Island of Carnage: Battle of Peleliu
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- čas přidán 11. 06. 2024
- In September of 1944, U.S. forces fought the costly and questionable Battle of Peleliu to secure MacArthur's left flank on his eventual push to the Philippines. This bloody confrontation has long been regarded as the Pacific War's “forgotten battle”, and argued by some as one that should never have been fought. U.S. military leaders and intelligence forecasted a battle of mere days. However, this strategic failure turned into the Pacific War's bloodiest and most savage fighting until Okinawa, lasting over 74 days. Peleliu was the first major shift in Japanese strategy that brilliantly utilized terrain in their "honeycomb system". No more contested enemy landings at the water's edge, no more wild banzai attacks. Japanese defenders would rain heavy mortar and artillery fire on the beaches from entrenched positions within the island. Then, as Americans penetrated deeper into the island they would find carefully prepared network of caves, tunnels, and pillboxes for the purpose of killing as many Americans as possible.
Contents of this Video:
00:00 Island of Carnage: Battle of Peleliu
01:10 No More than Four Days
03:21 Honeycomb System
05:28 The Point
08:25 The Airfield
10:49 Inch by Inch
15:33 At What Cost?
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The Militology Channel does it's best to produce historically accurate content for history enthusiasts. All content is carefully researched and sources shared. Images and footage of the actual events may not be 100% accurate due to availability, but we do our best. Some images and footage may be used for dramatic effect, but the narrative content adheres to historical accuracy based on available sources. Please reach out with any concerns around historical accuracy so we can incorporate feedback. We also want to hear your constructive interpretation of historical events in our video comments.
Contact:
Militologyshow@gmail.com
Script Author:
Dejan Milivojevic
Sources:
Gayle, Gordon D. Bloody Beaches: The Marines at Peleliu. DIANE Publishing, 1996.
Hallas, James H. The Devil’s Anvil: The Assault on Peleliu. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1994.
Hough, Frank O. The Assault on Peleliu. Createspace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016.
Moran, Jim. Battle of Peleliu, 1944: Three Days That Turned Into Three Months. Frontline Books, 2021.
Moran, Jim, and Gordon L. Rottman. Peleliu 1944: The Forgotten Corner of Hell. Osprey Publishing, 2002.
Murray, Stephen C. The Battle Over Peleliu: Islander, Japanese, and American Memories of War. University of Alabama Press, 2016.
Peto, George, and Peter Margaritis. 22 on Peleliu: Four Pacific Campaigns with the Corps : The Memoirs of an Old Breed Marine. Casemate, 2017.
Ross, Bill D. Peleliu: Tragic Triumph : The Untold Story of the Pacific War’s Forgotten Battle. Random House (NY), 1991.
Ross, Bill D. Special Piece of Hell: The Untold Story of Peleliu - The Pacific War’s Forgotten Battle. St Martins Press, 1993.
Sledge, E.B. With the Old Breed. Presidio Press, 2007. - Krátké a kreslené filmy
My father-in-law was there in the US Army. 41st artillery unit. He would not talk about it very much and if he did he would get very angry and then drink a shitload of alcohol and get very quiet.
The battle for Peleliu was MacArthur's folly. The supposed protection of his flanks for the invasion of the Philippines when in fact he didn't go to Mindanao. He went to Luzon instead for his highly anticipated and propaganda laden return.
After his dramatic wading ashore, he had fresh pants, shoes and socks to change into. "Dugout Doug."
Sadly Peleliu ended up being a backwater seaplane base. Total unnecessary battle at such a huge cost to American lives when they could have just laid siege to that island.
I agree with everything you said except the smear “Dugout Doug.”. MacArthur had almost godlike physical courage that he demonstrated all during WWI and WWII. In fact, when he waded ashore on Luzon, he immediately when to the front line of soldiers that were being attacked by Jap snipers.
Peleliu was Nimitz's folly. Not MacArthur's.
WW2 version of JCS approved every one of MacArthurs operations. Common knowledge.
