Peleliu is a small island that forms part of the nation of Palau in the Pacific. It’s about five hours flying time south of Japan and three hours east of the Philippines. It’s now, like the rest of Palau, beautiful, peaceful and home to more shades of blue in the sea and sky than you or your camera lens would ever have thought possible.
Blue wasn’t always the colour.
Between September and November 1944, it was the site of an incredibly fierce battle between US and Japanese armed forces. Peleliu island is about 14 square miles of terrain; during the three months of fighting, the casualty rate worked out at just under 1,000 men killed per square mile of island. Close to 1,800 American servicemen died; of the 11,000 Japanese soldiers defending the island, only 202 were captured alive.
The battle was fought over the fact Peleliu had an airfield, and was within range of the Philippines, from where the US planned to eventually launch strikes against the Japanese mainland. The plan to attack Peleliu was a contentious one – not all of the US high command thought Peleliu was strategically important, and after the battle, the US found the airfield was barely operational, and posed almost no threat to US forces elsewhere in the Pacific.
I’m from the UK, and visited Palau in October 2008. I took a day trip to Peleliu with a Japanese tour group. I took some photos, and made some notes. The photos are all hosted on Flickr. You can see the images as a slideshow on Flickr, check out the full set, or read the rest of this post to see what I saw.
This shallow stretch of idyllic Pacific ocean is where US forces first landed on Peleliu; called ‘Orange beach’, the US Marines arrived here at half eight in the morning on September 15th, 1944. This map of Peleliu shows the landing beaches quite clearly, all grouped together at the south of the island, near the Japanese airfield.
Unlike previous battles in the Pacific, the Japanese opted not to put all their effort into defending the perimeter of the island, so while the marines faced resistance when they landed, it was only going to get worse when they advanced into the island’s interior. Below is a picture from Google’s archive of images from Life magazine which shows what it was like for the US forces approaching Peleliu. Here’s how Time Magazine’s Robert Martin described it:
‘Peleliu is a horrible place. The heat is stifling and rain falls intermittently — the muggy rain that brings no relief, only greater misery. The coral rocks soak up the heat during the day and it is only slightly cooler at night… Peleliu is incomparably worse than Guam in its bloodiness, terror, climate and the incomprehensible tenacity of the Japs. For sheer brutality and fatigue, I think it surpasses anything yet seen in the Pacific, certainly from the standpoint of numbers of troops involved and the time taken to make the island secure.’
***
When you arrive on Peleliu, it doesn’t take long to start spotting the remains of the war. This is partly because while the US helped rebuild Peleliu (and Palau as a whole – the country only become fully independent in 1994), they just moved the civilian population from the south of the island to the north and started afresh. The south of the island and its thick jungle still contain plenty of WW2 relics.
While the Japanese tactics were different to the ones they had used previously, the US relied on a similar approach to previous Pacific island battles, pounding Peleliu with tonnes of heavy shells fired from battleships before landing troops. They were confident they had destroyed most of the Japanese garrison and that when the Marines landed there would be little resistance.
Despite the damage done to the island (seen above, in another image from Life), the Japanese troops survived by sheltering in their caves. When the marines landed, they found Peleliu extremely tough going – no surprises when they were being shot at from well concealed sniper positions such as this one.
Like the rest of the Palau islands, Peleliu is made mostly from extremely tough volcanic limestone. Its toughness made it ideal for turning into defensive fortifications, and once stripped of its vegetation, it was razor sharp on the feet and extremely hostile to navigate.
Unlike previous battles in the Pacific, the Japanese didn’t place the entire emphasis of their strategy on defending the beaches – they fortified the island, in particular a mountain called Umurbrogol. The Japanese riddled Umurbrogol with a huge network of caves and tunnels from which to operate (this image shows a plan of one complex). Once they had completed their work, they evacuated the civilians, and waited for the Americans.
Below you scan see the entrance to one of the Japanese caves, and beneath that, a shot from inside, looking back to the entrance. The entrance itself probably isn’t more than 3 or 4 foot high; inside the cave ceilings are slightly higher, although very uneven – but it’s not a great place to be when, like me, you’re 6 foot 2. It was a horrible place to spend 15 minutes, but caves like these were where the Japanese forces lived for the duration of the battle. Inside, you can still see discarded boots, bottles and bullets.
Peleliu has several Japanese graveyards/memorials, of which this is one. If I remember rightly, this shrine was built by a Japanese soldier who survived the battle (one of only 200 of the original garrison of 11,000 who did), who then went on to become a successful businessman running book shops in Shibuya. The man in the blue shirt on the right was our guide, Kikuchi-san.
***
Peleliu takes an hour or so to get to via boat from Koror, Palau’s capital, so while we’d set off early in the day, after seeing the landing beaches and the first set of caves, it getting towards lunch time, and really warming up. In the sun, the temperature was comfortably over 30 degrees Celsius, and once you got away from the sea, the humidity really started to rise. Everyone on the tour group clutched their bottle of chilled water and regularly took new ones from the chiller box in the back of the tour’s Toyota minivan.
Once we’d finished at the graveyard, our small group piled back into the Toyota and hit the road, throwing the windows open and glad of the breeze. Next stop: what was once the HQ of the Imperial Japanese Navy on Peleliu. A two level concrete structure built in the 1920s, it’s now a beautiful, quiet run that is gradually becoming part of the jungle. We were free to explore – even up the crumbling staircase. Spookily, it was, when we visited, decorated with brightly coloured chains of paper cranes, hanging still in both sunlight and shadow. It’s a common custom in Japan for children to make these for ceremonial occasions – and I think Kikuchi-san told us they were brought by school children on a history trip.
***
Peleliu’s climate is exhausting; hot and humid, it pulls the energy out of you. The suffering of the soldiers – both Japanese and US – from combat was compounded by the climate. It also exacts a real toll on buildings and equipment, as you can see from this shot of a concrete bunker. I’ve never seen concrete rot before:
***
Once we left the naval HQ, we drove towards Umurbrogol mountain, the site of the fiercest fighting on Peleliu. Initial aerial photos made it look to US planners like a relatively simple mountain that the Marines would have little trouble capturing. They were wrong:
“Instead of a gently rounded hill, the Umurbrogol area was in fact a complex system of sharply uplifted coral ridges, knobs, valleys, and sinkholes. It rose above the level remainder of the island from 50 to 300 feet, and provided excellent emplacements for cave and tunnel defenses.” Brigadier General Gordon D. Gayle, USMC, 1
Even now, backed up by bottles of chilled water and carrying only a few pieces of camera equipment, it’s not easy to climb. The path leads on a very circuitous route, framed on each side by steep drops, cliffs of sheer stone and thick foliage. The heat hangs in clusters, the sunlight waiting for you to pass through, baking on your skin when you do.
This huge Japanese gun remains in a hollow, looking out over the island:
While these ferns proved nature’s tenacity…
By growing in this US landing craft’s engine bay.
This Japanese tank was much smaller than the American one. Though it has been abandoned, it makes a nice memorial; nature is reclaiming it.
***
There are many memorial plaques on the mountain, some in English, some in Japanese, some in both. This one was placed outside a cave where several Japanese officers committed ritual suicide. As the Americans advanced slowly up the mountain2 – taking horrendous casualties as they did, and causing the troops to name it, with typical Marine corps black humour, ‘Bloody Nose ridge’ – they resorted to using flamethrowers to clear the caves. Today, you can still see the scorch marks on the wall.
The group paused here while our guide, Kikuchi-san spoke about the battles.
As with most of the tour, it was in Japanese (which I don’t speak well), but he kindly translated for me. After Kikuchi-san had finished his talk, the Japanese on the group were silent and offered prayers to the soldiers. It was a very sad moment, and difficult to know what to think. Part of me was flattened by how useless the whole fight was – how strange that something people were willing to fight to the death for has faded in sixty years to the point that I can visit the battlefield as a tourist, on a tour with the ‘other side’ – yet you can’t help but be moved by the bravery and tenacity displayed by both sides. Perhaps what you feel most keenly on Peleliu is the passage of time; how powerful the process of the minutes moving onwards is.
