty soon, stray chickens were showing up in the hands of other GIs who stood in line waiting their turn at the fry pan.
On Jolo Island, near Sanga Sanga, I was assigned to be a driver for the general. We were returning from a long drive, when the general mentioned that 'he had a hankering for a fish dinner'. So, I recruited the usual bunch of natives, and we went fishing along the Sulu Archipelago. We loaded the little boats with a few grenades and cannisters of explosives. One of the natives swam like a serpent; he would weave around under the water to spot the fish, and then slink onto the boat with such grace it looked he never moved. Once a school of fish were located, it was time for the depth charges. Boom! We had enough fish to feed 200 men. Took them ashore, and I filleted them and gave the natives the heads. They had fish-head and rice as a delicacy.
When you went in for a landing, the army had given each of us nine K rations; that was for breakfast, lunch and dinner for three days, plus three cigarettes, a book of matches and toilet paper. If you lost your can opener you were in trouble. If they hadn't resupplied us by the fourth day, we went to emergency rations. That was mostly chocolate bars, which doesn't sound too bad until you realize that this stuff was white on the outside, and hard as a rock. You could use it for hand-to-hand combat to hit Japs with. The only way we could get it to melt was to shave it. With enough work, it became a cup of 'Choke-O'.


In the Philippines, we bought a young water bufalo from one of the local farmers. Included with the price was the slaughter. After it's throat was cut, it was laid on it's back spread eagle. A slit was made up the belly, and next the hide was carefully stripped back which made a clean table upon which to dismember the animal. We had to work fast, because the green flies would overtake you if you didn't. The same haste was used in burial of our dead.


One person I remember from the Sulu Archipelago area was 'Two-Gun' Parks. He was a pilot with the 146th Field Artillery. He was assigned to be a spotter, but he couldn't resist striking at anything he spotted. He'd carry a case of grenades in the cockpit. He'd fly with one hand and pitch with the other. 'Two-Gun' finally made first lieutenant. He had carried on a one-man war for quite a while in the Philippines. If he saw even one Jap, he'd lob a grenade or something at him.
I'm originally from Southeast Chatanooga. I was in California two months when inducted. Was in Camp Roberts on Angel Island. Got into a fight with Marines Air Force. At Oakland got on board ship 'Mormack Sea.' Never saw nothing while at sea; not even a dove with an olive branch. From California it took 27 days to get to Brisbane by freighter.


In Australia, we spent July and August at the Ascot Racetrack living in tents. It was freezing and they needed an overcoat and woolens. The plumbing was very primitive. But the beer was good. We were a pretty salty outfit. Saturday noon everything stopped and we turned on the beer keg; and it never stopped. We got two 22 gallon kegs, from the Fitzroy Brewery; it was called 'green death.' We made beer mugs by taking string and tying it around a bottle, grind off the edge with sandpaper. Just pour it down! The Aussies took to feeding us. 3 inches of mutton tallow on top of vegetables. Meat still had fur. But they were doing the best they could without refrigeration. It was a poor country in the 40s. Fish and chips were the best option. There was no milk until I got back to the States; that was the food I missed the most. Outside Rockhampton a few enterprising GIs set up a hamburger joint. They had the bakery make special buns. Also had apple pie. But it was a long hike. It took two copper pennies to get a ride to town in Rockhampton. But why go? There were 25 guys to every gal. And NO BEER. All the gals had teeth problems. The only good set of teeth were false. Mossies were bad in Rockhampton. B Co. of the 163rd was all Indian. One night they got tanked up on beer and went running naked through the woods with axes. Didn't kill anybody, but after that they broke up the company and put 6 to 8 Indians in each.


Toem: Tom Parker and I spotted a Jap cemetery near dark. Knew it would rain as it did everyday. Grave had a shelter, so we put ponchos in there. In the middle of the night Parker says 'stop pushing.' It turned out to be a Jap general who came up out of the grave as the water table rose. He was really bloated and we had a devil of a time pushing him back down. Felt sorry for the New Guineans; pigs lived better.


