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Battle of Peleliu
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Battle of Peleliu
The Battle of Peleliu, codenamed Operation Stalemate II by the US military, was fought between the United States and Japan during the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign of World War II, from 15 September to 27 November 1944, on the island of Peleliu.
US Marines of the 1st Marine Division and then soldiers of the US Army's 81st Infantry Division fought to capture an airfield on the small coral island of Peleliu. The battle was part of a larger offensive campaign known as Operation Forager, which ran from June to November 1944 in the Pacific War.
Major General William Rupertus, the commander of the 1st Marine Division, predicted that the island would be secured within four days. However, after repeated Imperial Japanese Army defeats in previous island campaigns, Japan had developed new island-defense tactics and well-crafted fortifications, which allowed them to offer stiff resistance and extended the battle to more than two months. The heavily outnumbered Japanese defenders put up such staunch resistance, often fighting to the death in the name of the Japanese Emperor, that the island became known in Japanese as the "Emperor's Island."
In the US, the battle was controversial because of the island's negligible strategic value and the high casualty rate incurred by American troops during the fighting, which exceeded that of all other amphibious operations during the Pacific War. The National Museum of the Marine Corps called it "the bitterest battle of the war for the Marines".
By 1944, American victories in the Southwest and Central Pacific had brought the war closer to Japan, with American bombers able to strike at the Japanese main islands from air bases secured during the Mariana Islands campaign (June–August 1944). There was disagreement among the U.S. Joint Chiefs over two proposed strategies to defeat the Japanese Empire. The strategy proposed by General Douglas MacArthur called for the recapture of the Philippines, followed by the capture of Okinawa, then an attack on the Japanese home islands. Admiral Chester W. Nimitz favored a more direct strategy of bypassing the Philippines but seizing Okinawa and Taiwan as staging areas to an attack on the Japanese mainland, followed by the future invasion of Japan's southernmost islands.
The 1st Marine Division had already been chosen to make the assault. U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt traveled to Pearl Harbor to personally meet both MacArthur and Nimitz and hear their arguments. In the end, MacArthur's strategy was chosen. However, before MacArthur could retake the Philippines, the Palau Islands, specifically Peleliu and Angaur, were to be neutralized and an airfield built to protect the southern flank of MacArthur's planned landings on the Philippines.
By 1944, Peleliu was occupied by about 5,500 Japanese troops of the 14th Infantry Division. Considered a crack unit, the division had been detached from the Kwantung Army in Manchuria to garrison Peleliu after the fall of the Marshall Islands earlier in 1944, and had arrived on the island in May. Colonel Kunio Nakagawa, commander of the division's 2nd Regiment, led the preparations for the island's defense. In addition to these, there were about 4,000 naval troops, of whom about 1,500 of the 45th Base Guard Force were trained in the infantry role, the remainder were maintenance staff, air crews and other miscellaneous support troops. In addition to this, there was a large contingent of Korean and Japanese construction personnel.
After their losses in the Solomons, Gilberts, Marshalls and Marianas, the Imperial Japanese Army assembled a research team to develop new island-defense tactics. Previously, Japanese island garrisons had heavily contested enemy landings on the beach itself, rendering them vulnerable to naval bombardment. The Japanese formulated new tactics that envisioned only a token defense of the landing beaches, instead protracting the conflict by holding defensible terrain in the island interior. Peleliu's steep, twisting coral ridges were ideal for such a defense in depth. Colonel Nakagawa used this rough terrain to his advantage by ordering the construction of heavily fortified bunkers, caves, and other subterranean positions, all interlocked in a "honeycomb" system. Traditional "banzai charge" attacks were to be discontinued, as they wasted manpower and were ineffective. These changes in tactics were designed to force the Americans into a war of attrition, compelling them to spend more troops, material, and time to secure Japanese island garrisons.
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Battle of Peleliu
The Battle of Peleliu, codenamed Operation Stalemate II by the US military, was fought between the United States and Japan during the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign of World War II, from 15 September to 27 November 1944, on the island of Peleliu.
US Marines of the 1st Marine Division and then soldiers of the US Army's 81st Infantry Division fought to capture an airfield on the small coral island of Peleliu. The battle was part of a larger offensive campaign known as Operation Forager, which ran from June to November 1944 in the Pacific War.
Major General William Rupertus, the commander of the 1st Marine Division, predicted that the island would be secured within four days. However, after repeated Imperial Japanese Army defeats in previous island campaigns, Japan had developed new island-defense tactics and well-crafted fortifications, which allowed them to offer stiff resistance and extended the battle to more than two months. The heavily outnumbered Japanese defenders put up such staunch resistance, often fighting to the death in the name of the Japanese Emperor, that the island became known in Japanese as the "Emperor's Island."
In the US, the battle was controversial because of the island's negligible strategic value and the high casualty rate incurred by American troops during the fighting, which exceeded that of all other amphibious operations during the Pacific War. The National Museum of the Marine Corps called it "the bitterest battle of the war for the Marines".
By 1944, American victories in the Southwest and Central Pacific had brought the war closer to Japan, with American bombers able to strike at the Japanese main islands from air bases secured during the Mariana Islands campaign (June–August 1944). There was disagreement among the U.S. Joint Chiefs over two proposed strategies to defeat the Japanese Empire. The strategy proposed by General Douglas MacArthur called for the recapture of the Philippines, followed by the capture of Okinawa, then an attack on the Japanese home islands. Admiral Chester W. Nimitz favored a more direct strategy of bypassing the Philippines but seizing Okinawa and Taiwan as staging areas to an attack on the Japanese mainland, followed by the future invasion of Japan's southernmost islands.
The 1st Marine Division had already been chosen to make the assault. U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt traveled to Pearl Harbor to personally meet both MacArthur and Nimitz and hear their arguments. In the end, MacArthur's strategy was chosen. However, before MacArthur could retake the Philippines, the Palau Islands, specifically Peleliu and Angaur, were to be neutralized and an airfield built to protect the southern flank of MacArthur's planned landings on the Philippines.
By 1944, Peleliu was occupied by about 5,500 Japanese troops of the 14th Infantry Division. Considered a crack unit, the division had been detached from the Kwantung Army in Manchuria to garrison Peleliu after the fall of the Marshall Islands earlier in 1944, and had arrived on the island in May. Colonel Kunio Nakagawa, commander of the division's 2nd Regiment, led the preparations for the island's defense. In addition to these, there were about 4,000 naval troops, of whom about 1,500 of the 45th Base Guard Force were trained in the infantry role, the remainder were maintenance staff, air crews and other miscellaneous support troops. In addition to this, there was a large contingent of Korean and Japanese construction personnel.
After their losses in the Solomons, Gilberts, Marshalls and Marianas, the Imperial Japanese Army assembled a research team to develop new island-defense tactics. Previously, Japanese island garrisons had heavily contested enemy landings on the beach itself, rendering them vulnerable to naval bombardment. The Japanese formulated new tactics that envisioned only a token defense of the landing beaches, instead protracting the conflict by holding defensible terrain in the island interior. Peleliu's steep, twisting coral ridges were ideal for such a defense in depth. Colonel Nakagawa used this rough terrain to his advantage by ordering the construction of heavily fortified bunkers, caves, and other subterranean positions, all interlocked in a "honeycomb" system. Traditional "banzai charge" attacks were to be discontinued, as they wasted manpower and were ineffective. These changes in tactics were designed to force the Americans into a war of attrition, compelling them to spend more troops, material, and time to secure Japanese island garrisons.
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