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re: Peleliu WW2 Chat
Posted on 5/12/26 at 11:35 am to Godfather1
Posted on 5/12/26 at 11:35 am to Godfather1
quote:
In the first days of the fighting, the temps were brutal, often upwards of 100 F. The Japanese had tainted every supply of freshwater on the island, and a shipboard SNAFU had caused the Marines water supply to be stored in oil barrels that hadn’t been cleaned, rendering the water undrinkable. It was literally Hell on Earth for those Marines.
I have seen that episode several times and each time I wonder why we didnt just park a couple of ships off shore to prevent resupply or escape. If all the freshwater was bad, I doubt the Japanese had more than a couple weeks of canned, safe water for their troops.
Just wait them out. Without resupply they couldnt last long.
But Im probably missing something and dont understand.
1
Posted on 5/12/26 at 11:47 am to Strannix
I recently found out that my grandfather served there and it was his last action before going home. I always knew he fought in the Pacific theater, but only after digging through a bunch of old docs and photo albums I managed to get after he passed did I find out what he had been through. He never discussed the war. A great regret of mine is not getting the chance to talk to him about it when I had the chance. I’ve learned so much about those operations since then. Fascinating subject that still doesn’t really get much coverage. I can’t fathom what those guys experienced. If anyone knows of any decent vet/children of vets forums where they share info from this period with each other I’d be all over it. Lots of clues and scattered info but many gaps to fill in my research. First Marines, engineer.
Posted on 5/12/26 at 11:48 am to Strannix
i've been there twice. it's a brutal fricking place and custom built for a defender to extract as much pain as possible.
Posted on 5/12/26 at 11:53 am to Sam Quint
quote:
With the Old Breed is the classic "ground level" story about the fighting on Peleliu.
I’m good friends who EB Sledge’s son Henry. He’s used his dads notes from when he wrote “With The Old Breed” to write his own book…
If you’ve not already bought and read it, you’re missing out. And he told me a couple weeks ago he’s working on a followup book right now.
This post was edited on 5/12/26 at 11:54 am
Posted on 5/12/26 at 11:55 am to Godfather1
quote:
to deny the Japanese use of the airfield.
Which of course is ridiculous because we had total control of the seas by that point and any attempt to send new aircraft to that island would've resulted in them being bombed into oblivion with zero US casualties.
How would the planes get armaments?
How would the planes get spare parts?
How would the planes get gasoline?
They wouldn't and everyone involved should've said something.
Posted on 5/12/26 at 12:09 pm to sledgehammer
quote:
atrocities to your fellow buddies
What amazes me (and I apologize if this comment isn't really fitting for the thread) is when you read descriptions of what the Japs did to American bodies on Iwo, Peleliu, etc. and what the Native Americans did to the bodies of Custer's troops, is the similarities. Not just mutilated, but specifically things like castration with the severed penis placed in the mouth, etc.
I know that it's a symbolic way to remove a soldier's manhood, but for two cultures thousands of miles apart to do the same thing, when I don't recall ever reading about that happening in European wars, it just boggles my mind. They say that Native Americans came from Asia via the Bering land bridge. I'm wondering if some Asian culture pieces survived thousands of years on both sides of the Pacific.
Posted on 5/12/26 at 12:11 pm to Strannix
My grandfather was a marine at the battle of Peleliu, he brought back a Japanese sword. He was a really good artist after a week or two, some officer pulled him off the front line, so he could paint the names of the fallen soldiers on their crosses.
Posted on 5/12/26 at 12:18 pm to Strannix
I don’t have much to add to this thread other than my grandfather was with the first marine division on the island of Peleliu and in the Guadalcanal conflict.
He was a farm boy from Garden City, Kansas, who enlisted in the Marines
My grandfather was adopted as his biological family gave him and his sister up during the great depression.
Met a lifelong friend on the beaches in the south Pacific moved his family out of Garden City when they returned to South Louisiana
He didn’t talk about the war very much, but on very rare occasions when he had one too many beers. Once such occasion, we were playing golf at Briarwood on airline and he was in his 80s. He was just watching and riding in the cart and drinking and he told me stories about machine gun nests wiping out many of his friends. Discovering caves in the rocky cliffs when the tide was out. Flamethrower filling caves up with fire and enemy soldiers bailing out on fire.
That Generation saw some tough shite.
He was a farm boy from Garden City, Kansas, who enlisted in the Marines
My grandfather was adopted as his biological family gave him and his sister up during the great depression.
Met a lifelong friend on the beaches in the south Pacific moved his family out of Garden City when they returned to South Louisiana
He didn’t talk about the war very much, but on very rare occasions when he had one too many beers. Once such occasion, we were playing golf at Briarwood on airline and he was in his 80s. He was just watching and riding in the cart and drinking and he told me stories about machine gun nests wiping out many of his friends. Discovering caves in the rocky cliffs when the tide was out. Flamethrower filling caves up with fire and enemy soldiers bailing out on fire.
That Generation saw some tough shite.
This post was edited on 5/12/26 at 12:19 pm
Posted on 5/12/26 at 12:24 pm to tide06
quote:
Which of course is ridiculous because we had total control of the seas by that point and any attempt to send new aircraft to that island would've resulted in them being bombed into oblivion with zero US casualties.
No. That would mean that carrier groups would had to have been permanently stationed in the area. The Navy's job was to seek out jap forces and keep pushing, not a defensive circle around an airbase.
