Lost Evidence: "Peleliu" 2 of 5

It was officially known as "Operation Stalemate II" but the survivors still call it "The Forgotten Battle". It was one of the last big Pacific battles of World War II and one of the bloodiest. Even the names associated with the inhospitable strip of land in the Palau islands sound hostile and discordant: Bloody Nose Ridge, the Pocket, Five Sisters, Five Brothers and the China Wall. And to many Marines, it still represents, to steal a phrase from Charles Dickens, the worst of times.
The street named for the Palau island where thousands of young Marines lost their lives in the fall of 1944 runs peacefully through a Camp Lejeune housing area. Peleliu -- it rolls off the American tongue with difficulty -- is one of those places official military historians would prefer to pretend just doesn't exist. But it does and it has the ghosts to prove it.
The invasion of Peleliu began on Sept. 13, 1944, with concentrated naval bombardment of the island designed to help clear a path for the attack. D-Day, Sept. 15, started with a pre-dawn shelling, a couple of bombing runs and the launch of Amtrak's full of infantrymen. But these were no ordinary infantrymen.
Although there were a number of battle-hardened veterans aboard those Amtrak's, many of the Marines deployed at Peleliu were young, inexperienced draftees, teenagers straight out of basic training. It was upon these young, unpracticed shoulders that the burden of taking Peleliu would fall. Take it they would, but the price they paid would be heavy, every inch of that island bought and paid for in blood, both American and Japanese.
The decision to take Peleliu still confounds many historians. The strip known as the Palaus was considered operationally insignificant at that late point in the contest to control the Pacific theater. But a battle of wills between the Navy's Chester Nimitz and the Army's Douglas McArthur led to an American operational plan to proceed with the battle on Peleliu.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• WorldWarII
• Peleliu
• naval
• combat
• empire
• japan
• axis
• allies
• pacific
• Navy
• Mcarthur
• phillipines
• island
• death

[jakefree25]

Jap tanks were junk, Our 60mm bazooka would barely dent a German tank.

[Lunkanp]

My grandfather was there in the 1st Marine Division. He described it just like this-"we were cannon fadder."

[MAKER6450]

@xCh34pShOtx thats like saying if they had the Nuke the war would have ended alot quicker.

[MAKER6450]

@jakefree25 almost all jap weapons were junk....but they were still good anough to kill alot of people.

[topperheartramada]

that 'authentic' japanese accent they use for the narration by japanese people is hilarious. ruins the entire program.

[xCh34pShOtx]

If the U.S. had the T28 tank destroyers and M26 Pershing developed earlier, the war would have ended a lot quicker.

[AUG351]

The japanese had better tanks being built but never had enuff materials near the end of the war to produce enuff to of them but some experimental tanks were planned to be used durring the invasion of japan that never happened. Just look up the type 3 chi nu or type 4 chi to tanks wich could take on a sherman, both with a 75mm gun and better armor.

[ilias94x]

@rentman1995 early models of the t34 ( used 1941- about 42 or 43) had a 2 cylnder engine, similar to one a of a Harley Davidson motorcycle, also the thickness of the armor on a t34 (which wasn't so good to begin with), veried at which factory it was built at, so at one factory they give to much armor meanwhile at another they give it to little. there was very little consistency with how they built their tanks.

[tomster73]

they were not even the good bazookas in the eto! the bazooka were up graded in the eto becuase at first the panzer 3 and 4 could be blown up by the bazookas! but they had to upgrade them for the panzer v and 6 but they were in efective! but the chi-ha would exspode by the old bazooka! thats why in korea they had the old bazookas against t-34 and the us troops were fucked becuase they had the pto equipment!

[rockyblacksmith]

@jakefree25

Depends on which german tank.

[XXXpallisterXXX]

@jakefree25 Japanese tanks didn't need to be thickly armoured when they were develpoed. The only country bodering Japan with better tanks was the Soviet Union, the Japanese didn't want to attack the Soviets. They were to concentrated on the Chinese who had worse tanks, Japanese tanks surved their purpose at the time well, they did start to develop thicker armoured tanks but the nuclear attacks made them stop, German tanks were the linch pin of Blitzkreig and needed to be tough.

[Ncnk1]

Wow try imagine if the Japanese was to launch an Offensive on America.... They would have been blown to shit.