Staff Sergeant Francis Heesakker
Weapons Platoon, G Troop, 2nd Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment
Francis D. Heesakker, known as “Stack” to friends and family, was born on August 4th, 1924 in Little Chute, Wisconsin. The youngest of five children, Francis Heesakker grew up on his family’s farm, assisting his 75-year-old father and 65-year-old mother with tending to the fields and maintaining farm equipment. In the spring of 1942, he graduated from St. John's High School and was drafted into the US Army on May 21st, 1943. He reported to basic training at Camp Walters, Texas one week later.
After this initial training, he was transferred to Fort Ord, California before sailing to Australia as a replacement. He transitioned from a cavalry replacement depot to the 1st Cavalry Division, assigned to Weapons Platoon, G Troop, 2nd Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division. Private Heesakker and the rest of the division spent their time 'down under' in Brisbane, training for combat on Pacific islands and in jungles. In mid-December, 1943, Private Heesakker boarded the SS James D Doty, sailing from Australia to Oro Bay, New Guinea. He arrived in New Guinea on December 29th just before 5:00 PM. While the division was stationed in New Guinea, plans were being made by the Sixth Army and General Douglas MacArthur for the First Team’s baptism by fire.
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The Admiralty Island Campaign
MacArthur’s “I Shall Return” proclamation was just as fresh in late 1943 as when it was issued in 1941. To fulfill this promise, he needed to defeat or bypass formidable Japanese garrisons in the Bismark Sea and the Southeast Pacific. Instead of wasting time and manpower to neutralize Japanese strongholds, he opted to isolate them by capturing the Admiralty Islands (now Manus Province, Papua New Guinea). The Admiralty Islands is an archipelago comprising forty islands, with Manus and Los Negros Islands being the largest and most populated. Prior to World War I, the islands were a colonial possession of Germany before being annexed by Australia. In 1942, the Japanese captured them. Manus Islands is the largest island in the archipelago and is rectangularly shaped aside from a peninsula in the southwest corner of the island. It is separated from Los Negros Island by a thin causeway utilized by the natives of the island as a skidway for canoes to easily transfer them between Hyane Harbor and Papitali Harbor (which connects to the much larger Seeadler Harbor). The Admiralty Islands had two airfields (the Momote Airdrome on Los Negros Island and Lorengau Airfield on Manus Island) supporting the Japanese stronghold at Rabaul as well as deep port facilities, making them the perfect location for enhancing Allied logistical operations and cutting off a major Japanese garrison close to Australia.
Los Negros Island
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After a scouting mission by the Sixth Army’s Alamo Scouts, the 1st Cavalry Division was notified that they were to invade and capture the Admiralty Islands. Supported by a light cruiser, seven destroyers, and three high-speed transports, General MacArthur personally sailed with 2nd Squadron, 5th Cavalry Regiment along with B Battery, 99th Field Artillery and other various supporting detachments on the initial invasion. This ‘reconnaissance-in-force’ (called Task Force Brewer), fell under the command of the 5th Cavalry Regiment’s commander Colonel Hugh Hoffman and landed just north of Momote Airdrome on February 29th, 1944. The squadron faced stiff resistance and troop transports, destroyers, and Allied aircraft all took fire from Japanese shore batteries, urging Allied leadership to urgently reinforce Task Force Brewer.
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​Just before noon on March 4th, 2nd Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment (2/7 Cav) arrived, reinforcing their 5th Cavalry counterparts. Along with a fresh squadron of cavalrymen, the 82nd Field Artillery Battalion landed and moved to relieve Task Force Brewer. Heesakker’s first night on the front line saw numerous groups of between 10-15 Japanese soldiers probing the American front line and mortar fire harassed his squadron. The next day at 3:00 PM, 2/7 Cav was ordered to advance north from the beachhead towards the northern arm of Los Negroes Island, seizing a native skidway in preparation of additional reinforcements landing on March 6th. The squadron recorded 25 Japanese killed, taking the skidway and digging in on the north side of it by late afternoon.
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Once the skidway was secured, the next target for 2/7 Cav was Salami Plantation to the north. 2/7 Cav advanced on the plantation, securing it with the help of the 12th Cavalry Regiment which rapidly redeployed from Momote Airfield to the plantation on March 6th. The official 1st Cavalry Division history quoted an excerpt from YANK Magazine, describing the morale of the troopers seizing the plantation as follows “Eager for a fight, the men stormed through the sniper-infested territory, averaging an incredible 3.5 miles an hour. All units were imbued with a desire to ‘move on ‘em and kill ‘em.’”
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Captured diaries and documents from Salami Plantation and the skidway detailed that the Japanese force in the northern part of Los Negroes, the Iwakami Battalion, lost 600 out of it’s 800 men, with the remaining combat troops fleeing to the Papitalai Mission located on the southern part of Los Negros and separated from the skidway by a 500-yard stretch of water. Lieutenant Colonel Bertram Wright wrote that the retreat was “so disorganized was their retreat that many of the panicky [Japanese] were frantically paddling their [captured native canoes] with their hands, not having time to secure paddles from the beach or from native huts. Not more than 80 of his unit reached Papitalai.”
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On March 8th, 2/7 Cav boarded landing craft and were transported from Salami Plantation across Seeadler Harbor to Lombrun Plantation. They landed unopposed and by the end of March, Los Negroes Island was neutralized. However, an estimated 2,700 Japanese troops still remained on Manus Island and smaller islands to the north.