Nightmare Island: The Battle for Biak Island, May-August 1944

“Artillery, machine gun fire, and mortars plastered our troops. ” –Colonel Riegelman of the US 162nd Infantry Regiment account of the first day’s fighting on Biak. The invasion of Biak island was the culmination of General MacArthur’s New Guinea campaign that began nearly a year earlier with Operation Cartwheel and the reduction and bypassing of the Japanese fortifications at Rabaul and Truk.…