This is the view from the top of Umurbrogol.
***
We also stopped briefly at the airfield that was the stated aim of the US assault on the island. Rusting nearby in the jungle was a Mitsubishi Zero fighter.
***
The battle on Peleliu became the inspiration for the phrase ‘thousand yard stare’, after the title of a painting by a war correspondent there, Tom Lea. Previously known for jingoistic, ‘Go America’ images, Peleliu altered Lea’s approach.
According to Wikipedia, Lea said about the marine who was the subject of the painting:
“He left the States 31 months ago. He was wounded in his first campaign. He has had tropical diseases. He half-sleeps at night and gouges Japs out of holes all day. Two-thirds of his company has been killed or wounded. He will return to attack this morning. How much can a human being endure?”
***
This image shows our guide, Kikuchi-san, at one of the memorials to Japanese and American soldiers. It looks out over the beautiful Pacific and blue is the colour.
1 Taken from BLOODY BEACHES: The Marines at Peleliu, by Brigadier General Gordon D. Gayle, USMC (Ret)
2 Gayle’s write up is is very detailed when it comes to the action on the mountain.
63 responses so far ↓
tom hodgson // April 12, 2009 at 11:55 am |
Wonderful photos…and fascinating topic…if you have a friend or friends, who can edit and help fix your spelling sympathetically, consider asking them to give a read-through and correct some of the errors in this otherwise excellent piece of work.
Will // April 12, 2009 at 12:19 pm |
Thanks for the photos and commentary. Fascinating.
Roberto // April 12, 2009 at 12:43 pm |
Terrific post, and photos.
Sort of astonishingly, when I saw this via Boing Boing, I am reading what is supposed to be one of the best books written about the Pacific War, a book called “With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa”, by Eugene B. Sledge. I’m not far enough in to be able to confirm that the book is what others have said it is, but for those interested in the subject, and this island, and battle, perhaps worth checking out.
Again, great post, and pix.
brady8 // April 12, 2009 at 12:55 pm |
Fantastic story, and great pictures to accompany it all… thanks for sharing!
Joe Duirwyn // April 12, 2009 at 1:30 pm |
Thanks for that. Wonderful photographs and a nicely weighted piece. my heart is feeling this one.
x
O’DonnellWeb - Merriment and Amusements from a Fredericksburg VA geek » Blog Archive » Elsewhere on the Internet (April 12th 09:10) // April 12, 2009 at 2:04 pm |
[...] Thousand Yard Stares: Ruins and Ghosts of the Battle of Peleliu, 1944, 2008 « The Wired Jester – [...]
Ben Balistreri // April 12, 2009 at 3:09 pm |
Thanks for the great post. Very interesting.
tobymarx // April 12, 2009 at 3:12 pm |
Excellent article, nice photos and a fascinating piece of history, especially the origin of “The Thousand Yard Stare.”
Thank you.
Diversions » Bookmarks for April 12th // April 12, 2009 at 3:29 pm |
[...] Thousand Yard Stares: Ruins and Ghosts of the Battle of Peleliu – A great piece written by someone who traveled to Peleliu recently. The island was the site of heavy activity during WWII and only became fully independent in 1994. Apparently the South of the island is still littered with pieces of WWII gear and equipment. The photos look incredible. [...]
Paddy // April 12, 2009 at 4:21 pm |
Beautiful, beautiful pictures. Not to be a technoweenie, as I know it’s the eye behind the equipment that produces a good picture, but just curious as to what camera you used?
elissa // April 12, 2009 at 4:42 pm |
Roberto: With the Old Breed is a really good book.
This is amazing.. Thank you for sharing.
brian // April 12, 2009 at 4:48 pm |
Thanks for the pix and commentary. Coincidentally, just last night, I watched episode 6 & 7 of Ken Burn’s documentary, ” The War” which focuses on Peleliu and Okinawa. Those are an excellent source of first person accounts, facts and battle videos from 60 plus years ago.
olekukahi // April 12, 2009 at 5:20 pm |
I was with the 5th Marine Regiment in Vietnam. This unit of the Marine Corps is the most decorated in the United States Marine Corps. Belleau Woods, Pelilu, Okinawa, Vietnam and Iraq. A great tradition and for Marines in the unit today… the standard was set long ago in those European woods. The Marine Corps is the same today as it was yesterday and will be tomorrow.
Wilbur // April 12, 2009 at 10:14 pm |
Sad to think we Humans are still trying to blow nasty people out of caves. We seem to have a genius for bringing hell to paradise. Thank you for the reminder to remember the good people on both sides who died in a part of the bigger war that ultimately had little meaning. Sound familiar?
OGC MUSIC // April 12, 2009 at 11:45 pm |
between this island and that guy in Missouri with the cave home some interesting hide outs.
love all the organic fern shots on the tanks, great resolution too
danrydell // April 12, 2009 at 11:56 pm |
“Little meaning”? I think the meaning was we kept two regimes from their plans for taking over Europe and Asia. We wouldn’t have had to fight the Japanese if they hadn’t bombed Pearl Harbor.
ANYHOO…tremendous pictures! I love photos where nature is claiming ruins.
MFielding // April 13, 2009 at 12:09 am |
Thanks for sharing! Well done!
Top Posts « WordPress.com // April 13, 2009 at 12:52 am |
[...] Thousand Yard Stares: Ruins and Ghosts of the Battle of Peleliu, 1944, 2008 Peleliu is a small island that forms part of the nation of Palau in the Pacific. It’s about five hours flying [...] [...]
Carlos Ballantyne // April 13, 2009 at 1:23 am |
With the Old Breed at Peleliu and Okinawa, E.B. Sledge, Oxford U. Press, copyright 1981
The war was a nether world of horror from which escape seemed less and less likely as casualties mounted and the fighting dragged on and on. Time had no meaning; life had no meaning. The fierce struggle for survival in the abyss of Peleliu eroded the veneer of civilization and made savages of us all.” Pg 121.
Sledge describes a Marine using his Kabar knife to slice the open the cheeks and lower jaw of a still living but paralyzed Japanese soldier to remove his gold teeth. Another Marine seeing this shot the Japanese soldier in the head to relieve his suffering as the other Marine simply continued with his extractions.
Men struggled and fought in an environment so degrading I believed we had been flung into hell’s cesspool.” Pg 252
“The death ye died I have watched beside, and the lives that ye have led were mine.” Kipling, as quoted in Sledge above, front page.
“So many dreams lost in the madness that had engulfed us. Except for a few scattered shouts of joy, the survivors of the abyss sat hollow-eyed and silent, trying to comprehend a world without war.” Pg 315, after VJ Day
Joshua // April 13, 2009 at 4:39 am |
Ah, Wilbur,
You think that WWII had “little meaning” only because the Allies won.
The world would have taken a lot longer than70 years to recover had the Japan and the other Axis powers prevailed.
Look at the Soviet Empire, if you need an example of how things might have been.
Robot Mitre // April 13, 2009 at 6:32 am |
I thought the “Thousand Yard Stare” would have originated from looking across the front line at the trenches in Europe 1914-1918. Well.. not actually from the looking. more from being subjected to barrages of shell fire while hiding in the trenches.
wrybread // April 13, 2009 at 10:14 am |
Tom / comment #1:
About the spelling, either the errors were corrected by the time I got here, or you need to relax.
Fantastic words, pictures and thoughts, thanks for sharing, and please ignore the absurd negativity from some unthankful folks.
Grant Barrett // April 13, 2009 at 2:44 pm |
To clarify something: the phrase “thousand-yard stare” may indeed have been popularized by the Lea painting, but there is at least one earlier use. In the book “South Pacific Diary, 1942-1943″ by Mack Morriss, he writes, “They just sat and stared — the Guadalcanal, or 1000-yd. stare.”
