_As a result of Maj Gayle’s targetting of enemy positions in the
Umurbrogol, napalm-laden Marine Corsairs lifted from Peleliu’s
airfield, and returned to the field to be rearmed, in perhaps the
shortest wheels-down bombing run of the Pacific War._]
Notwithstanding these deliberate siege tactics, the 81st troops still
faced death and maiming as they ground down the bitter and stubborn
Japanese defenses. The siege of the Umurbrogol Pocket consumed the full
efforts of 81st Division’s 322d RCT and 323d RCT, as well as 2/321,
until 27 November 1944 (D plus 73).
This prolonged siege operation was carried on within 25 miles of a
much larger force of some 25,000 Japanese soldiers in the northern
Palaus. Minor infiltrations aside, those Japanese were isolated by U.S.
Navy patrols, and by regular bombing from Marine Aircraft Group 11,
operating from Peleliu.
Difficult and costly as the American advances were, the Japanese
defenders in their underground positions had a similarly demanding and
even more discouraging situation. Water was low. Sanitation was crude
to nonexistent. Rations were short, and ammunition was even scarcer. As
time wore on, some of the Japanese, when afforded opportunity, chose
to leave their defenses and undertake futile, usually suicidal night
attacks. A very few succeeded in being captured.
Toward late November, even Major General Murai apparently came to
this point of view. Still not in command, he nevertheless proposed,
in a radio message to Lieutenant General Inoue on Koror, a _banzai_
finale for their prolonged defense. But General Inoue turned down the
proposal. By this time, Nakagawa’s only exterior communications were by
radio to Koror. As he had anticipated, all local wire communications
had been destroyed. He had issued mission orders to carry his units
through the final phase of defense.
As the tanks and infantry carefully pressed their relentless advances,
the 81st Division’s engineers pressed forward and improved the roads
and ramps leading into or toward the heart of the Japanese final
position. This facilitated the tank and flamethrower attacks to
systematically reduce each cave and position as the infantry pushed its
sandbag “foxholes” forward.
On 24 November, Colonel Nakagawa sent his final message to his superior
on Koror. He advised that he had burned the colors of the _2d Infantry
Regiment_. He said that the final 56 men had been split into 17
infiltration parties, to slip through the American positions and to
“attack the enemy everywhere.” During the night of 24-25 November,
25 Japanese, including two officers, were killed. Another soldier
was captured the following morning. His interrogation, together with
postwar records and interviews, led to his conclusion that Colonel
Nakagawa and Major General Murai died in the CP, in ritual suicide.
[Illustration: FINAL MARINE ACTION]
The final two-day advance of the 81st Division’s soldiers was truly and
literally a mopping-up operation. It was carefully conducted to search
out any holed-up opposition. By midday on 27 November, the north-moving
units, guarded on the east by other Army units, met face-to-face
with the battalion moving south, near the Japanese CP later located.
The 323d’s commander, Colonel Arthur P. Watson, reported to General
Mueller that the operation was over.
Not quite. Marine air on Peleliu continued to attack the Japanese
positions in Koror and Babelthuap, joining the patrolling Navy units in
destroying or bottling up any remaining Japanese forces in the northern
Palaus. A late casualty in that action was the indomitable Major Robert
F. “Cowboy” Stout, whose VMF-114 had delivered so much effective air
support to the ground combat on Peleliu.
[Illustration: _On 27 September 1944, the U.S. flag was raised over
Peleliu, symbolizing that the island was secured. The honor guard was
comprised of 1st Marine Division Band members. The general editor of
this pamphlet, Benis M. Frank, is eighth from the left._]
The stubborn determination of the Japanese to carry out their emperor’s
war aims was starkly symbolized by the last 33 prisoners captured on
Peleliu. In March 1947, a small Marine guard attached to a small naval
garrison on the island encountered unmistakable signs of a Japanese
military presence in a cave in the Umurbrogol. Patrolling and ambushes
produced a straggler, a Japanese seaman who told of 33 remaining
Japanese under the military command of Lieutenant Tadamichi Yamaguchi.
Although the straggler reported some dissension within the ranks of
that varied group, it seemed that a final _banzai_ attack was under
consideration.
The Navy garrison commander moved all Navy personnel, and some 35
dependents, to a secure area and sent to Guam for reinforcements and a
Japanese war crimes witness, Rear Admiral Michio Sumikawa. The admiral
flew in and travelled by jeep along the roads near the suspected
cave positions. Through a loudspeaker he recited the then-existing
situation. No response. Finally, the Japanese seaman who had originally
surrendered went back to the cave armed with letters from Japanese
families and former officers from the Palaus, advising the hold-outs
of the end of the war. On 21 April 1947, the holdouts formally
surrendered. Lieutenant Yamaguchi led 26 soldiers to a position in
front of 80 battle-dressed Marines. He bowed and handed his sword to
the American naval commander on the scene.
_Was the Seizure of Peleliu Necessary? Costs vs. Benefits_
What advantages to the United States’ war effort grew from the conquest
of Peleliu? It assured absolute domination of all of the Palaus,
thereby adding, marginally, to the security of MacArthur’s right flank
as he continued westward, then northward from New Guinea into his
Philippines campaign. Within the Palaus group, it destroyed facilities
which survived Admiral Marc A. Mitscher’s devastating strike of March
1944. It insured total denial of support to the enemy from Koror’s
submarine basing facilities, incrementally decreasing the already
waning Japanese submarine capability east of the Philippines. The
United States position on Peleliu completed the neutralization of the
some 25,000 Japanese troops in northern Palau. The landing on Peleliu
did not contribute to the Regimental Landing Team (RLT) 323 unopposed
seizure of Ulithi. Admiral William F. Halsey had earlier believed that
his forces could seize Ulithi without first seizing Peleliu.
