U.S. Plane crewman clean guns on New Guinea Airfield.

U.S. Plane crewman clean guns on New Guinea Airfield. American crew members of a Havoc attack bomber clean their plane's guns at the recently captured Hollandia airfield on New Guinea on their return from an attack on the Japanese base at Biak Island, 470 miles from Hollandia. A gasoline truck (right) is replenishing the plane's fuel tanks. The pile of junk in the background is the wreckage of Japanese bombers destroyed during the American attack on Hollandia in May, 1944. U.S. troops captured the strategic Mokmer airdrome on Biak on June 7, thus gaining a base within bombing range of the enemy-held Philippine Islands, less than 900 miles away. Approximately 15,000 Japanese have been killed and 900 taken prisoner in the areas of Hollandia, Aitape and Maffin Bay, on New Guinea and on Wakde Island, New Britain and the Admiralties, U.S. Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson reported Juni 8, 1944.