THEN & NOW.

This is coolbert:

"Please stay within the markers, as the area outside has not been cleared of Explosive Remnants of War."

"Storming the Point at Peleliu"

"The 1st Marine Division staged a bloody amphibious assault for a questionable prize."

Here with an extract from an article as originally written 2010.

From https://warfarehistorynetwork.com |  By Dick Camp 2010.

See the You Tube video, Peleliu, then and now.

The Point Today:

"The 600 inhabitants of Peleliu today live on the northwest side of the island, where a small dock for boats provides their only link to Koror, the administrative capital of the Republic of Palau. Fishing, subsistence farming, and tourism—scuba diving and battlefield tours—support the local economy."

"Most of the battlefield remains relatively unspoiled. Dense scrub growth conceals the point’s battlefield relics from the casual observer. However, if one looks closely, the coral is littered with vestiges of the fighting. Relics abound in the caves, bunkers, tunnels. Ordnance litters the ground, including unexploded mortar and artillery rounds—and even Japanese hand grenades. Exploring the sites is not for the faint of heart. Shell fragments, expended .30 caliber cartridges, remnants of fighting positions—and on the edge of the 30-foot spit of land, two half-concealed concrete bunkers, still housing the Japanese 47mm antitank guns that played such havoc with the landing."

"At low tide, the exposed steel treads steel treads of an amphibious tractor (amtrac) lie just 55 yards from the embrasure of the left flank bunker, mute testimony to the deadly effects of the Japanese gun. During the landing, some unknown Marine had dumped an ammunition crate, the wood long since rotted away, in the salt water. Mounds of .30 caliber rounds lie fused together in the coral, the brass shiny from being scoured with sand."

That experience of one American combatant Peleliu best expressed by Eugene Sledge. Air field now Peleliu named in honor of Eugene.

See prior blog entry as relevant: https://militaryanalysis.blogspot.com/2024/07/sledge.html

coolbert.