1:46 This is an old myth that sadly still persists. MacArthur did not send the 1st Marine Division to Peleliu, nor was MacArthur in any way in command of the Peleliu operation. In fact, it wasn't even his decision to invade Peleliu. Peleliu fell within the Central Pacific Area of operations, and thus all decisions regarding the Palau Islands landed on Nimitz's desk.
People will of course claim that "yea well MacArthur still insisted that Nimitz take Peleliu", except that in addition to there being no evidence of this, senior Navy leaders had already been drawing up plans to invade the Palau Islands (in addition to the Marianas) as early as March 1944 when they were first given approval by the Joint Chiefs. Peleliu was going to be invaded with or without MacArthur since the Navy had their own dubious reasons for securing it. The MacArthur narrative, it seems, is just an easy way to provide "a bad guy" to point to in order to explain such an unnecessary battle, and for most people it's easy to accept MacArthur as the villain.
It was one of the rare foul ups of Nimitz to pursue this invasion actually against most of the other senior commanders. Even MacAuthur said it could be bypassed.
This video is truly remarkable! So much attention to detail and the storyline is gripping. History never ceases to amaze!
I GREW UP! with These MEN! My Generation Knew these MEN! my bros father in law was one of these Marines! Ended Bayoneted, Shot, Left for Dead Three Days behind our lines covered in DEAD JAPS he Killed and covered up With Bleeding Out lit·er·al·ly Dying of THIRST and Tainted Water! I think he was Peleliu, Tarawa, and Guadalcanal, All he got fuel tainted Potable Water ? but it was long ago. he worked for DWP and was a Waco about Water!
Moms Pop was a SeaBee Officer!
Dad's Bro was Mighty Mo to Armastis in Japan!
👆🏻is sarcasm, Miltology…
This footage is a mess. Much of it is NOT of Peleliu. Scenes from the series 'The Pacific' and footage of Tarawa and Iwo Jima.
Maybe there wasn't much footage of Peleliu taken. There weren't photographers at every battle.
B-29s did not bomb Peleliu. WTF. The first B-29 arrived on Saipan on 12 October 1944, and the first combat mission was launched from there on 28 October 1944, with 14 B-29s attacking the Truk atoll. The 73rd Bomb Wing launched the first mission against Japan from bases in the Marianas, on 24 November 1944, sending 111 B-29s to attack Tokyo. For this first attack on the Japanese capital since the Doolittle Raid in April 1942, 73rd Bomb Wing wing commander Brigadier General Emmett O'Donnell Jr. acted as mission command pilot in B-29 Dauntless Dotty.
That’s right. I hate when they don’t know their facts.
Correct. In hindsight, many question whether Peleliu should have been assaulted. Bypassed, its garrison would have withered and defeated-itself.
My dad was there. He was 20 years old.
I was there too maybe I knew him
War is evil 😈
Amazing production
This attritional grudge match of a battle is aptly named. Many fortunate sons indeed..
Operation Stalemate was its name. Aptly named more than they thought.
Rupertes was the Marines version of Macarthur. An arrogant, narcissistic pos. It was ridiculously important to his ego that the Marines take the island in its entirety keeping the Army out as long as he could. I know he was relieved of command during this battle but I don't know if the Army got into it before or after his departure. My dad was a World War II veteran from the US Navy South Pacific and that's the kind of shit that used to burn him up. The "brass" spending American lives like they were penny candy for Christ's sake. 😡
He lost his wife and kids to Scarlet Fever before the war. It probably hardened his heart
Are you done? Rupertus and MacArthur? Take a break and do some research. Father infantry with 32nd Div did not have time for Strategic Analysis well over his pay grade. He was busy enough with the IJA in New Guinea and Leyte and N. Luzon. In other words come back with something brief and better.
It's Rupertus.
This is an old myth that sadly still persists. MacArthur did not send the 1st Marine Division to Peleliu, nor was MacArthur in any way in command of the Peleliu operation. In fact, it wasn't even his decision to invade Peleliu. Peleliu fell within the Central Pacific Area of operations, and thus all decisions regarding the Palau Islands landed on Nimitz's desk.