Posted on 5/12/26 at 12:55 pm to Spaceman Spiff
quote:
No. That would mean that carrier groups would had to have been permanently stationed in the area. The Navy's job was to seek out jap forces and keep pushing, not a defensive circle around an airbase.
A one time raid could've eliminated any planes that were sent to that island and again, how would they have been supplied if they were sent?
Posted on 5/12/26 at 1:59 pm to Strannix
payed
--Bama fan.
Checks out
--Bama fan.
Checks out
Posted on 5/12/26 at 2:17 pm to mailman85
quote:
Listen to Dan Carlin's podcast "Supernova in the East". He goes in to detail on the Pacific island hopping campaign
We did a lot of island hopping in bootcamp before chow. Think half the food I ate was sand.
Posted on 5/12/26 at 2:36 pm to Strannix
I posted this on TD before. The European theatre was brutal, D-Day landings were a bloodbath, Bastogne was a huge loss of life but the entire Pacific theatre was a totally different type of war.
Jungle, tropical heat, monsoon rain, disease and a ruthless enemy that had no value for human life.
My dad fought in the Pacific and caught malaria, amebic dysentery and jungle foot rot. Was wounded three times but never received a purple heart due to his officers were either killed are evac'd due to an illness before they could do the "paperwork". He said this happened to several in his regiment.
Jungle, tropical heat, monsoon rain, disease and a ruthless enemy that had no value for human life.
My dad fought in the Pacific and caught malaria, amebic dysentery and jungle foot rot. Was wounded three times but never received a purple heart due to his officers were either killed are evac'd due to an illness before they could do the "paperwork". He said this happened to several in his regiment.
Posted on 5/12/26 at 2:39 pm to geauxtigers87
What a timely thread. I've just finished reading 'Islands of the Damned' by RV Burgin and am starting 'Battle-Ground Pacific' by Sterling Mace. Watched a podcast on Peleliu last night.
I'm interested in hearing more about the details of these trips. I'm researching going. I go to Japan every could of years and am seriously considering taking a side trip to Palau next time.
How long did you actually stay down there?
quote:
i've been there twice. it's a brutal fricking place and custom built for a defender to extract as much pain as possible.
I'm interested in hearing more about the details of these trips. I'm researching going. I go to Japan every could of years and am seriously considering taking a side trip to Palau next time.
How long did you actually stay down there?
Posted on 5/12/26 at 2:40 pm to Strannix
When Dad was stationed at Quantico, all of the horses at the base stables were named after famous Marines or Marine battles. We had our own horses, but I would ride a horse named Peleliu from time to time.
Posted on 5/12/26 at 2:49 pm to PJinAtl
quote:You might be reading a bit much into that…
I know that it's a symbolic way to remove a soldier's manhood, but for two cultures thousands of miles apart to do the same thing, when I don't recall ever reading about that happening in European wars, it just boggles my mind. They say that Native Americans came from Asia via the Bering land bridge. I'm wondering if some Asian culture pieces survived thousands of years on both sides of the Pacific.
It’s been over 10,000 years since the Bering land bridge was interrupted and human migration ceased from Asia to North America.
Posted on 5/12/26 at 3:50 pm to Darth_Vader
The story of Eugene Sledge is truly an American Legend.
He grew up a weak, pampered rich kid whose parents did everything to keep him from enlisting. They relented and away he went.
In short order, he goes from the pampered, rich kid to a stone cold killer nicknamed Sledgehammer.
I know the poor man suffered for years from PTSD but the man was a legend and I would’ve loved the opportunity to meet him one time.
He grew up a weak, pampered rich kid whose parents did everything to keep him from enlisting. They relented and away he went.
In short order, he goes from the pampered, rich kid to a stone cold killer nicknamed Sledgehammer.
I know the poor man suffered for years from PTSD but the man was a legend and I would’ve loved the opportunity to meet him one time.
Posted on 5/12/26 at 3:53 pm to tide06
quote:
A one time raid could've eliminated any planes that were sent to that island and again, how would they have been supplied if they were sent?
Again, a “one time raid.” Thinking a lot optimistic there. So, how exactly would they know when planes are there? And what happens when there is resupply - think the japs didn’t replace planes lost?
Posted on 5/12/26 at 4:04 pm to Spaceman Spiff
quote:
So, how exactly would they know when planes are there? And what happens when there is resupply - think the japs didn’t replace planes lost?
Probably if and when they started impacting operations?
quote:
And what happens when there is resupply - think the japs didn’t replace planes lost?
How would this even happen?
By the end of 1944, the Imperial Japanese Navy was no longer an effective fighting force capable of major fleet operations or challenging Allied naval supremacy. It had suffered catastrophic losses in trained personnel, aircraft, and ships, compounded by crippling fuel shortages that severely limited mobility.
Access to Southeast Asian oil fields was cut off meaning fuel was at critically low levels restricting training and fleet movements. Ships often stayed in port or conducted limited operations.
There were also massive pilot and crew shortage due to insane losses at the Battle of the Philippine Sea “aka Marianas Turkey Shoot (600+ planes lost) and Leyte where they lost another 4 carriers.
The island should’ve been left to starve.
Posted on 5/12/26 at 4:38 pm to Darth_Vader
quote:I got my copy signed last summer. In a few podcasts I listened to (maybe the Jocko one), Henry teased about a Sledge brothers at war book that would cover Eugene’s brother in Europe. He was a tank commander or something around Normandy if my memory is correct.
If you’ve not already bought and read it, you’re missing out. And he told me a couple weeks ago he’s working on a followup book right now.
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