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Excerpt from With the Old Breed at Peleliu and Okinawa

First published in 1981

On September 15, 1944, U.S. Marines invaded Peleliu (pronounced "PELL-eh-loo" or "PEH-lell-you"), one of the Palau Islands in the western Pacific Ocean. The Palau Islands campaign was viewed originally as a crucial stepping-stone in the liberation of the Philippines from Japan. (See box on Douglas MacArthur on p. 218-219.) The entire area was heavily defended by Japanese troops.

Peleliu was only 6 miles long and 2 miles wide, but its rugged terrain and unbearably hot climate made for a slow and miserable battle. Approximately twenty-eight thousand Americans—a combined force of marine and army divisions—participated in the brutal, bloody struggle for the island. More than eleven hundred marines were killed or wounded on the first day of fighting alone.

U.S. forces captured the island of Peleliu on...