You can find out a bit more about the book here:
http://www.kentuckypress.com/viewbook.cfm?Category_ID=1&Group=20&ID=879
Grubersauce // April 13, 2009 at 3:01 pm |
I took a WWII history class in college and we were required to read “With the Old Breed” by E.B. Sledge. http://www.amazon.com/Old-Breed-At-Peleliu-Okinawa/dp/0195067142
Great blog to add some modern images to the horrific way story Sledge tells in his biography of time spent at Peleliu during the war.
Dan Caldwell // April 13, 2009 at 3:39 pm |
Your article and photos reminded me of the most memorable trip that I have ever taken: a visit to Peleliu with my father who was a young naval officer and who participated in the invasion and my son. The photo in your blog was the official Marine Corps photo of the invasion and was taken from the bow of my father’s ship. During my visit to Peleliu, I had many of the same feelings and impressions that you expressed. I wrote an article about my impressions in the Naval History Magazine of April 2000. Thank you for an excellent article.
Peleliu Island - Then and Now | 1776 // April 13, 2009 at 5:40 pm |
[...] weekend on The Wired Jester, Alex Watson wrote about his recent visit to the small island of Peleliu in the Pacific Ocean. [...]
Bruce // April 13, 2009 at 7:34 pm |
Great piece. Just one carp: there’s no such thing as “volcanic limestone,” since limestone is by definition a sedimentary rock. Perhaps there’s a lot of basalt, not uncommon around the Pacific fire belt.
Keith Patton // August 31, 2009 at 8:55 pm |
Don’t ping him too bad. As a geologist of 30 years and a resident of Okinawa for a while in the 60’s I have seen numerous writings that use the same phrase. It comes from confusion about how the islands formed, both Okinawa and the Palaus. They are volcanic mounts fringed with limestone reefs. Somewhere in the past some non-geo type erroneously ran the terms together and it has been passed down from author to author, much like errors in textbooks. One thing is certain, the mix of volcanics and reef limestones makes for very tough walking and climbing. I too visited Palau in the late 80’s and was struck by how much is was walking into a time warp. I explored Babelthaup and stumbled upon relatively pristine japanese amphibious tanks and was struck by the odd juxtaposition of anti aircraft guns guarding the auto repair shop that now occupied the former Japanese HQ building on Koror.
SteveS // April 13, 2009 at 9:01 pm |
Having lived on Kwaj (about 1000 mi east) I am familiar with the weather there. It is wonderful if you can dress for it, but stifiling if you are in uniform. I noticed that no one mentioned the fact that the best Scuba diving in the world is at Palau.
Patrick // April 14, 2009 at 1:19 am |
Great photos. My father fought on this island as a member of the 1st Marine Regiment. For a great history of the battle try reading the book Peleliu: Tragic Triumph by Bill D. Ross. http://www.amazon.com/Peleliu-Tragic-Triumph-Pacific-Forgotten/dp/0394565886/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
Thank you for posting these photos.
Jeffman48 // April 14, 2009 at 2:24 am |
An excellent post. I found it through Boingboing.
Some seem to have misread Wilbur’s comment “Thank you for the reminder to remember the good people on both sides who died in a part of the bigger war that ultimately had little meaning.”
It seems pretty clear that what Wilbur meant was that this particular battle turned out to be of limited value in the overall WWII scheme of things, as the blogger himself first noted.
No need to rise to the defense of the entire war, boys and girls, just look at the nice pictures.
Belisarios // April 14, 2009 at 4:31 pm |
60-65 years is a VERY short period in the grand scheme of things, yet that era seems like such a different time with the old equipment being reclaimed by nature and all. It really puts things in perspective.
Belisarios // April 14, 2009 at 4:33 pm |
“The world would have taken a lot longer than70 years to recover had the Japan and the other Axis powers prevailed.
Look at the Soviet Empire, if you need an example of how things might have been.”