Ambush on Biak: Soggy, wet and black soil had a track through it from foot traffic. Set up alongside the track. Tom Parker was in a hole with me. Pavonca set up his gen 38 on the other side. Prior to this, they had decided to take air-cooled 30's away from us and came out with a new gun ; had bipod on it with stock that rested on shoulder. Once fired you didn't know which way it fired. Haven't seen a Jap in three days. Cut fence.


We were in a bamboo thicket so thick it was dark at noon; 40-60 clumps. Tom Parker was the trigger man (he was from Watsonville, Ca.). Parker and me cut some smaller bamboo and made a little fence in front of our position. That stuff rattled like crazy. Also put trip wire over trail and hung cans with a couple of cartridges inside as an early warning system. I sure remember the ones not killed running through the bamboo and you could follow the sounds of their retreat. Seven or eight were killed, there was no way of knowing the number wounded or how many tempted fate by screwing with E Company.


Japs hit it just before daylight. Someone gave out a Rebel yell. Dozing with my back up against the bamboo, I heard the noise and let off eight shots. Pavonka cut loose, and they ran off the trail into the dark like inside of a black cat. Souvenirs the next morning were great.


I've grown up with guns. Carried several, including a 22 into battle. If I got hit, I'd still be in orbit. The big problem with infantry co was men who didn't see anything to shoot. Powers was so small he looked like a turtle in a helmet as it came down on his shoulders.


Back to Biak. There were 7 or 9 bodies stacked up in front of us. The first one fell on gun; Parker shot him over the top of eyes, tore his head off because he was firing straight up. Japs were trying to get to the coast. The bamboo was so thick, you couldn't see the sun go up or down.


Tom Parker and I picked up C ration cans (see letter). Lieutenant comes up to me in New Guinea and says if something hits it don't fire. Uh huh.
Killed a couple of dogs that tripped the alarm. Dead meat no matter what it was. Twenty feet either way, you didn't know what was going on.
Korim Bay they set up a command post. Sorties out and back. Built a prison of barbed wire and coconut logs and kept prisoners. Ran into cannibalism among the Japs who were trapped there. We swam out to the Aussie boats one day; had 'tea' and swam back. The stockade had 10-12 prisoners when the boats came and it was time for us to move out. Shoot the bastards. Drew straws in weapons; it fell to one Harvey Licht from Seattle.


We cut a wide swath in Japanese items in the gray market; was in no hurry to get home. Made the most money in the soap business.
I'm known for setting fire to things. There were 50-100 drums of gas. An Indian from Montana said to burn it, so I put a grenade on top and shot holes in it. Sent up a huge plume of smoke.


On Itape, Tom Parker fell into a Jap outhouse. Slot up perimeter right on train tracks. Shorty Scales was on the gun. A horse came down the road, and Shorty missed the horse. Parker was in a jungle hammock, tried to hit the deck and fell into the burned shitpit up to his waist. Somebody else woke up and shot; hit a bone in the leg of one of our guys who then got his ticket home. Just up the road was where I killed my first Jap. I put his gold teeth in the wooden part of my gun. Tried to mail it home to my Dad, but some Air Force guys bought it from me for a 45 pistol.


Dysentery Ridge. The ledge was _______________, Japs had 75mm cannon to right of us. Orr and Newman would try to draw fire. Crazy bastard. Several people killed up there. Started at Jetty at sea level, several hundred yards up went up to second level; we were bivouacked up there. The gun was like shooting fish in a barrel. There were no people in the town area when I was there. The first tank battle in the South Pacific was on Biak. Jap tanks were tinkertoys. Had 'canisters' wicked piece of equipment, like a shotgun, point it in any direction and shoot. Had bazookas which took two men to run it; had to tie wires into battery post. Standing behind was more dangerous than in front. 2.5. Had to keep spring fired around as rocket wouldn't go. Bolt action. Had 03's till end of war; star gauged, brand new. Nobody ever got long distance shot, but it was a beautiful gun.


