America's Deadliest Amphibious Operation in the Pacific | The Battle of Peleliu (WW2)

There is a fairly good chance that you have never heard of the tiny Pacific Island of Peleliu. With its size of approximately 13 square kilometres, it is little more than a speck on the map. Nevertheless, for two and a half long months in 1944, the island was home to some of the most intense combat in all of the Second World War, causing massive loss of life on both the Japanese and the American side. And what is more, it may all have been very well for nothing. Consider supporting HoH:   / houseofhistory   My Twitter:   / houseofhistory1   My videos tend to get arbitrarily demonetized. That is why I decided to open up a Patreon where people can support the channel. If you decide to pledge as little as 1$/month you will gain access to a monthly series exclusive to my Patrons! Time Codes: 0:43 A stepping-stone to the Philippines 4:01 Establishing a Bridgehead 6:55 The Japanese in their element 9:42 Getting Methodical Watch my documentary series: End of Empire - Downfall of the Qing Dynasty playlist:    • End of Empire - China's Last Emperor   Hitler's Spies playlist:    • Hitler's Spies   World War 2 playlist:    • World War 2   The content of this video covers events, people or concepts via a lecture-style presentation that is educational and historical in nature. Every video is original content by House of History. The events relating to conflict in this video are portrayed in their historical context without either value judgment or an ideological message attached to it. There is no intent to shock, upset or disgust. The goal of my channel is to make interesting lecture-style videos, no more, no less. Thank you for taking the time to check out House of History, I hope you will find the films informative, interesting and enjoyable! If you have any feedback, questions or criticism feel free to leave a comment. Your opinion truly aids me in improving the content of the channel! If you have a question, feel free to leave a comment and I will either write a reply, answer your question in a Q&A video, or make an entire video about it! It is difficult to determine any definitive turning points in the Second World War’s Pacific Theatre. The Battle of Midway springs to mind, the naval battle that caused the Imperial Japanese Navy to lose their edge. But one can also make a decent case for the first Allied major offensive, the Guadalcanal campaign. What was clear, however, was that Japan was increasingly on the defence as 1943 progresses. The definitive blow to the Japanese ambitions as a great naval power, capable of projecting power across the Pacific with its carriers, came in June 1944. It was at the Battle of the Philippine Sea, where Japan suffered irreplaceable losses to its carrier fleet. To follow up on this success of the US, the High Command decided to invade the Philippines. They figured the Philippines could later be used as a staging area for the invasion of Japan. To reinforce their southern flank during the invasion of the Philippines, it was decided that the Palau Islands a bit to the south-east had to be captured first. The Palau-campaign was codenamed Stalemate but was adapted into Stalemate II after it was only deemed necessary to invade the southernmost two islands: Angaur and Peleliu. To be honest, in hindsight, the preparation of the assault showed terrible signs of… mismanagement on the part of the Americans. Sources: Photos, paintings and imagery: Public Domain, Wikicommons #HouseofHistory #History #WW2