Marines On Peleliu 1

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2 Marines On Peleliu A Pictorial Record Eric Hammel 232 Photos The American campaign in the western Pacific from the late summer 1944 to mid-1945 was a violent undertaking at every turn. The Japanese had been relentlessly pushed back throughout 1943 and Except for the western Caroline Islands, the Philippines, Formosa, a few islands near Japan, and Japan itself, there was very little left for them to defend. They had clearly lost their war of conquest in the Pacific and East Asia, but they could not bring themselves to settle gracefully; their warrior code prevented them from doing anything less than standing their ground especially in their homeland and dying. The western Carolines would have been bypassed had the American drive into the Philippines not required an aviation stepping stone between American bases off western New Guinea and Mindanao, in the southern Philippines. A ready-made airfield on Peleliu, in the Palau Islands, thus became an objective to be invaded in the late summer of It was to be the site of a quick smash-and-grab combat landing modeled on a winning scheme that had seen to the successful ten-month American drive all across the central Pacific at Tarawa, Kwajalein, Eniwetok, Saipan, Tinian, and Guam. Fast, efficient, easy; another in an unbroken string of American victories. What could possibly go wrong? 2

3 Chapter 4 Southern Peleliu A s the 5th Marines raced across the airfield, on to the eastern coast, and wheeled north on D+1, the two-battalion 7th Marines advanced to the eastern shore in its zone south of the airfield and then wheeled smartly to the south to take on the defenses between the airfield and the southern shore. Both battalions of the 7th Marines had to halt in place at one time or another to await the arrival of fresh water. The heat caused as many casualties as enemy fire, and would do so throughout the battle. Most of the 7th Marines objectives were taken on D+1, but the regiment was unable to take the last of the southern zone until D+3, September 18. In accomplishing its mission, the regiment destroyed a reinforced battalion of Japanese infantry amounting to 2,609 known enemy dead, about a fourth of Peleliu s original garrison. The cost, overall, was 47 Marines killed, 37 missing in action, and 414 wounded. 131

4 A Marine advances toward the enemy. (Official USMC Photo) 132

5 A platoon of Company C, 1st Tank Battalion, Shermans closes on the front on the only serviceable road through southern Peleliu. (Official USMC Photo) 133

6 Though not as well armored as a tank, a Marine SPM a self-propelled mount fielding a halftrack equipped with a 75mm antitank gun was nonetheless excellent at demolishing pillboxes and other buildings and positions. (Official USMC Photo) 134

7 A 2.36-inch bazooka has been brought forward to deal with a stubbornly defended earth-and-log dugout. (Official USMC Photo) 135

8 A 2/11 75mm pack howitzer. (Official USMC Photo) 136

9 Any break in the fighting was excuse enough for bone-weary, emotionally exhausted fighting men to try to catch up on their sleep. (Official USMC Photo) 137

10 As Marines approach a beach, a tank pummels a Japanese position the infantrymen have surrounded with its 75mm main gun. (Official USMC Photo) 138

11 Moments after tank fire has reduced a Japanese position barring the way to the beach, infantrymen wait under cover as a flamethrower team advances to take out another emplacement. (Official USMC Photo) 139

12 Official USMC Photo 140

13 Official USMC Photo 141

14 142 This Japanese prisoner has been treated for injuries, lashed to the forward deck of an amtrac, and is now undergoing a first round of interrogation. (Official USMC Photo)

15 Ready... steady... (Official USMC Photo) 143

16 Fire in the hole. A flamethrower douses the wreckage of a Japanese emplacement to make sure no one is hiding in the rubbble. (Official USMC Photo) 144

17 Marines advance to within feet of an occupied pillbox. When attempts fail to coax the occupants to surrender, grenades were used to kill them. (Official USMC Photo) 145

18 A white phosphorus grenade is used to subdue a Japanese pillbox. (Official USMC Photo) 146

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