Anniversary of the Battle of Peleliu
 

One of my favorite battles of the Pacific War...

Wikipedia

Didn't know much about it until recently when I started reading memoirs.

Salute to all those involved in the brutal fighting. :salute: :salute: :salute:

I read about this one in the osprey campaign series, a near forgotten battle that seems the option of by-passing it and blocking all shipping to it would have been a better idea.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Peleliu-1944...tle+of+Peleliu

Yea I've read a few times the fact that Peleliu held no strategical military value at all, an when you factor in how brutal an nasty the fighting was plus the casualties we took taking it, it would of been better to of by passed it. My grandpa fought on that Island, he never spoke about it or the war really when he was alive, do remember 1 time they came over an I was watching a show about the Pacific war turned to see him an my grandma walking in the house n almost immediately he stopped n had this lost stare at the tv, like the thousand yard stare you hear about. Can't imagine what him an those guys really went through there.

A salute to those who fought on this little known island. :salute:

One of the highlights of my life was when I had the opportunity to visit there in 1993 with some friends of mine I worked with at Continental Express Airlines. One of them worked in Guam for a while and came back to Denver to work after a couple of years there. We planned a trip to Palau for a week stay.
Once there, we took a little puddle jumper there for a day trip. Found a guide to drive us around and show us some sights. He took us to a couple of caves where we found bone fragments along with rusted weapons. Our guide said if we had more time, he'd take us to a cave where there were human skulls. We were short on time at that point so couldn't make it.
We did make it up to the US Marine monument up on Bloody Nose Ridge and the 81st Infantry Division's monument further north. Saw a few rusted out Japanese tanks and a few rusted out US LVT's.

My biggest regret besides not having more time was I did not know enough about the battle at that time. I've since read a few books on the subject.

I'll try to dig some of my pics out and scan them and post if anyone is interested.

:)

I would love to see the pictures!

Since I started reading With The Old Breed, I'm having to do all this research and watch The Pacific over again. :)

Flew over it once, beautiful place.