. The coral reef at Noemfoor, and the technique of suddenly stopping engines to get over it.

. The swift current off Biak, making it hard to hold the beach, and the deep rock bottom in which an anchor could catch.

. Underway in column to a distant invasion, with dirty clothes towed on line from the stern.

. The officer's poker games on convenient nights: the favorite dealer's choice was 'baseball'.

. The welcomed first case of fresh meat (how obtained?) even if it was liver.

. Emanuelli's precious pints of 'medical' alcohol.

. The Group officer's day excursion to the Island of Japen for a rijstafel at the Dutch colonial governor's residence; a platoon of native patroller's goosestepping."

January 2, 1945
 Arrived Japen Island, conducted practice landing exercises and returned to Noemfoor Island

3 June 1944
As I write this (about 1125) on this day in 1944 the RAAF fought its last major Pacific air battle of WW2! (Interesting that the war in the Pacific would go on for another 14 months and there were many US aces created in that time frame.)

Anyway just south of Biak Island over the Japen Straits 15 P-40Ns of 78 Sqn engaged 12 Japanese fighters and 3 dive bombers. The battle lasted from about 1120 to 1155 local time. They claimed 7 fighters (which they said were Oscars, but were most likely Zeros) destroyed and 2 dive bombers (claimed as Kates, but were in fact Judys) destroyed. In actual fact they destroyed 7 fighters and 3 Judys. 78 Sqn's loss was one P-40N and its pilot F/Sgt Happy Harnden.
 

Of the 14 pilots who returned from that mission 4 did not see the end of the war either being KIA or in accidents. Of the 10 who survived the war 5 are still alive today! May we remember their sacrifices and victories.

What a great idea Gordon C! We would like to make this a regular segment in the newsletter so if you have any dates that you would like to share with us email jan@adf-serials.com.

Diaries of Kenneth Paul Meriam
Aug 16, 1944 Started packing today, moving out again, this time rumor has it as Biak. Rumor also has it that we'll merely stop-over there.

Sept 15 - A long wait doing a lot of odd jobs getting finished up tho we've been ready since the 20th of Aug. A lot of poker and cards of all kinds, reading a lot. Today we pulled out in trucks at 5 AM for Lae, leaving the fellows going home on the sixth and seventh groups. What happy guys, we also 'cause the plan has finally caught up. Loaded on L.C. I.'s this morning, we're going to Biak on them and what seasick visions we have. Twelve in a convoy. Lucky us, the sea has been very smooth, just a few fellows seasick.

Went by the Jap held part - Wewak - Aitape last nite - completely blacked out - all guns manned. Hollandia - McArthur's by gone by, busy looking place. We stopped apparently for a message, left five L.C.I.'s and underway again. Pulled into Biak at two in the afternoon after passing Owe and Japen Islands - Japen still held by the Nips. Biak much different than we expected except for coral everywhere. Pulled in to landing jetties - a crunch and we were in. Five months after and signs of the invasion everywhere. Torn trees, cliffs, coral misc. equipment, barges etc. Trucks to "camp" and what a dismal mess! A large lot scraped out on a bumpy slope to a steep hillside. Getting late and squabbles as to setting up the tents in a raw - a temporary set up at best - we can't see what a difference it makes. Guess we're tired and disgusted; too much petty stuff. Have just spent two days moving tents into straight lines which are still crooked, hard to drive stakes in coral. Picking up sticks and stones, digging and blasting latrines, putting in a shower floor, tent frames going up, police, police, police!!! Cleared out a lot for the motor pool; they moved in further down the road!
 

They say we're going to operate on Sorido strip - transports. I don't quite believe it 'cause the equipment is coming in now and it's going into the motor pool - not the "line". What a hell of a mess!! The worst move I've seen! The equipment not too good. Our big electrical test set sat out on the open deck for over a month, thru storms, etc. A wreck!! God, I sure got burnt up at the messy job done. Broken boxes, more than ever before, tools stolen, and some equip missing. Moved into the new tent frames, not bad tho a bad fit. Building frames for the officers now. Well down forty feet, no water.