Um the Soviets were a member of the Allies.
dgm_sf // April 14, 2009 at 6:25 pm |
Yes, it is clear Wilbur’s comments were directed at the overall meaning of Pelileu to the outcome of the war.
It was a sad, sad result to a very bad decision to not follow the leapfrog strategy used on many other Pacific islands to just bypass them and leave the Japanese there stranded to run out of food and supplies. MacArthur had concerns about protecting his flank as he moved towards the Japanese home Islands and the defenses on Pelileu were greatly misjudged. Combined with the change of Japanese strategy from resisting the American advance to one of making it as costly as they could, the decision to take Pelileu was at best a tragic one for the good Marines who fought and died there.
Belisarios // April 15, 2009 at 3:35 pm |
Yes cutting off the bases was the most effective strategy, just look at Rabaul, that would’ve been hell to take.
Wilbur // April 16, 2009 at 10:37 pm |
The” Little meaning” I was referring to is the benefit to Hitler, Tojo, and any other Axis leader , that was dumb enough to think that using War to project social values on other people would work. It didn’t then and it won’t now. Look at today’s North Korea and ponder the pain of that war. Many Pelileu equivalents fought over hills that did not even have a name. I honer the dead from all wars ever fought. I am very selective with honoring survivors.
WendiG // April 17, 2009 at 7:56 pm |
My father, a SeaBee, was at the battle for Guadalcanal; my mother told me he used to scream in his sleep, post- WW2; he would certainly never talk about it.
I may be wrong, but I believe that the book “The Thin Red Line” was a fictionalized version of the ‘taking’ of Pelileu-probably the best book I’ve read on the horrors of WW2.
Mr. Topp and the Big Bad Blog » Links: sea monsters, squirrels and umbrellas // April 18, 2009 at 8:18 am |
[...] War zone to tropical paradise: a transformation [...]
Miles Kehoe // April 19, 2009 at 12:08 am |
I discovered this quite by accident., My father was in the US Navy in the supply corp and ended up on Pelilieu in 1944-1945. He never talked about it much, and he implied it was pretty much nothing to brag about. Now I wish I had known this before he passed away. I would have loved to share this with my mother as well, but she’s gone as well. Amazing sacrafices on both sides.
ginny // May 6, 2009 at 1:09 pm |
Great piece! I’m looking forward to showing it to my father, who was on Peleliu clearing mines after the battle (111th infantry). He’s 89 now, and in the time of life where he is “reviewing” and “re-viewing” his WWII years.
Love the pics.
10 Interesting Links From April 18th | Greg In The Desert // April 19, 2009 at 7:04 am |
[...] Thousand Yard Stares: Ruins and Ghosts of the Battle of Peleliu, 1944, 2008 « The Wired Jester – Between September and November 1944, it was the site of an incredibly fierce battle between US and Japanese armed forces. Peleliu island is about 14 square miles of terrain; during the three months of fighting, the casualty rate worked out at just under 1,000 men killed per square mile of island. Close to 1,800 American servicemen died; of the 11,000 Japanese soldiers defending the island, only 202 were captured alive. [...]
Peter // April 19, 2009 at 3:09 pm |
Concerning your comment on: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sifter/3079220473/
“The ostensible reason for the US forces actually landing on Peleliu was its airfield. The planes, however, were in a poor state of repair, and lacked fuel, so it wasn’t of strategic importance.”
It was the airfield that was important, not the air*planes*. What possible use for Zeros would the US military have? The airfield was important in the westward expansion of the US military. The goal was to gain control of the Pacific and eventually invade Japan itself. Since airpower was an important component of this westward expansion, extra airbases were needed in the Pacific Ocean. There happened to be a conveniently located one on Peleliu. Therefore Peleliu was, in fact, a strategic goal.
EvilCON » The Thousand Yard Stare Fifty Years Later // April 20, 2009 at 3:02 am |
[...] The term Thousand Yard Stare originally came from a famous picture of an American marine after fighting in the battle Peleliu. This is what Peleliu looks like fifty plus years after the battle. [...]
Helldorado // April 23, 2009 at 9:02 am |
Beautiful Topic and great photos. Loved it!
