Operation Stalemate II
by Jennifer King
"The Heretical Housewife"
In
the summer of 1944, America had seen many significant victories and was beginning
to embark upon the final strategy of subduing Imperial Japan. General Douglas
MacArthur wanted to invade the Philippines, then Okinawa, Formosa and finally,
Japan. Admiral Chester Nimitz favored bypassing the Philippines entirely, going
directly to Okinawa, then to Formosa and then on to Japan. President Franklin
Roosevelt chose MacArthur’s plan.
Peleliu was a lonely island, 500 miles south of the Southeast Philippines. Peleliu was needed, it was thought, to protect MacArthur’s right flank and provide him with additional air capability for the Philippines campaign. It was also thought that Peleliu would be a relatively easy target. In reality, however, the campaign for Peleliu would take over two months, and cost over 12,000 lives. Furthermore, by the time Peleliu was conquered, MacArthur had already arrived on Leyte. It was argued then, and still is today, whether the sacrifice of Peleliu could have been avoided entirely. Yet the bravery of the men involved is irrefutable.
The
operational plan for Peleliu was, appropriately as it turns out, code named
"Operation Stalemate II". The battle plan called for the 1st Marine Division,
under the command of Major General William Repartees, to assault the beachhead
with three regiments. The 1st Marine Regiment, under the command of Colonel
"Chesty" Puller, would be on the left flank, assaulting beaches White
1 and White 2. In the center would be the 5th Marine Regiment, under the command
of Colonel Harold D. "Bucky" Harris, assaulting beaches Orange 1 and Orange
2. The right flank would be held by the 7th Marine Regiment, commanded by Colonel
Herman H. Hanneken, assaulting Orange 3.
Unbeknownst to the Americans was the fact that tiny Peleliu had a defending force of 10,500 Japanese - soldiers battle hardened from fighting in China. They also didn’t realize that the Japanese had dug an extensive system of tunnels and caves into the coral rock. Even though a heavy naval bombardment took place right before the battle, little actual damage was done to the Japanese emplacements.
The morning of September 15th, 1944, arrived. The Marines set out in their Higgins boats for the beach, where the enemy fought tenaciously in order to keep them from establishing a beachhead. Dozens of amphibious tractors (AMTRACS) littered the beach. Accurate heavy and light arms fire was directed at the landing troops. The temperature reached up to 115 degrees, and there was little shade. Further complicating matters, each of the Marines was limited to the water they had in their canteens. When new supplies finally showed up, some of the water was tainted from being stored in improperly cleaned oil barrels. K Company, 3rd Battalion, was cut off from the rest of the invading force. When they finally broke through, there was only 33% of the Company left.
Over the next few days, the fighting was fierce. Company C of the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines, assaulted one of the rocky ridges known as "Hill 100". They fought, hand to hand, with the enemy before they were forced to withdraw with only 8 men unwounded out of a total of 242 troops.
On September 21st, General Geiger (Commander, III Amphibious Corps), visited the front. At that time, there were 1,749 Marines either KIA, MIA or wounded. Geiger, alarmed, ordered the Army’s 321st Regimental Combat Team, 81st Infantry Division into the battle. On September 23rd, the 321st went in.
Complicating matters was the tall bony ridge, known as the Umurbrogols, where the Japanese had hidden guns and dug caves. The Americans were forced to take these ridges bit by gruesome bit, using flamethrowers and hand grenades. This area became known as Bloody Nose Ridge.
Finally, after the fierce fighting, on November 24th, the Japanese Commander Colonel Nakagawa burned his regimental flag and, after sending his few remaining soldiers out to fight guerrilla style, committed hari-kiri. Peleliu was finally secured.
In all, the Japanese suffered 10,900 KIA, with 202 Japanese becoming POWs. The Americans suffered a total of 8,769 KIA, MIA or wounded in action. 8 United States Marines won the Medal of Honor at Peleliu, 5 of them for bravely flinging themselves upon hand grenades in order to save their comrades. The other 3 all charged machine gun emplacements or fought tenaciously and bravely against overwhelming odds.
For an island only 6 miles long and barely 2 miles wide, Peleliu had been won at a terrific cost. The caves and the fierce resistance put up by the Japanese soldiers foreshadowed later hotly contested island battles such as Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
In 1980, I visited Peleliu, an island I had never previously heard of. When we stepped ashore, even then, a good 36 years after the battle, there lay the shattered hulk of an AMTRAC, still littering the beach. We found spent bullets, some flattened by impact. We saw Japanese and American tanks, silent and rusting, left where they had fallen. We found rifles, a helmet, a decaying bayonet. Walking up the stairs that now line Bloody Nose Ridge, we investigated part of the Japanese cave system, and saw a huge gun which no doubt was used to great effectiveness against our Marines. Against the backdrop of pastoral greenery and blue sky, we could hear the sounds of that long ago battle, the incessant chattering of the guns, the anguished screams of the dying and wounded men.
At the top of Bloody Nose Ridge, there is a monument. On it is inscribed, along with the names of the men who died here, "Lest We Forget".
Let us never forget the sacrifices all of our veterans have made, in order that we can continue to live in freedom. On the eve of this new and terrible war, let us hope that this generation, our generation, will have the same fortitude and determination as all previous ones did. Let us hope, that despite the decades of cynicism, moral equivalence and historical revisionism - that today’s Americans still realize - to paraphrase Frank Capra, "Why We Fight." And why it is our sacred duty to preserve our uniquely tolerant, uniquely American, vision for the generations yet to come.
Our United States Veterans have more than earned our heartfelt thanks and gratitude.
Semper Fi, Marines. God Bless. ***
© 2001 Jennifer King
COPYRIGHT © 2001 BY THE AMERICAN PARTISAN. All writers retain rights to their work.