The most visible benefit of a subdued Peleliu lay in its use as a link
in the flight path and line of communications from Hawaii, and from the
Marianas, to the Philippines. The holding was a convenience, but not a
necessity.
[Illustration: _With the senior officers present, division chaplains
dedicate a new cemetery created at Orange Beach 2. The 1st Division
commander, MajGen Rupertus, with a cane, is near the center and to his
right is Col Puller (1st Marines). Grouped on the extreme right are:
BGen Smith, assistant division commander; Col Harrison (11th Marines),
and Col Harris (5th Marines). Not present at this time was the 7th
Marines’ commander, Col Hanneken, whose regiment was still engaged with
the enemy._
Department of Defense Photo (USMC) 96989
]
Such judgment could be disputed, however, by the survivors of the
_Indianapolis’_ 29 July 1945 sinking. Having delivered atomic
bomb parts to Tinian shortly before, the ship was headed for the
Philippines, when it was suddenly torpedoed at night. The ship went
down in 12 minutes, and no report of the contact or the sinking was
received. The fourth day after the sinking, its 316 survivors (from
a crew of 1,196) were sighted by a Navy patrol bomber working out of
Peleliu. The sighting led directly to their rescue, and most certainly
would not have occurred, but for American occupation of Peleliu.
What did the seizure of Peleliu cost? Marine casualties numbered 6,526,
including Navy corpsmen and doctors, of whom 1,252 were killed. The
81st Division totalled 3,089 casualties, of whom 404 were killed in
action. Total U.S. troop casualties was 9,615 for Peleliu, Angaur and
Ngesebus, with 1,656 dead.
By inflicting that many casualties, the Japanese were successful in
implementing their longstanding “delay and bleed” strategy. The actions
cost them an estimated 10,900 casualties, all but a tiny fraction
killed. Just 202 prisoners of war were captured, only 19 of whom were
Japanese military (seven Army, 12 Navy). The others were laborers,
largely Korean. Among the Japanese military defenders, less than two
per thousand were captured.
The costs at Peleliu held warnings aplenty for the remaining Allied
operations to be conducted across the Pacific to Japan. Even with total
local air and naval superiority, with lavish naval gunfire and bombs,
with the dreaded napalm weaponry, and with a 4:1 troop superiority,
the seizure of Peleliu consumed one American casualty and 1,589 rounds
of heavy and light troop ammunition for each single Japanese defender
killed or driven from his prepared position. A few months later, the
attacks on Iwo Jima and Okinawa would confirm this grim calculus of war
against determined Japanese defenders, ably led, in prepared defenses.
The question of whether the Peleliu operation was necessary remains
moot, even today, some 52 years after the 1 September 1944 landing. The
heroism and exemplary conduct of the 1st Marine Division, its Marines
and Navy corpsmen, and the soldiers of the 81st Infantry Division
on that miserable island is written in the record. But there is an
enduring question of whether the capture of Peleliu was essential,
especially in view of Admiral William F. Halsey’s recommendation
through Admiral Nimitz to the Joint Chiefs of Staff on 13 September
1944, two days before D-Day, that the landing be cancelled. By that
time, it was too late. And Peleliu was added to the long list of
battles in which Marines fought and suffered, and prevailed.
[Sidebar (page 46): Tom Lea’s Paintings
[Illustration: Life _Magazine artist Tom Lea accompanied Marines on
Peleliu._]
Tom Lea, the artist of the paintings which illustrate this pamphlet,
wrote of his experiences on Peleliu in _Battle Stations_, published
in 1988 by Still Point Press in Dallas. Some of the sketches from
this book were reproduced with commentary in Volume 14, Number 2 of
_Discovery_, a journal published by the University of Texas at Austin.
In this issue, James Jones, author of _From Here to Eternity_, wrote:
“Lea was one of the artists put in the field by _Life_.... Various of
his works appeared in the magazine, and up until the time he went into
Peleliu, most of them could be pretty well classified as excellently
done but high-grade propaganda. There was very little American blood,
very little tension, very little horror. Mostly, it was what could be
called the _Bravo America!_ and _This is Your Boy_ type of war art. His
almost photographic style easily lent itself to that type of work....
“But something apparently happened to Lea after going into Peleliu. The
pictures painted out of his Peleliu experience show a new approach.
There is the tension of terror in the bodies here, the distorted facial
expressions of the men under fire show it, too....
“One of the most famous, of course, is the _Two-Thousand-Yard Stare_
portrait of a young marine who has had all, or more than, he can take.
The staring eyes, the slack lips, the sleepwalker’s stance. I’ve seen
men with that look on their faces. I’ve had it on my own face. It feels
stiff, and the muscles don’t want to work right when you try to smile,
or show expression, or talk. Mercifully, you’re out of it for a while;
unmercifully, down in the center of that numbness, though, you know you
will have to come back eventually.”
Reprinted by permission of _Discovery_, the University of Texas
at Austin. Tom Lea’s artwork in this pamphlet is reproduced with
the permission of the artist. The captions under each of the Lea
paintings are the artist’s own words.