In war games, killing is fun « The Wired Jester // April 23, 2009 at 11:21 pm |
[...] October last year, I had the chance to visit Peleliu, and it was a very moving experience. A lot of the WW2 stuff is still out in the jungle. I visited [...]
Dave T in NY // April 26, 2009 at 7:18 pm |
I just finished the Peleliu half of “With The Old Breed…” today during lunch, and, to say the least, it was a living nightmare. Absolutely incredible and unthinkable what those Marines and the Japanese had to endure.
Very moving photos including the remnants of the Amtrack. Nice writeup. Thank you!
Looking at the photos it appears that 65 years has somehow washed away the wretched stench of blood, corpse decay, rotting food, feces, gunpowder, coral dust and flies but the memory for those who fought there (those who may still be alive) will never fade.
Samuel L. Lopresto // May 11, 2009 at 9:20 pm |
My unit was a special combat communication unit 43-E assigned to the First Marine division at the battle of Peleliu – I was 18 years old on Sept 16 when I went ashore to establish communications with ship-to-shore operations. We set-up communication on the 2nd floor of the block-house at the front of the airfield. I will never forget that battle, especially the rows of dead under “ponchos” on the third day of battle – for me, I had no understanding of what we were doing there in the first place as we were told this island was useless as an airbase and was cancelled at several months before the battle but the powers-to-be decided to go ahead as all the ships were already loaded and on their way.
The pictures are just great but do not look anything like Peleliu looked like at the time.
Thank You
BCARR // May 12, 2009 at 2:10 am |
The Thin Red Line was about Guadalcanal, not Peleliu. With the Old Breed was a fantastic memoir of a Marine on Peleliu and Okinawa, in the Marine Corps finest regiment, the 5th Marines. It is the best book I’ve ever read. Semper Fi, Mac.
Alex // May 13, 2009 at 11:02 pm |
Thanks for all the comments everybody, I’m amazed and touched by them. Wonderful to hear all the stories, especially from those with a personal connection to Peleliu.
Dave T in NY // May 22, 2009 at 12:30 am |
Mr. Lopresto, thanks for your service during the war! Did you see combat?
I have a family relative buried in Normandy that died in combat… 30th ID, 117th IR, Company F.
SSGT Daniel H. Tremper rests in the cemetery above Omaha Beach. I am proud.
Thousand Yard Stares: Ruins and Ghosts of the Battle of Peleliu » Big Dave’s Blog // May 26, 2009 at 2:42 pm |
[...] Thousand Yard Stares: Ruins and Ghosts of the Battle of Peleliu, 1944, 2008 « The Wired Jester [...]
Toni T. in CA // May 30, 2009 at 12:43 am |
Mr. Lopresto, I too wish to thank you for your service. Thanks too to the author of this piece for giving me an insight into what my Uncle (David Hengehold) indured at Peleliu. He was a young(17yrs) Navy radio man posted on the island just after the Marines took it. After the War he spent the rest of his life in and out of VA hospitals suffering from post tramatic stress( in those days it was called shell shock). He never had wife, children or any kind of life. He told me once of some of the brutal things he witnessed. War is hell, no other way to describe it, but I am so grateful to those who preserve my freedom and liberty. I now have a son in the Navy ( he disarms bombs, EOD), he too is in the Pacific–talk about irony!
Samuel L. Lopresto // September 14, 2009 at 2:26 am |
Hello Toni T. Thank you for the nice comments. I am so sorry for the health problems your Uncle experienced after WW2. For me, like many others, going off to war was something, being very young, we thought was great. Only after Peleliu did I realize what killing was all about and the after effects it gave. Now, at 84, I know that this type of affair will go on forever. Thank you again.