Crating and boxing again - we're not setting up!! P.I. looks like the next hop. Gosh almighty!! I've never seen hotter more humid miserable heat. Whooee, we stifle to death during the day in the tents. Outside in the sun, it's like a hammer; in the shade it's nice, a bit of a breeze helps. Logging in the woods a terrific job!

Oct 7 - Camp looks good now, tho it's only a temporary set up, we've sure put the work into making it nice for we don't know how long. "Well" is no good, almost fifty feet. School days again, a refresher for a few new mechanics. Not bad at all and it may do some good. Food good now. Had a nice chat with the Dutch civilian in charge of the island. 'Bout trading with the natives and their being spoiled. Navy's the worst offender.

Hanson says no shop foreman to go home 'til after we're set up and working again. The quotas are getting smaller - God, will I never get home? At this time, I can't see it happening before January or February - three bloody, long, lonely years watching, lately, fellows go home who came overseas after I did!

Oct 15 - All caught up on rotation, the eighth October bunch left with the Sept group this am. Bargaining with the natives is fun! Two red alerts early in the morning, nothing else. Japs kept busy elsewhere now. We can't tell how long it will be 'fore we move. Convoys shaping up in the "bay". Had an experience today. Hauling crates from one side of the motor pool to the other with a big tractor and boom. Had a load of sheet iron, heavy as ell, backed over a slope, the tractor tipped, settled back I swung my leg, it tipped again and over she went. I took off like I was on a spring board, a flat dive, gloved hands hit first, stomach knees, then toes. Slid ten feet, turned over and watched the dust settle. The boom kept the tractor from rolling - on me. The catseye business has boomed, we've cleared better then $100 apiece but now we're moving again.

Nov 6 we left Biak after two hectic days of preparing to load and loading. No sleep for over 40 hours, rough. We moved to another island, picked up our convoy the next day. All told some 12 to 15 cargo ships and 40 to 50 L.S.T.'s, quite a good sized convoy, the biggest yet for us. Escorted by several D.E.'s. Several destroyers picked us up one day out. Only a few G.I.'s sounded but no Nips showed up. The trip was perfect except the heat below deck, terrific. Food wonderful, sure did a lot of reading.

USS Phoenix CL-46
An amphibious assault on Biak Island, Geelvink Bay followed. There Mac Arthur planned to establish a forward base for heavy bombers. With Nashville and light cruiser Boise (CL-47), Phoenix sortied from Humboldt Bay 25 May and two days later supported the landing. Resistance was stubborn. While the task force fired on shore installations two of the escorting destroyers were hit by shells from shore batteries. Phoenix wiped out the gun emplacement with two salvos from her 5-inch batteries.

On 4 June, off the northwest coast of New Guinea, eight Japanese fighter bombers attacked Phoenix's task force. Two confined their attention to Phoenix. Although the ship's gunfire did not hit the planes, it diverted their bomb runs. Both planes dropped bombs, one of which burst in the water close aboard Phoenix killing one man and wounding four others with fragments. The ship also suffered some underwater leakage and damage to her propellers. The following night aircraft again attacked Phoenix. This time low-flying torpedo planes struck as she proceeded through Japen Strait, between Biak Island and New Guinea, but her gunfire and evasive tactics prevented damage.

Phoenix and her task force frustrated an enemy attempt to reinforce their garrisons on the night of 8-9 June. When they contested the American ships, the Japanese destroyers turned and fled at such high speed that only one U.S. destroyer division was able to get within firing range. After a running fight of three hours at long range, Phoenix and her sisters broke off action

With Boise and ten destroyers, Phoenix sortied from Seeadler Harbor in the Admiralties and bombarded shore defenses before our forces landed on Noemfoor Island 2 July. After the battle, many dead Japanese and wrecked planes were found in the target area assigned to Phoenix.

