_Marines using rifle grenades, hand grenades, and “Molotov cocktails”
battle Japanese holed up in caves in northern Peleliu. Note the torch
in the foreground which was used to ignite the “cocktails” and the
flaming bottle of gas ready to be thrown._]
What was not yet appreciated was that the Marines were confronting
the most comprehensive set of caves and tunnels on Peleliu. They
were trying to invade the home (and defensive position) of a
long-established naval construction unit most of whose members were
better miners than infantrymen. As dark fell, the 2d Battalion cut
itself loose from the units to its south, and formed a small battalion
beachhead for the night.
[Illustration: _During the night of 27 September, one of the weapons
from the 8th 155mm Gun Battalion was moved into position in 2/5’s
sector about 180 yards from Amiangal Ridge._
Department of Defense Photo (USMC) 95941
]
The next morning, as the 2d Battalion, 5th Marines, tried to move along
the route leading to the northern nose of Amiangal Ridge, it ran into
a wide and deep antitank ditch which denied the attacking infantry
the close tank support they had so successfully used earlier. At this
point, the 5th Marines command asked, again, for point-blank artillery.
This time, division headquarters responded favorably. During the night
of 27 September Major George V. Hanna’s 8th 155mm Gun Battalion moved
one of its pieces into position in 2/5’s sector. The gun was about 180
yards from the face of Amiangal Ridge. The sight of that threat at dawn
elicited enemy machine-gun fire which inflicted some casualties upon
the artillerymen. This fire was quickly suppressed by Marine infantry
fire, and then by the 155mm gun itself. Throughout the morning, the
heavy 155mm fire played across the face of Amiangal Ridge, destroying
or closing all identified caves on the west face, except for one. That
latter was a tunnel mouth, down at ground level and on the northwestern
base of the hill. It was too close to friendly lines to permit the gun
to take it under fire. But by then, tanks had neutralized the tunnel
mouth, and a tank bulldozer filled in a portion of the antitank ditch.
This allowed 2/5’s tank-infantry teams to close on the tunnel mouth, to
blast and bulldoze it closed, and to press on around the northern nose
of Amiangal. Simultaneously, Marines swept over the slopes above the
tunnel and “seized” the crest of the small mountain.
The term seizure is qualified, for although 2/5 held the outside of the
hill, the stubborn Japanese defenders still held the inside. A maze of
interconnected tunnels extended throughout the length and breadth of
the Amiangal Ridge. From time to time the Japanese inside the mountain
would blast open a previously closed cave or tunnel mouth, and sortie
to challenge the Marines. Notwithstanding their surprise effect, these
counterattacks provided a rare and welcome opportunity for the Marines
actually to see their enemy in daylight. Such tactics were inconsistent
with the general Japanese strategy for Peleliu, and somewhat shortened
the fight for the northern end of the island.
As that fighting progressed, the 5th Marines assembled its 3d
Battalion, supporting tanks, amphibian tractors, and the entire panoply
of naval gunfire, and air support to launch a shore-to-shore operation
to seize Ngesebus and Kongauru, 600 yards north of Peleliu, on 28
September.
There followed an operation which was “made to look easy” but which in
fact involved a single, reinforced (but depleted) battalion against
some 500 prepared and entrenched Japanese infantry. For some 35 hours,
the battalion conducted the most cost-effective single battalion
operation of the entire Peleliu campaign.
[Illustration: SECURING THE NORTH]
Much of the credit for such effectiveness was due to supporting
aviation. VMF-114, under Major Robert F. “Cowboy” Stout, had landed
on Peleliu’s air strip just three days prior to this landing, and
immediately undertook its primary service mission: supporting Marine
ground operations. The Ngesebus landing was the first in the Pacific
War for which the entire air support of a landing was provided by
Marine aviation. As the LVTs entered the water from Peleliu’s shore,
the naval gunfire prematurely lifted to the alarm of the assault
troops. Stout’s pilots immediately recognized the situation, resumed
their strafing of Ngesebus until the LVTs were within 30 yards of the
beach. They flew so low that the watching Marines “expected some of
them to shoot each other down by their ricochets.” This action so kept
the Japanese defenders down that the Marines in the leading waves were
upon them before they recovered from the shock of the strafing planes.
[Illustration: