Unfortunately intelligence collection and analysis for Stalemate was the worst of any amphibious campaign of the war. The division commander's hubris should have been tempered by foreknowledge of Peleliu's unique terrain and the capabilities and intent of the enemy. We'll be through in three days, maybe two." As he confidently announced to his Marines embarking for the Palaus: "This will be rough but fast. Rupertus expected the Japanese to defend Peleliu with the same predictable tactics of 1942: stiff initial resistance followed by a spectacular but sacrificial banzai attack ending the battle. Yet the experience also bred overconfidence. Few general officers in the Pacific could match his eight months of experience leading troops in close-quarters jungle fighting at Guadalcanal and Cape Gloucester. The outcome of the opening battle for the Umurbrogol would reflect the strengths and weaknesses of General Rupertus. The well-trained Wildcats, as yet unblooded, would initially assault Angaur and Ulithi and then reinforce the Marines. The veteran Marines would lead the assault on Peleliu. Rupertus, and the Army's 81st Infantry Division, the "Wildcats," led by Major General Paul J. Geiger -former enlisted rifleman, pioneering Marine aviator, and distinguished commander of the "Cactus Air Force" on Guadalcanal -was well-qualified to command Stalemate's joint-service assault troops.Īt Peleliu Geiger's III Amphibious Corps consisted of the 1st Marine Division, commanded by Major General William H. Geiger to command the assault troops of the III Amphibious Corps. Third Fleet, and selected Marine Major General Roy S. Nimitz entrusted the mission to Admiral William F. The Joint Chiefs assigned Operation Stalemate to the Central Pacific Forces of Admiral Nimitz, with a mid-September target date. At his request, Japanese mining and tunneling engineers arrived to convert hundreds of fissures and crevices in the steep slopes of the Umurbrogol into a series of mutually supporting strongpoints. Nakagawa had a keen affinity for defensive warfare. Inoue deployed most of his troops on the large island of Babelthuap, posted a battalion on Angaur, and ordered the reinforced 4th Infantry Regiment, commanded by Colonel Kunio Nakagawa, to defend Peleliu. Major General Sadae Inoue's 14th Division departed the frigid Ussuri River region and arrived in the steamy Palaus in April. The rapid advance of American forces in 1944 forced Japan's Imperial General Headquarters (IGHQ) to redeploy certain veteran infantry divisions from the Soviet border in Manchuria to reinforce their endangered Pacific islands such as Peleliu. These assessments spawned Operation Stalemate, the code name for the forcible seizure of Peleliu, Angaur, and Ulithi. The planners reasoned that capturing Peleliu would remove a significant Japanese threat to MacArthur's seaborne invasion of the Philippines and establish U.S. But the Joint Chiefs accorded highest priority to seizing Peleliu's bomber field. They found other objectives in the Palaus, including Ulithi, whose deep-water lagoon could provide a fleet staging anchorage for future assaults on Iwo Jima and Okinawa, and Angaur, Peleliu's smaller neighbor, whose flat terrain might yield a future bomber strip. Joint Chiefs of Staff as they selected Pacific campaigns for 1944. Peleliu's strategic location caught the attention of the U.S. The linchpin protecting this vital flow of oil was the two-mile-by-six-mile island of Peleliu, and there the Japanese built the largest bomber strip in their Pacific islands. submarines by shallow water and local air bases. By September they anticipated MacArthur would soon invade the Philippines, most likely in concert with a Nimitz offensive in the Japanese-owned Palau Islands.ĭuring the Pacific war, the Palaus provided a sheltered passage for Japanese oil tankers steaming north from the Dutch East Indies to the Home Islands, a route largely protected from U.S. The Japanese were desperate to stem both tides. Admiral Chester Nimitz, his counterpart theater commander in the Central Pacific, had seized Kwajalein and Eniwetok in the Marshalls, followed by Saipan, Tinian, and Guam in the Marianas. In the Southwest Pacific, General Douglas MacArthur had captured most of New Guinea. Until the 1st Marine Division clawed its way ashore on Peleliu and began its grueling fight in the Umurbrogol highlands against a virtually invisible enemy, the American advance westward across the Pacific in 1944 appeared invincible.
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