November And December 1944
My First Boat, a "C" boat, was issued to me in Monteray Cal. . The "C" boat was a coverted 50 Foot long Navy liberty boat. It had been decked over with accodations for 4 with a chart table & a small galley with Coleman 1 burner gas stoves. It had also been given a flying bridge.

Biak Netherlands East Indies
       The powers that be decided that Co. "C" would move north to Biak. A large Island about 800 miles up the coast of New Guinea in the Dutch East Indies. This was bypassing large sections of coast line that was still in the hands of the Japanese. We made this run mostly at night, in runs of 12 to 18 hours, and staying well off shore out of range of shore positions. This trip took over 100hr. running time in a time period of 8 days. We arrived at Biak on the 12th day of November in a convoy of about 20 "M" boats. There where 4 men in a M-boat crew; Coxwain, Engineer. & 2 seaman. They would all relieve each other on the long runs around the round the clock.

      Biak is now in what is called Indonesia, It is a large island. Our area was between the large air strip and the beach, there was a large reef several hundred yards off shore. This gave us a protected anchorage. I being in Headquarters platoon was able to stay aboard the "C" boat, where most of the "M" boat crews went ashore to build the Co. area. The coxswains of the "M" boats would stay aboard. Each day at meal time a boat would would make the rounds and pick up the people on board and take to shore for a picnic on the beach, In other words the mess hall would send down to the beach the food and we would fill our mess kits, pass the time of day and the water taxi would return us to our boats. The same taxi would take us to the beach for showers or what ever. We had a pretty good set up for water on shore, one man a truck driver had 6x6 with a large pontoon (like used in pier construction) for a water tank. He would locate a source of water and take care of our needs. The co. area would have two of these pontoons on a framework high enough to supply the showers and camp needs. The tank truck would load his tank with water then pump it up to the shower tank. a pretty neat setup. While at Biak I road with him to his source of water, It was a spring that came of a rock face wall, It must have been 15 or 20 ft. across and 6 or 8 Ft high quite artisan well. It was the only water I had while over seas that did not have chlorine.

       The "C" with it's crew, I was coxswain, Joe Howard, (who was so young we called him JR. ) was engineer, Charles K. Stadelman was seaman. Charlie was about 38 years old, so he was an old man. We had a real good crew and seemed to get along very well. When we were on convoy's A radioman would come aboard. Usually It was Waymon E Brewer a very good man with a wonderful sense of humor. This short story that took place while loading out for the P. I.. One morning at about 02:00 we were loading out a large convoy of APA's &AKA's things had quieted down and there were no transmissions on the radio. Waymon said I think I'll wake up the troops, & said into the mike "DO YOU HAVE THE BURNING DESIRE TO BECOME A MOTHER" The whole net work became alive it took about a half an hour before it settled down to normal.

       We The "C" boat made several trips to Hollandia about 250 miles to pick up some boats. One time we brought back several armored 45' boats that were similar to the Picket boats but were all steel. Wow were they hot down below, I'm glad we didn't have to keep them. Another Island we made 2 trips to, was Japen. (the spelling is right) It was about 100 miles and a very pretty place. There was some sort of Dutch Official who lived there who the officers needed to see. The day before we made one trip we got a ration of beer, Some say it was green other said it was me being a nondrinker, anyway I got sick. Oh it was terrible I was so sick, in the morning I was still sick. I took the boat out through the reef and called Joe to take over I think I spent most of the day in the sack. Joe Ayers was a man that was from Long Beach Ca. we had lived several blocks from each other, though had never met. Joe made with his boat, these trips to Japen Island. We went hunting on one trip but didn't see any thing to shoot.

       At the end of the first year at Biak the "C' boat was leaking and was pretty rotten. I was given a LCS (Landing Craft Support) 36' spoon bow. This boat had steel armor on all exposed surfaces including the flying bridge, There were Machine gun mounts plus rocket launchers racks on each side of the con. This boat was rebuilt to fit our needs when we got to Mendoro P.I. and became the company "J" boat which I then had for the rest of the war.