Tex Holleen was deadly. He could smell 'em. Never got all our table of equipment because Europe was more important. Understrength. 163rd Infantry was 'Musket.'; Musket 'Red' was the 1st Battalion; 'White' the 2nd battalion, and 'Blue' the 3rd battalion. 2BNHQ4 Jeep. Triangle was 163rd Infantry. LCM was my favorite with a big ramp in the front. Higgens was original; had to face rear and swing yourself over while facing enemy.


Caves at Biak. We rolled barrels of gas down there and then shot them; smoke came out everywhere. It was a honeycomb. One thing that I remember is the stink. Wet, hot of New Guinea and Biak; the smell of jungle rot. Got itchy stuff between everything. Salicylic acid would burn your hoohoos, but killed everything.
Near the airfield on Biak I was running back and forth up the hill. Ran over a booby trap six times, and it never went off. When Scotty Kullen got killed on Biak, Sgt. Owens from Texas went bananas crying after a few beers. I never got that close. Down on the Bosnik jetty, 40-50 corpses were being barged out.


I got yellow jaundice on Biak caused by flies. As for water on Biak there were some streams, but they were more like buffalo wallows. We had portable pumps with rubber bags of chemicals. Tanks had gas in one and water in the other. Drank coconut milk and Sago palm milk which tasted like buttermilk. There were bugs on everything. Japs got so sick on Biak because they stayed too long. I also had malaria. If your arm got next to the mosquito net at night, it would be swollen up the nest day. The pills were galling. Some Nordics turned yellow from them. I lost my appetite and my urine looked like GI coffee. Shipped off.


The worst fighting was the mortar shower at Zamboanga; some soldiers went bonkers after that. But Biak was the low point. Things looked bleak, our future was none to hot. We had been there a long time and got through OK. The ground itself was very inhospitable. It was hit and humid. Women were disease-ridden jungle bunnies. The Japs were gonna get you. Supposedly the whole Navy was on it's way with a million replacements. I lost some friends there. The Philippines was easier; people were English speaking and there were ties with the US.


22 April 1944 was the first of three landings in two days in the Philippines - never a shot fired. E Company was on 'Ward' which sunk subs at Pearl Harbor; they made a troop carrier out of it. The 3rd platoon of E Co. was on Zamboanga. Very shot up. Mountain blew up. S-2 had an intelligence mission. I volunteered to follow the river, but that was cancelled. There was Jap landing craft on the river; first one I ever saw, and I wanted them to check out the area.


Jolo City in the Philippines: The motor pool, over the edge down 50 feet was a native cemetery. Bringing light food and drink to the dead. Mack N. Smith _______ country on Holo. Had a jungle piano; a hollowed out log with hardwood slats like a xylophone. Saw my first execution there. Knife fighters hated Japs; took opportunity to get even. Cut him across body and beheaded him. The Jap Rifle '25' were longer than the Japs.


At a reunion with two buddies from San Pedro, one named Phelps said to me 'you saved my live over there.' I admitted I had no recollection. 'You came along and gave me a ride in a jeep; then let me drive it. It was then and there that I knew what I was fightin' for - to come back here and drive a car! That attitude saved my life.'
Tex Holleen gave me the best advice. 'Don't run out of ammo.' Still haven't. Tex was a good ole country boy and an expert marksman. He carried a Browning automatic. Walking down a trail, he suddenly stops, pulls his Browning and killed 10-12 Japs; he had a sense for them. I would strip them for souvenirs.


Newman was a California boy and a pretty good soldier. Up on the ridge from the trail on Biak, he would stand up and draw fire. There were 50 Japs. They felt secure, making plenty of noise. On alert, Parker was asleep behind the gun. If they hadn't changed our guns (the old style had a tripod hard...) we'd have been in trouble. Never could for the life of me figure out what good a machine gun was because you had to lay down. That worked in Europe, but not here. Same with 50 cal gun and M1 carbine. A 30 cal you can carry and therefore do a lot more damage per pound. The M1 was gas operated and weighed 8.69 lbs.; after you carried it for 30 miles, the decimal point dropped out (9 lbs.). Once you got it loaded it was foolproof. 8th shot, then cow bell rang, threw up catch, out of ammo. Saved a guy's life at Camp Roberts (Cal.) I was on guard duty. You pump three times and fire, 7 rounds in a clip, closed bolt on empty slot. I hadn't been to the rifle range yet. It was 2 or 3am. There were thousands of troops. On one side is the barracks, the other side is the parade ground, a mile across. A figure comes off the parade ground. I yell 'halt.' It didn't halt, and took off running. I chased him. He was going great guns till he hit the clothes line. I drew down on him, but he ran into the barracks. I went in, pinned him to the wall with my bayonet. He was a member of the band. Guards said to let him lose. He would have been dead if I had done the gun training.


Most of the people I fought with were with me all the way. Few replacements. Our war was different. Ten guys here, 5 guys there, none of this 'over the top and get 'em all' Nothing like heavy artillery in Europe; more like the Revolutionary war days - tree to tree, hut to hut. We felt we were getting the raw end because we were in combat for 2-3 months straight; island to island.


Stories of Japs still on these islands 50 years later; could see it happening where they were. Kick butt and leave. Probably many times Japs cohabited and hung on. Regarding fighting Japs, if you killed off the sergeants or officers, the others wouldn't fight - no initiative. If the head gone, body was useless.


Landed on Biak. Cooper (later made Lt. Col.) went charging into a longhouse; yelled like a wounded panther, kicked down the door and fired. Killed 5-6 people before he could be halted. They were Korean.


In Australia near Rockhampton, the Aboriginal's roamed everywhere; stark naked, carrying everything they owned. Two or three guys in E. Co married Australians and decided to live there. Two or three enterprising individuals started a hamburger stand - for 25cents a throw. Soda pop people would bottle sarsaparilla and cream soda in whatever bottles they could find. Aussies were an un-uniform nation; they would use anything for anything. For 'Two and six' you could go to a milk bar and get papaya with pineapple covered with ice cream. We were at Ascot Racetrack outside Brisbane. Pubs had window to segregate families from GI's. Early morning beer call for real drunks, then 2 o'clock for 2-3 hours, then evenings. Put Green Death into copper pitchers for 6 pence a glass. Ran out for fish and chips while somebody held my place at the pub. That was livin. The best place to eat in Rockhampton was the American Red Cross. Hen apples. Your could get 'stike and aggs' for 60-70 cents. Got Coke syrup and put with water, no carbonation. Had lemon powder to make a drink, but needed more than the package told you. Don't remember eating Australian food. We had an agreement with the Australian government regarding troop movement such as Rockhampton towards Brisbane for water training. They would feed troops mutton stew - awful. Still had hair on it. Carrots were huge; could kill a person if thrown. They had it in stations, they put in garbage cans with yellow tallow grease on top. Left it for the cripples and laggards; rest of us headed for the pub.


About every other Saturday we got 2 barrels of beer from Fitzroy - imperial gallons, 21 or 22 per keg, delivered under the mess hall on Friday night. Iced them up so about 11:30 on Saturday we would tap the first keg and never turned the tap off. Guys lined up. Bu the second keg had to be leftover to Sunday as everybody was sick from too much Green Death.