People will of course claim that "yea well MacArthur still insisted that Nimitz take Peleliu", except that in addition to there being no evidence of this, senior Navy leaders had already been drawing up plans to invade the Palau Islands (in addition to the Marianas) as early as March 1944 when they were first given approval by the Joint Chiefs. Peleliu was going to be invaded with or without MacArthur since the Navy had their own dubious reasons for securing it. The MacArthur narrative, it seems, is just an easy way to provide "a bad guy" to point to in order to explain such an unnecessary battle, and for most people it's easy to accept MacArthur as the villain
Semper Fi.
Completely erased from TV and textbooks.
Really, I just seen a video about this on CZcams ?
The narrator sounds like the voice of Cornfed in DuckMan.
Haha! You remember that show??
I have long heard the blame for Peleliu lies with McArthur and his insistance upon a Philipines campaign. According to Ian Toll in his work, Peleliu is on Nimitz. Halsey asked that Peleliu be bypassed and to send the 1st Marines onto Lyte, which itself was a bypass of Mindanao. Apparently, Nimitz insisted on using the 1st in his sector rather than releasing the 1st Marines to MacArthur. As we know, the Japanese garrison was starving and had no hope of resupply or relief. And, there were no operational enemy aircraft there to threaten American forces. Peleliu was a complete waste of American blood. But according to Ian Toll, MacArthur had no interest in Peleliu, and it was Nimitz who pressed ahead with an obsolete plan. One can see Iwo Jima in the same light. Iwo was not needed to support the air campaign against the Japanese home islands. There is no useful natural harbor there. Again, the Japanese garrison on Iwo was starving and had no hope of relief or resupply. Iwo was a useless rock that should have been bypassed. As at Peleliu, there were no operational Japanese aircraft on Iwo to threaten US operations. It's interesting to note that the carnage of Peleliu delayed the Iwo assault, allowing the Japanese more time to prepare defenses in depth there.
Yes, _Twilight of the Gods_ is one of the few books that correctly attributes responsibility to Nimitz rather than MacArthur over the decision to invade Peleliu. MacArthur really couldn't have cared less about a small coral island several hundred miles in the opposite direction of his advance towards the Philippines. The US Naval Institute published an article _"What was Nimitz Thinking?"_ (written by a retired Marine Colonel) that explores Nimitz's potential motivations. Apparently "securing MacArthur's flank" was only a secondary objective of the Palau operations. The original purpose of Operation Stalemate/Stalemate II was to secure an anchorage at Ulithi, which had been taken completely unopposed. After Nimitz rejected Halsey's proposal, Nimitz sent a message to Admiral King saying: _"The occupation of Palau and Ulithi are of course essential and it would not be feasible to reorientate the plans for the employment of the Palau attack and occupation forces as rapidly as Halsey's 130230 appears to visualize."_ Halsey maintained in his report that only Ulithi was still strategically pertinent as far as Navy interests were concerned. I don't think Nimitz ever discussed his reasoning after the war, but in any case Peleliu wasn't necessary to protect either the Philippines or Ulithi.
Wrong. Mac early on insisted that Peleliu be captured to protect his south eastern flank in the coming Philippine invasion. Navy pushed for a strategy of Marianas/Formosa/Okinawa, bypassing the entire Philippine area as unnecessary. May have been technically correct but the optics of abandoning what then was an American commonwealth to fate along with damaging Macs prestige was too much to bear, it was FDR and the Joint Chiefs who made the call, not Mac or Nimitz.
So once it was determined the Philippines would be recaptured, Peleliu capture was deemed necessary by Macs command, though true of course he never formally ordered the operation, having the president and joint chiefs backing his every word was quite enough. Once the Formosa strategy was ruled out, Nimitz fell in line and didn't resist what some were already foreseeing was a futile and useless operation in Peleliu. Halsey actually did resist, right up to sailing with the invasion fleet he said the island should be bypassed and used for target practice [Worth noting that we already or would shortly have the huge natural harbor of Ulithi in that area, along with islands like Mog Mog & Yap, which never made the history books because our landings there were unopposed, and having possession of them made the Peleliu invasion even more unnecessary].
