The Battle of Peleliu 1944: Bloody Nose Ridge and the Island That Should Have Been Bypassed (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798288306945)

The most controversial battle of the Pacific - and one of its bloodiest.

In September 1944 the 1st Marine Division was told Peleliu would take three or four days. It took more than two months. On a coral island barely five square miles across, the Marines walked into a new kind of war: no banzai charges on the beach, but a honeycomb of five hundred caves and tunnels dug into the Umurbrogol ridge - the debut of the defense-in-depth doctrine that would make Iwo Jima and Okinawa so terrible.

This illustrated history tells the whole story of Operation Stalemate II through fifteen original maps and diagrams: the murderous reef landing, the stand at The Point, the meat grinder of Bloody Nose Ridge, the 115-degree heat, the wrecking of Chesty Puller's regiment, and Colonel Nakagawa's last message - "Our sword is broken."

Inside:

• The bypass debate - should Peleliu have been fought at all?
• The new Japanese cave-defense system, in cross-section
• The reef, the amtracs, and the enfilade at The Point
• Why the 1st Marine Division was effectively destroyed
• Honest casualty figures, with the sources' disputed ranges

Fifteen original maps, diagrams, and charts, all designed to be read clearly on any device.

Volume 2 of The Pacific War, an illustrated series on the battles that decided the war against Japan. Figures are the author's own; map basemaps use public-domain Natural Earth data. Casualty figures follow the ranges given by the major official histories, with disputed points noted.