When we arrived in Australia we got a ration book for uniforms. I wanted swim trunks, so went to the department store, but the only ones were wool and high wasted. Felt like you were in a corset. I made a diving helmet out of a gas mask and went diving off Coolangatta on the Barrier Reef. But the wool soaked up all the water, and the suit stretched and ended up hanging down around my knees. For unwary soldiers.
Enjoyed streetcars and buses (which were flatbed trucks with seats and a running board); they would collect 2 cents a ride. We could take the Toonerville Trolley to Yagoona where they had a boarding house on a 3-day pass. First made a pub call, 6 or 8 glasses; then went to the beach and laid down on the sand. I woke up burned like a lobster, and went back to the boarding house, flopped on the bed. The Aussie housemaid got a pitcher of ice water and rubbed it on my back. Later I went to the Aid Station and they smeared me with Tannic Acid. All the medicine in the army was brown - made cure-alls.


Fighting Japs on Biak was mostly like jumping on a bunch of cripples; we had them outgunned. It seems like both our governments had forgotten about us; we never did get all the jeeps, etc., we were supposed to. We would have been hard pressed to move out. The Regiment had 6X6 carriers that could hold one company with rifles packs at a time. Everything went to Europe. Never saw a half-track. Had tank battle there; Jap tank was Mickey Mouse piece of crap; one turret, little short cannon 37mm. This tank came fumbling down road out of Mokmer to beach road; Sherman's caught it in one shot. It was laughable.


One of our outfits really got into a mess there; ran smack into them coming out. Sickly, scared beatup bunch of people. Almost past talking. Cut off. Took the brunt of it. Don't remember any real frontal with 300 men going at it."

 

Thanks for that posting!

 

I apologize for bumping an old thread but I need help with a question :

Who was the 163rd Infantry Regiment commander on Biak?

So far I have done a preliminary search of:
Victory in Papua--Approach to the Philippines--Triumph in the Philippines
Taaffe's MacArthur's Jungle War--Prefer's MacArthur's New Guinea Campaign--Catanzaro's With the 41st Division...

All to no avail.
So far the only thing I have found is that a Colonel Francis W. Mason was commander of the 163rd RCT at Aitape until relieved 9 May 1944.
The sources above all mention the names of the commanders of the 162nd and 186th regiments on BIAK but I can not find the commander of the 163rd.

Again apologize if this is the wrong thread for my question, I did try a forum search previous to posting.
-TC

 

Thanks for the welcome.

Quick reply (I'm deep into searching some files and don't want to lose them)
It wasn't Jens A. Doe (he had been promoted from the 163rd Regiment to command the TF Persecutionand was actually the commander that relieved Col. Mason)
By the time of the Biak operation Jens A. Doe was a Brig Gen, Assistant Division Commander and eventually Division Commander of the 41st Division.

162nd CO: Col. Harold Haney
186th CO: Col. Oliver P. Newman
163rd CO: ??

If Mason was relieved on 9 May, that is only a month before the 163rd went to Biak.
(in my haste to respond I could have the dates wrong)

 

Thank you gentleman, I had found those earlier this evening.

Reading through Approach to the Philippines again, specifically the chapter on Wakde, I must say it is strange that the commander of the only infantry regiment involved is not named.
All the battalion commanders are named.

There is one passage that says (pg 221)
"some subordinate officers within the task force suggested that Wakde could be seized immediately and with little difficulty. But General Doe and Captain Noble vetoed such suggestions." (Noble was the USN Commander)
Who would suggest that? Why weren't they named? A Major Leonard A. Wing, the 2nd Battalion commander, commanded the assault on the island. His name is mentioned several times so I don't think the author would have left it out in that occasion.
Weird.

163rd RCT Battalion commanders for Wakde-Sarmi (I assume some commanded on Biak two weeks later)
[TABLE]
[TR]
[TD]1st BN[/TD]
[TD]Maj. Robert L. Irving[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]2nd BN[/TD]
[TD]Maj. Leonard A. Wing[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]3rd BN[/TD]
[TD]Maj. Garlyn Munkres[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

 

Action At Angaur, Palau 1945 World War II Pacific Film (28 Minutes)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiIgr_m6JOs

 

Post number 3 is epic!

 

Indeed it is...I missed that...Perhaps one of the mods will pin this thread...

 

I had the same thought.