Soon the entire theater was a useless backwater, as many had predicted and is glaringly obvious with hindsight. The blame for such useless waste of life goes 1st to FDR and the joint chiefs, they formulated and directed strategy, they gave the orders and the buck pretty much stops there. 2nd to Mac for insisting that his south east flank would be vulnerable with Peleliu in Japanese hands, and 3rd to Nimitz, who warmed up to the idea of Peleliu once his Formosa strategy was rejected, and once he saw the 1st Marine Division wasn't doing anything in particular at the time. The only man who tried his best to stop it was Halsey, and of course as just a fleet commander, he had no where near the pull it would have taken to convince the shot callers to call the operation off. Mac or Nimitz on their own, possible - Both of them together, for sure.
@@JesseJames-wj8ft The decision to move on the Palau Islands was pinned to the Navy's timetable as early as March 1944 immediately after the Marshalls campaign; designed as a follow up to the invasion of the Marianas. By that time MacArthur had just finished cutting off Rabaul, and wouldn't even be in Western New Guinea until a couple months later. Then in May 1944, before the Honolulu conference with FDR, the Navy ironed out plans to invade the Palau Islands under the codename _Operation Stalemate._ This is important to consider when assigning blame because it wasn't until the Honolulu conference that FDR chose MacArthur's strategy over Nimitz's (King's really). In other words, the Navy was already planning the invasion independently of MacArthur and his strategy to liberate Luzon. In fact, the operation would have occurred sooner than September 1944 had it not been for the delays in capturing the Marianas, which offset the timetable and resources allocated to Stalemate, and prompted the operation to be redesignated as _Stalemate II._
There is actually no evidence that MacArthur insisted on the invasion of Peleliu, despite how often the claim is made. Indeed, MacArthur actually agreed with Halsey and affirmed his recommendation by moving up the invasion date for Leyte and bypassing Mindanao (for the time being). Nimitz, for his part, refused on grounds that aren't quite clear, but it is clear that he held Ulithi in utmost importance for Navy operations north of the Marianas, and namedropped Ulithi in his communiques to King when he explained his rejection of Halsey's proposal. Perhaps his concern was that Peleliu could be used by the Japanese to taxi air raids from Formosa or Luzon. Ulithi was going to be the home of the entire 3rd/5th fleet after all, but we'll never know his reasoning for certain. Regardless, MacArthur only gave Nimitz his languid approval for an operation that was going to happen anyways. Old aviators can be let off the hook this time.
@@redaug4212 Thanks for the writeup, I stand by what I said. I have read so many books I can't recall which one I read but it had a fairly comprehensive passage about Mac pushing hard for Peleliu, might have been Morrisons history of US naval ops in WW2. You pretty much base your assessment on Mac not giving the actual order, he didn't need to and in fact had no authority to do so. The order was given from the CinC through the JCS, it was left to the theater commander [Nimitz] to iron out the tactical details. His failing was falling on board so easily when he had previously advised against the operation, him & Mac were really the only 2 commanders with the weight and swagger to sway the JCS, everyone else simply followed orders.
@@JesseJames-wj8ft My assessment is based on when and how the operation originated. The original plan wasn't made with MacArthur's goals in mind because King was still lobbying for Operation Causeway over MacArthur's Luzon strategy. Had MacArthur insisted on the Peleliu invasion, which I haven't seen primary source evidence of, then it would have been supernumerary since the Navy had Peleliu on their timetable regardless.
If you have the page number of Morrison's book that mentions MacArthur pushing this invasion, I would like to see it since I have free access on the digital archives.
Love history combat.
good video
Thank you for watching. Next video is dropping tomorrow morning.
Pay-lay-lou.
EXACTLY...! I've been there as a scuba diver, and toured the battlefield. I blows my mind that people make these videos and have no idea as to how pronounce the name of the place they are featuring...!!!
My dad earned his first Purple Heart there as an underage electricians mate repairing two way radios.
The ending didn't mentioned Japanese loses ? Did the majority of them survive and evacuated ?
Are you joking ? They were killed or committed suicide almost to a man
The Japanese garrison was virtually annihilated. They fought to the death and very few if any surrendered. For the Marines it was one of the toughest battles of the Pacific war.
I would have thought the Wehrmacht would have used the Falshirmjager here. Luftwaffe of course would have dominated the skies. How to get them there?
Jeff you’re in the wrong theater. No Wehrmacht in the Pacific. You’re pulling my leg,correct?
@@nevadaleadershipgroup8616 You are correct.
solid enough vid. but a few things i take issue with. qst tje pronunciation of Peleliu, its not like this happened yesterday. its close to a 100 years ago and info upon it can be found. not just war wise but it is still an island today. just do a quick search of "how do i pronounce" and your prob would be solved. 2ndly i hate when movies are used as war footage. you used Letters from Iwo Jima , which is about Iwo Jima, not Peleliu.
Ever consider that there is no or next to none of any footage of the battle. They did not have photographers at every battle. Or maybe the photographers were killed, or they lost any film they had. War is hell. So all this channel is doing is using whatever footage it can get to make the story and the horrors.
@@BatMan-oe2gh i have considered this. but it is still isnt acceptable. i tend to watch a good deal of military and ww2 vids. most when using a "movie" as footage ither say "using as an example " or it will say the movies name in small writing in a corner. as for no video footage of pictures it only takes a few seconds to type in "fighting on Peleliu" and an assortment of video's come up. not a movie about Iwo Jima. as for pictures there are plenty, just the same , search pictures of Peleliu ww2 and a plethora of flim comes up.
@@Failchrist666 I found out that this channel is unable to afford to pay for real footage or is held back by copyright. so can only use what is publicly available for free.
The stupid island should have been by past. It was a waste of brave marines. They were still fighting and dying after the Philippines invasion was underway.
This was the mistake that woke up the system
What’s the islands name?
Fraggle Rock
Why is there footage of German infantry at the beginning of the video? Just wondering.
That footage is before anything on the story starts, once the VO starts on the topic it's all pacific focused. It was a quick intro of wwii combat footage. This was also the very first video of this channel. This was a one man show at that time and we're continuously trying to find archival footage that takes incredible amount of time and money in some cases.
Everyone knows today that taking this island was unnecessary.
Yes, I've read with the Old Breed and many others.
It wasn’t until 1947 that the last Japanese surrendered.
Actually the last Japanese soldier to surrender was private teruo Nakamura. He didn’t surrender until 1974
oh no big fights happen during world war 2 big casualties in oth sides
Well narrated, but in editing you need to deal with combat noise overwhelming the narration. There were whole long sentences that were unintelligible.
Appreciate your feedback Mike, I will do my best with the sound quality moving forward. Thanks for watching.
Well told, but the use of footage from other battles, like Tarawa, is somewhat off-putting.
Sucks only thing they had for protection was just a helmet 🪖
PAY-LAY-LOO.
You lost me at 0.05 in with images of German troops....wtf?
I noticed that too...Still a good video though!
The video stated that the Americans were advancing on the Philippines and Germany, that was why they showed the Germans at the start.
Isnt all battles carnage?
Be much better if you learned to pronounced the island's name.
EXACTLY.
Like Peh - leh- loo
It sounded like he said blu-lu-lu-lu-lu!!!! !!!!!!
AI voice over isn't that smart yet
That's the least of the problems. Much footage is not of Peleliu.
Peleliu pronounced Pay Lay Loo
AI narration and video game footage? Seriously?
Also pronouncing the island's name correctly. Not eveyone has heard of that island, especially young people. So, you mispronounce the name, that's how people will remember that island's name. This is a disservice to the men that fought and died there, but also to the people who know nothing about the island. Peleliu is pronounced Pel uh lou. That's how the Marines pronounced it.
Not a forgotten battles. Bullshit title. Post and leave.
Did I just see Ke Sanh? Um, that was a different war. 11:10. I also noticed Tarawa and Iwo Jima combat. Not that it isn't an impactful video, but a tad inaccurate.
In the description of the video we mention not all footage is 100% accurate as we're limited to what's available, especially with us being a new channel and small amount of resources to find archival footage. We do our best and blend footage together that's as close as possible for seamless storytelling. We'll try to blend footage from similar battles, movies, modern re-enactments and try to stay away from using any CGI.