In the autumn of 1944, the U.S. landed on Peleliu, one of the Palau Islands of the western Pacific. Some 28,000 Marines and soldiers hit the tiny island and immediately faced stiff resistance from the Japanese. The brutal, difficult battle lasted more than two months. The island garrison put up a particularly tough defense along a cave-pocketed massif dubbed “Bloody Nose Ridge” by the Americans. The ferocious defense put up by the Japanese demonstrated a shift in tactics from fanatic zeal to a war of attrition. This change in strategy was designed to make the Americans pay dearly in blood and treasure for every inch of ground gained. And at Peleliu, pay dearly they did.
NOTES:
Battle of Peleliu
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-peleliu
The Battle of Peleliu: Shocked Beyond Imagination
https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/2019/01/04/the-battle-of-peleliu-shocked-beyond-imagination/
Link shared by TDP listener, NCO_Legend (follow-up to info presented in episode 73):
VAERS Data Supports DoD Whistleblowers Despite Pentagon Data “Glitch”
https://uncoverdc.com/2022/02/09/vaers-data-supports-dod-whistleblowers-despite-pentagon-data-glitch/
Bruce Dern movies mentioned in this episode:
IMDB: Down Periscope
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116130/
IMDB: Silent Running
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067756/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
Good retelling of a little-known engagement. In my opinion, this battle was completely unnecessary! The things we learned about Japan’s new strategy were not worth the lives of the soldiers and marines lost on those beaches and in those mountains.