Battle of Peleliu
Image taken from wikipedia.org
During the Second World War, many horrific battles were fought. Some are not as well-known as they should be. One of these events is the infamous Battle of Peleliu. This battle was fought over a short period of time and was known as one of the bloodiest battles in the history the United States Marine Corpse. This small island contained many garrisons of well-fortified Japanese troops. The young Marines were assigned to take the vital airfield at the center of the island. This proved to be one of the most difficult tasks of the entire operation.
From the beginning, the Marines took heavy casualties. When they disembarked from their boats on the beach, the Japanese troops threw down a hailstorm of mortars, artillery, grenades, and machine gunfire. The young Marines, with the average age of 21, pushed on sustaining heavy casualties. Tanks and men stormed the island and took the airfield over the course of a few days. The rest of the operation was mostly mopping up Japanese resistance on other parts of the island.
With the battle won, the Americans were able to launch further into the pacific. With the airfield taken, American bombers and fighter planes were able to use it for bombing missions on other islands. This battle had been a hard-fought and well-deserved victory against the seemingly insurmountable Japanese military. The battle went down in the history books as small and not very significant, which is truly not the case.