Samuel L. Lopresto
California
william davis // June 18, 2009 at 5:00 am |
My father recently passed away , I wish I would have found your pictures to show him. He was Navy but on Peleliu assigned to a marine detachment who were to capture the airfield. He did not speak of this until just prior to his death.. There were many sleepless nights over the years Thank you again for the pictures
James C // June 22, 2009 at 3:32 pm |
Peleliu was horrible, 1000 dead per square mile? Thats like 1 in 5 survival odds, plus the enemy was dug in deep there was no way to win this without using napalm and flamethrowers. The Japanese brutality as well as tactics forced the marines to resort to horrible acts including sealing caves with Japanese soldiers inside so they starve to death, etc. A failed beach head assault, a failed bombing campaign, extremely heavy casualties, and foreign terrain… only the marines could have gotten through such a harry place, its a shame though. Very nice pictures and information! Thank you!
Thousand Yard Stares: Ruins and Ghosts of the Battle of Peleliu, 1944, 2008 « Alex Watson, Words // June 26, 2009 at 9:38 pm |
[...] Battle of Peleliu, 1944, 2008 In Photography, The Wired Jester on June 26, 2009 at 10:38 pm A trip to Peleliu, an island in the South Pacific, now home to WW2 ruins that are full of stories. Widely linked, [...]
cherokeebydesign // June 26, 2009 at 9:49 pm |
I never knew about this island, nor had I heard the story/history.
Thanks for sharing.
Raven
http://cherokeebydesign.wordpress.com/
Guy // July 10, 2009 at 4:48 am |
Peter,
Peleliu was too remote for it to present a threat to the U.S. invasion of the Phillipines. The need to take the island was controversial and debated even before the invasion took place. Today it is viewed as a mistake. It’s painful to view the U.S. Marines and Army men who died there as having given their lives for an outpost that had no strategic reason, but that sadly is the case with Peleliu. In truth the Japanese had very little air power left at that stage of the war to have effectively used Peleliu as a base to disrupt the U.S. retaking of the Phillipines.
Moreover, the U.S. very much underestimated the effort required to take Peleliu.
Hindsight is always 20-20, but in the end the U.S. should have bypassed the entire Palau island group.
ace nasby // July 14, 2009 at 6:13 pm |
2nd Bn 7th, I wanted to go back, too late now, too old. I know my spelling of Peleliu is wrong. Deliberate. is in memory of Mitch Page and John Basilone two who were awarded MOH. Page was a 2nd Bn 7th on the Canal. Pics are nothing like the day I hit the beach but thanks for the memories. Every one I knew is probably having a cool one at the big slopshoot in the sky. Semper Fi
Pierre Toomey, // August 5, 2009 at 7:07 pm |
I was at Pelilu in 1945 as YIC,USNR assigned to US Naval Sub Base. I would so like to return.
The pics make it so different. I drove a jeep along a road at the base of Bloodynose ridge taking mail to Base 10 Naval Hospital, and there were still some Japanese holed up i the caves of the ridge
Unlikely Words » Origin of the Phrase Thousand Yard Stare // August 12, 2009 at 2:29 am |
[...] Stare by Tom Lea. Lea had been known for his jingoistic propaganda art until spending time on the island of Peleliu during the battle of [...]
Son of Marine 2K8 // August 16, 2009 at 4:14 pm |
Thanks to the veterans of Peleliu who responded to this post. If you are a veteran of the Pacific War, please consider adding to history your comments and observations. My Dad never talks about his service in the Pacific and he has ‘Jungle Rot’ a skin condition picked up in the island jungles. Suffering from both to this day.
Mike // October 23, 2009 at 12:31 pm |
If you can find a copy, read Harry Gailey’s book on Peleliu.
First Marine Division CG William Rupertus was predicting his Marines would smash Japanese resistance in 3 days. Professor Gailey says that Rupertus had the ear of Chester Nimitz.
The Battle happened, maybe, because Nimitz believed Rupertus, that it would be a quick affair, not a drawn out battle of attrition.
The Japanese holed up in prepared positions impregnable to frontal attack. Rupertus had his marines conducting frontal attacks on those positions, even after his marines had taken thousands of casualties. Rupertus should have been relieved and court martialled for Peleliu. Instead the Marine Corps awarded him a Navy Cross