One really amazing aspect of the fighting on Pelelieu is how small the island is. The Japanese were dug in tighter than ticks. It was a precursor of things to some at Iwo Jima, although we can see that through the lens of the past. The carnage for such a small, no matter how strategic, island was terrible. My hat's off in thanks for the supreme sacrifice made by our troops, in WWII and now.
@Cupcakealex Simply put taking Peleliu served no tangible strategic purpose. The landing strip was not needed, MacArthur’s forces did not utilize the island during or after the invasion of the Philippines and the Japanese could not have used the island either to much affect. It is not at matter of hindsight either, there was much debate before the battle as to its necessity and MacArthur’s opinion carried the day. The taking of Peleliu was a military blunder. 1794 KIA, 8010 wounded or missing.
In 4 years we won WWII. We've been at war 19 years in Afghanistan. Does anyone else get angry about the Military Contractors hold on America?!!! This is Insane! 19 years and counting.
In WWII we fought it like a war, kill and destroy everything. If we wanted to win in Afghanistan, we'd have been carpet bombing in the hills and destroying every village and trail in the place. But the country was supposed to be on our side. Like Vietnam, if we had fought that like a war, there would not have been any North Vietnam left.
Taking Peleliu was totally unnecessary. MacArthur insisted it be taken when the initial target in the Philippines was Mindinao, the southernmost large island. When the initial target was moved north to Leyte Gulf that placed the U.S. forces out of range of any Japanese planes on Peleliu. Somebody should have then eliminated it then as a target for invasion but due to our system of conducting war it was not.
+Sabra S Actually Admiral Halsey and General MacArthur BOTH decided that Peleliu wasn't necessary, however, given inter-service rivalries and how much the Navy tried to keep itself independent of Army command, there was only one man who could have stopped the invasion, and both Halsey and MacArthur sent recommendations that the landings on Peleliu be canceled. Nimitz disagreed and the landings went on as originally planned. If anyone is to bear responsibility for the losses, it'd be Nimitz, not MacArthur.
The 81st ID fought in the battle of Angaur and came straight to Peleliu. They took over command of Peleliu and fought 6 wks after relieving the marines to take control of Peleliu.
This battle brought out a lot of criticism about Marine Corp tactics and the casualties caused by the tactics. I'm surprised they didn't bring that up.
My dad was a combat infantryman in the Pacific. He was in the Army. He said criticism of Marine tactics came from later in the war. Marines would charge into battle without knowing what was ahead of them.
Hello Faith, Not one solider has ever returned form death to verify faith. So many brave men dead and the way they died, by faith. Justified by faith a faith that has meaning? Faith in communications so when in the moment we draw our last breath we do this well. Justified by faith but were is the evidence? Keeping faith alive, is the evidence. RIP and in keeping with this mystery I understand that they have kept the faith. Questions reveal/ identity conceals, Hoping for a way to keep the faith, Brian Koller
MacArthur distinguished himself in WW II and retired as Chief of Staff of the Army in 1935 to become adviser and watchdog of the President of the Philippines before he was recalled to duty to plan the defense of the Philippines. When he learned of Pearl he went into a funk and ensconced himself in his penthouse atop the Manila Hotel in Manila. While he remained confined in his room his air commander plead in vain for permission to launch his new B-17s against the Japanese air assets on Formosa. By the time MacArthur recovered those air assets were on the way to Clark AB to bomb those new B-17s into scrap. Half were destroyed and the rest were damaged, putting the USAFFE out of business. A series of defense lines had been drawn up which the Filipinos and Marines were to defend. Instead they all panicked and headed directly for the Bataan Peninsula SW of Manila right away, leaving things such as a 6 months supply of food for the Japanese that could have prolonged the defense of Bataan and Corregidor considerably. The only thing MacArthur got right was his belief that the major Japanese landing would be at Lingayen beach, which it was. For his proven idiocy and poor generalship in the defense of the Philippines, Roosevelt presented him with the Medal of Honor. While he was commander of UN forces in Korea beginning in 1950 he came up with a harebrained scheme to explode more than 50 A-bombs to form a plutonium belt across N. Korea just south of China to prevent Chinese participation in the war. My father in law, now deceased, said he was present the second time MacArthur waded ashore in the Philippines, this time for the cameras, said he and the rest of the GIs present were made to stack arms lest someone shoot the SOB.
+Paul Noel Just remember, between landing in Australia and VJ Day, MacArthur took fewer casualties than Eisenhower took in the Battle of the Bulge. The defense of the Philippines was a horrendous blunder, but that wasn't the only of his action of his career. And the rest of his WW2 career WAS successful. Not to mention that saying that he could have sunk Homa's fleet is ludicrously inaccurate. It doesn't matter HOW many land base bombers he had. Most of them were going to be high level bombers, not dive bombers. And in history, high level four engine bombers got a chance to sink a Japanese fleet at Midway in 1942. They did not hit a single ship. He may have done damage to the fleet, but he lacked the means to destroy the Japanese forces that attacked the Philippines in 1941-1942... With the Pacific Fleet sunk at Pearl Harbor, the US had NO means of supporting him for any lengthy conflict. His mistakes may have hastened the defeat in 1941 to 1942, but the Japanese commanded the sea lanes at that time, and even if he had followed the orders received, the Japanese STILL would have won. The only difference would be when the surrender would have came.
