Also about watching the World War Two series on YouTube: when they cover the battles for Hollandia (on PNG) and for Biak, it did not occur to me to look up the history of my father’s battalion.

Turns out they were at both.

I had only heard about the Philippines, so I don’t know if he was on the prior island campaigns or not, but I presume he was. There was never any mention of such. Perhaps the horrors of the battles were best left in a faded past.