Peleliu

Andy and I took a tour of Peleliu. Located in the southern part of the main Palau islands, Peleliu is one of the larger rock islands. It currently has 500 residents, but before WWII was much more populated. The island is mostly flat, which allowed the Japanese to build an airfield. As the U.S. prepared to invade the Philippines in late 1944, they became worried that Japanese planes from Peleliu could hit them in the Philippines. The U.S. drew up a plan to invade Peleliu and neutralize the airfield. It was supposed to take three days in September 1944, but the Japanese troops dug in and it turned into a three month battle. It ended up being one the bloodiest in the Pacific with roughly 10,000-12,000 Japanese and 2,000 Americans killed. Ironically, while the battle at Peleliu raged on, the U.S. quickly and easily took the Philippines. It is still debated whether taking Peleliu was worth it.

Andy and I signed on for a tour with a Palauan named Swing, a friend of Dave's. He is a small local tour operator from whom the Kregenows lease their boat. Swing's other boat was in the shop and he uses the Kregenow's boat occasionally for tours, including this one. Swing drove us down the east side, an area I had not toured before. It was great to be able to see different parts of the rock islands and some new ones I had not seen. Swing did an excellent job navigating us through the islands and it was a nice and sunny morning. Peleliu is only about a 10-15 minute boat trip further south than the Turtle Cove where I was diving the day before, but it still took us just over a hour to reach their dock.

We arrived a little early and had to call our island tour guide, who was watching the Super Bowl. Our Peleliu guide was Des who is a mix of Palauan, Japanese, and American. He spent a lot of time in America when he was growing up, so he was very good at relating to us Americans. Besides working for the tour company, he also owns a bar and is a state legislator, so he knew everyone on the island. It was just Andy and I on the tour with Des, although his one and half year old son accompanied us for the morning.

The village of Peleliu is at the northern end of the island and almost all the inhabitants now live there. The fighting occurred mostly in the southern part of the island and as we drove south, Des explained the battle. Out first stop was the Peleliu War Museum. It is a small collection of machine guns, firearms, and other artifacts found on the island. Many service members or their family members had donated mementos from their time in Peleliu. The collection is housed in an old supply building for the airfield. It had a bunch of holes blasted in it by American firepower, but the holes have been filled by plexiglass retaining the damaged look. When we were done at the museum, Des locked it up as no one else was using it. Andy got a kick out of that, but Palau is small and that kind of thing is typical.

Near the museum is the beaches where the Americans came ashore. The beaches are named various colors and we stopped at Orange Beach and walked out to the shore. The transport ships brought the troops ashore here and the Americans faced great resistance from the Japanese at the nearby airfield. Near Orange Beach is a memorial and the former site of the U.S. cemetery. After the war, the Americans moved their dead to the Philippines, but a memorial remained. We drove on and stopped at a few vehicles abandoned on the side of the road. One was a troop transport ship and I got up into it and stood where the troops had stood. We also saw an armed troop transport with a big canon. When the Americans pulled out of Peleliu at the end of the war, they simply left everything right where it was. We then drove down the airstrip. The main landing strip is no longer in regular use, but the CAT team recently installed lights so it can be used in case of an emergency. The access roads to the airfield was made out of limestone which is a softer rock, so when the Americans tanks rolled across it left imprints from the treads that are distinctly visible today.

Just off the airfield is the Japanese headquarters building. Built in the 1930's, it was a huge concrete building that had a detailed interior at one time. American planes dropped two large bombs through its roof turning it into an atrium. The building is still sturdy so we explored what was left of it. We went upstairs, observing the bullet holes from the hand to hand fighting. The side rooms were still intact, including the Japanese style bathrooms. There was also a bomb shelter I visited.

It was time for lunch, so Des took us to a local woman's house who had prepared our lunches. We picked them up and then drove a short distance to his bar which like many things in Peleliu is oceanfront. Our lunch was a real Palauan meal consisting of a small fish, rice, mango, breadfruit, and banana. The fruit was very fresh and the fish was excellent. It was my first time trying breadfruit, which is a fruit but tastes like a potato. It was an excellent lunch and I'm glad Andy got a chance to have a real Palauan meal.

After lunch, we drove to Bloody Nose Ridge. Peleliu is flat except for a line of hills running down the east side of the islands. It took the Americans a week to get from the beaches to the airfield. As the Japanese pulled back, they dug into the hills that would become known as Bloody Nose Ridge. The American planes took off from the newly held airfield and bombed the ridge. At thirty seconds, it is still the shortest bombing run in U.S. military history. The Japanese fortified the top and dug deeps caves to protect themselves from American bombs, forcing the Americans to go up the ridge. Des took us to one of Japanese canon locations. In front of the spot was a Sherman Tank, with its painted single star still visible and the gears for the treads still movable. We then walked up a short flight of stairs to the gun emplacement. A sniper's cave was nearby to protect the canon. The canon itself was large and could have easily hit the ocean. The gun was placed in a narrow outcropping of rocks keeping it well protected. American bombs stripped the island of its trees, which have now regrown, but at the time left only rocks for protection. I was able to climb on the gun platform and get a feel for the gun. Nearby was a small cave opening where the Japanese could hide. We left the gun emplacement and drove to the horseshoe part of the ridge. Here the Japanese put their shrine to their dead and the U.S. Marines put their monument. It was along the horseshoe that the battle finally ended when the Japanese commanding officer killed himself before the approaching American troops could reach him. It was a commanding view of the surrounding area.

We next stopped at a spot on the side of the ridge at the location of a U.S. plane crash. There are a few parts of the plane still left, notably one of the large wings. A few hundred feet away was a U.S. Sherman tank resting on its side. The tank came down and rescued the pilots and as it was returning back up the ridge, it hit an unexploded bomb that blew a huge hole in the bottom and instantly killed all the crew. The tank rolled down the hill and came to a rest in its current position. It is a very interesting, if tragic, remnant of the war. Our last stop of the day was the thousand man cave. It is a series of tunnels carved by the Japanese into the ridge where the U.S. found a thousand Japanese hiding. We didn't have flashlights, so we couldn't go too far into the cave. Our tour was over, but Des treated us to a couple of coconuts for us to enjoy before it was time to head to the boat. Swing met us at the boat and we headed back to Koror. A stiff breeze slowed us down a bit and then the engine acted up a little causing a few delays. Despite the delays, we made it back safely before sunset.


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