Lost Evidence: "Peleliu" 3 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:

Education

Tags:

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

[ramberghini]

every pacific fight was like D-Day in europe stretched out for months on end. the 1st marines dont get enough credit.

[XiXUSMC]

I wonder how many casualties could have been avoided if rupertis wasn's such as cocky fuck. What an asshole

[356butch]

@ramberghini It was no different for the US Army in Europe. Many D-Days...Africa, Sicily, Italy, France, Belgium, the Saar...the list goes on and on.

[MAKER6450]

@ramberghini not just the 1st marines.....all the guys that fought there.

[alphex1000]

@357223308 i add mint we have gotten stupid over the years but were still a kick ass army

[357223308]

@zohsun

Let's getting something straight:

First, it was mostly the the U.S. Marine Corp that kicked your guys' ass at Peleliu; not the U.S. Army.

Second, why didn't you and the rest of your people commit Seppuku as was appropriate when you lost the war? Don't you know how much you and your people disgraced the Emperor and how you dishonored yourselve by being defeated by a bunch of "stupid Americans"?

Idiot nip.

[snakes3425]

The one person the marines hated morer then General Rupertis: the guy who thought it was a smart decision to put their water supplies into Gasoline Drums

[sherman3211]

@zohsun

You are just bitter because you guys lost. Bit off more than you could chew.

[TheN00b4Lif3]

@zohsun u stupid troll,go somewhere else if u don`t like the us army,i mean this is an american codumentary,those american soldiers fought for their country,as any proud civilian would

so go fuck yourself,u jap

[redbaron785]

how could rupertis be promoted to that position he has no brain

[sniperRobert]

@tomster73 even the SS weren't as tough and fanatic as every Japanese soldier Marines encountered