Great second guessing Sabra! You have 20/20 hindsight! Phiippines was doomed the moment Japan fired the first shot at Pearl Harbor. A handful of B-17s was NOTHING compared to the forces of the Japanese Navy. The Philippines is far, far closer to the Japanese home islands than to the United States. Do you really think the American could have held on to the Philippines when their fleet was shattered and resting on the ocean floor in Pearl Harbor? Let me give you a new hard word. "Logistics". At that time Japan had them and the United States didn't. McArthur was flawed, for sure, but he was brilliant for most of the war. Yes, the United States should have landed at Formosa instead of the Philippines. The decision was political instead of military but that decision was ultimately Roosevelt's, not Nimitz's, not MacArthur's. And George Marshall, the top man in the United States, the head of the whole American military during WWII is not blameless. Furthermore, the taking of the Philippines was successful and did eliminate a lot of the Japanese war making capability. But you go right ahead and make your after the fact pronouncements from the top floor of YOUR hotel, Hotel Hindsight.
and they chose to save one dithering general and leave how many thousands of good men behind dont seem right how you look at it. and he's only as good as the real men bellow his rank.
@Cupcakealex No problem. It should be noted that MacArthur had Nimitz on his side against Halsey. So to blame only MacArthur is not quite fair. Best book on the battle is "With the Old Breed" by E.B. Sledge. Sledge's book is widely considered the best war story told having to do with the Second World War. Every military historian should read this book and every Marine ought to have parts of it memorized. Tom
My Father, Buell E Lawson, is at 12:59. US Marine Corps, First Marine Division. He was in communications, and had a Navajo Code Talker with him. His division was almost destroyed. Close to 80% casualties from the First Marine Division. My father survived this battle and lived to be 86, but he never forgot this battle.
The music for this episode was composed solely by Richard Russell Bennett - who composed most of the music in this series even though Richard Rodgers got the credit.
For the musically curious, this is one of the episodes that Robert Russell Bennett scored without using any of Richard Rodgers's twelve themes (except for the one-minute "title music" accompanying each episode's opening credits, of course). After a brooding introduction, the following "Vigoroso" music (1:45 to 8:15 on this video) makes a nice, stand-alone orchestral scherzo (though this excerpt is not heard on any of the soundtrack LPs).
There are so many inaccurate statements as supplied by the narrorater. My Father was there A battery 5th Marines 1st Marine Division F D C MAN. They were opposed fiercely on the landing and the 81st Army never disembarked their ships till they fired the General in charge, then later the Army landed, Thankfully.
The marines actually had integrated their combat units during the fightingon some of the islands due to combat loses. Most of these were in the landing areas, syeverodores, who just found their way to the front.
This was the battle our brave and historic 1 st Marine Division could not finish. Losses were so high half way in, they had to bring the Army 81st Div from angaur to finish the last 6 wks of battle and secure the island. Chesty Pullers 1st Marine regiment had 71% casualties.
Especially as the US military had not catalogued or reviewed a lot of wart footage so it had not been released. And then there was the top secret stuff - like the code cracking.
When Joshua heard the sound of the people shouting, he said to Moses, “There is the sound of war in the camp.” But he said, "It is not the sound of the cry of might, nor is it the sound of the cry of defeat. It is the sound of singing that I hear." -- Exodus, 32:17-18
this is terrible episode - I had not seen such that show the horrors of war...I now have a better understanding of 'shell shock' and the new names for that...
+granskare This battle was the beginning of coordinated army and air support operations. In desperation the army guys got a pilot or two down to guide in the other pilots and this began very much better coordination of air and ground forces. This became the pattern for spotters.
Anguar is an island 7 miles from Peleliu. It's invasion had been assigned to the Army 81st Division. They suffered 260 killed and 1,354 wounded on Anguar.
Inspector General now has a US advantage. We had the psychology so why did people make it impoverishing? Poverty is a killer too. Top psychology has been sorely missed. Brian A K
@Cupcakealex This episode of “Victory at Sea” pretty much does a whitewash job that insults the intelligence of viewers now and glosses over the bravery and sacrifice made by those Marines of the 1st and G.I.s of the 81st Division. I grew up watching this series and find it very difficult to watch this series now and pretend that it is much more than a sickening attempt to paint their sacrifice as necessary when it most certainly was not. History matters.
My father in law, who as a G.I.fought in the Pacific, could not stand to watch this show. I didn't know why, as the music was so stirring and the vision so compelling. He admitted that the music was great, but he said it made the war seem somehow poetic, not the war he experienced. It was not till years later, when I began watching such documentaries as "The World at War", that I realized that he was right. I still love the music, but I watch these episodes with mixed feelings. Especially this episode. Peleliu was solely part of a campaign of vanity for Mac Arthur.
Peleliu captures and defines everything that was brave and noble in the sacrifice of far too many Marines. Thing is, the folks at “Victory at Sea” don’t bother to tell you that of the 9000 Marine infantry that fought on Peleliu over 6500 were killed or wounded.. Peleliu did not need to happen at all and Bible verses can't cover over that simple truth. This episode is disgusting in many, many ways.
No argument here, but bear in mind when this show was produced. The Pacific war had only been over for seven years. Jingoism was still in effect in the country and a cool, dispassionate look what actually happened in the war was still many years away.
Greg Gross yeah thank god jingoism is Illegal now.Anyone proud of this country should go to a re education camp for proper disposal like they had in Poland.
What was the reason for the American occupation of a totally insignificant island , tens of thousands of miles away from the American continent? The same occupation is happening today in the 21st century, where they have occupied everything alive, for the exploitation of mineral resources, labor, minerals and of course oil!
