Promised Four Days, It Took Two Months | Peleliu 1944

One of the most senior American admirals in the Pacific read the plan for Peleliu and recommended calling the whole operation off. He was overruled. In September 1944, U.S. Marines landed on a small coral island in the Palau group that was supposed to be secured in four days. It took more than two months. By the end, an assault that one of its own commanders believed was unnecessary had cost close to 10,000 American casualties, on ground most people back home had never even heard of. So why was it fought? What did all of that dying actually buy? And how does a battle this costly slip out of a nation's memory, while the side that lost it seems to have understood exactly what had happened? We follow Peleliu from the planning room to the last sealed cave, and ask the question almost no one asked at the time: did it ever need to happen at all? Sources and further reading: Primary accounts Eugene B. Sledge, "With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa" (Presidio Press, 1981) Eugene B. Sledge, "Peleliu: A Neglected Battle" (Marine Corps Gazette, 1979-80) George P. Hunt, "Coral Comes High" (Harper & Brothers, 1946) Official histories Frank O. Hough, "The Assault on Peleliu" (USMC Historical Monograph, 1950) George W. Garand and Truman R. Strobridge, "History of U.S. Marine Corps Operations in World War II, Vol. IV: Western Pacific Operations" (USMC, 1971) Robert Ross Smith, "The Approach to the Philippines" (United States Army in World War II, 1953) Samuel Eliot Morison, "Leyte, June 1944 to January 1945" (History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol. XII, 1958) Gordon D. Gayle, "Bloody Beaches: The Marines at Peleliu" (USMC Historical Center, 1996) Studies and biographies Harry A. Gailey, "Peleliu 1944" (Nautical & Aviation Publishing, 1983) James H. Hallas, "The Devil's Anvil: The Assault on Peleliu" (Praeger, 1994) Bill D. Ross, "Peleliu: Tragic Triumph" (Random House, 1991) Bill Sloan, "Brotherhood of Heroes: The Marines at Peleliu, 1944" (Simon & Schuster, 2005) Derrick Wright, "To the Far Side of Hell: The Battle for Peleliu, 1944" (Fire Ant Books, 2005) Jon T. Hoffman, "Chesty: The Story of Lieutenant General Lewis B. Puller, USMC" (Random House, 2001) E.B. Potter, "Bull Halsey" (Naval Institute Press, 1985) #Peleliu #PacificWar #WW2 #USMC #Marines #1stMarineDivision #MilitaryHistory #History #BattleOfPeleliu #EugeneSledge #ChestyPuller #WarDocumentary