The Bloody Hills of Peleliu
From the History Channel.
The video starts out by saying that the battle for Peleliu isn't extremely well known.
Admiral Halsey said that the battle did not even need to be fought.
The video talks about how MacArthur was humiliated when the Japanese overran his forces on the Philippines.
Halsey considered Pelileu to be a death trap. He managed to get part of the planned invasion canceled, but MacArthur and other higher-ups wanted to go ahead with the invasion of the islands of Pelileu and those around it.
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There were 25,000 Japanese troops waiting. The commander deployed most of his men on the wrong island, though, expecting the US would attack somewhere other than Pelileu.
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There are maps and more interviews, one of them noting how bad the US intelligence was as far as Pelileu went.
The Japanese plan was much like those used later. There would be only a small attempt to attack the Americans while they were on the beaches. The main force would be hold up in caves and tunnels and wait for the Americans to come to them. There was no hope for Japanese victory; their goal was to make the Americans pay as high a price as possible for taking the island. The battle ended up lasting ten weeks.
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Survivors recall the landing.
This man talks about the use of suicide soldiers who carried satchels of explosives and threw themselves on tanks.
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The Japanese tried a daytime counter-attack which was unusual, since they normally waited until nighttime to do that.
Part of the battle involved a tank battle between the two forces. The Japanese tanks lost, badly. 500 Japanese were also killed.
The temperature was around 115 degrees with high humidity.
There was a major problem with a general who insisted on troops moving forward but had no idea at all of what they were actually facing.
Another military leader continues to make bad decisions, and is finally overruled by General Geiger, who orders what is left of the 1st Marines withdrawn. They had suffered around 70% casualties.
An effort by the Japanese to reinforce their soldiers was met by US destroyers and shot up.
The Marines preferred straight-ahead attacks, while the Army preferred the use of firepower.
The battle took 72 days. The Army's method of slow movement with the use of extreme firepower resulted in a siege-like approach, and that finally exhausted the Japanese troops. Their leader committed suicide.
The US suffered 10,463 casualties, with 1535 dead. 14,000 Japanese were killed.
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