The Carolines--PELELIU, ANGAUR

PELELIU DEFENSES STRONGEST SO FAR

The operations against the Palau Island group of the Caroline Islands began on 6 September, 1944 with a carrier based fighter sweep of Japanese installations on the islands, followed next day by a heavy bombing attack as U.S. cruisers and destroyers moved in to shell selected targets. On the 10th, aircraft and surface vessels, including battleships, renewed their attacks on shore installations and beach defenses mainly on Peleliu and Angaur Islands. For five successive days the bombardment continued. At 0830 on the 15th, Marines of the First Division went ashore on the southwest coast of Peleliu landing just opposite the airfield against considerable opposition. Though Japanese mortar and artillery fire was heavy at the beachhead our landing casualties were under 200. Peleliu being surrounded by reefs, the Marines were landed in tracked landing craft which had little difficulty with the offshore obstacles and a wide beachhead was quickly established. Late in the afternoon a strong Japanese counterattack against our center, which was driving across the airfield was repulsed with the aid of naval gunfire and aerial bombing. Two other attacks an hour later were broken up, and early in the morning of the 16th the Marines attacked along the entire front after heavy bombardment of enemy positions by sea and air units. By noon the airfield had been captured and most of the southern part of the island was occupied during the day. On the 17th we launched a general attack against stubborn Japanese resistance, though many enemy gun positions were destroyed by our air cover. On the left flank the Japanese fought from well prepared positions along the low coral ridge nicknamed "Bloody Nose Ridge." Our forces in the south captured the easternmost of two small peninsulas. By afternoon of the 18th the village Asias north of the airfield, was in our hands, as well as all of Southern Peleliu, including Ngarmoked Island and the enemy dead numbered 5,495. On the 19th we captured most of "Bloody Nose Ridge," after bitter resistance by enemy troops fighting from pillboxes, caves and trenches. The enemy's defenses on Peleliu were reported to be stronger than on any island our forces had attacked in the Pacific. The capture of

COAST GUARD-MANNED INVASION TRANSPORT AQUARIUS (AKA-16)

the ridge, northwest of the airfield, silenced much of the artillery and mortar fire directed against the airfield on which the Seabees were already at work. By the 26th enemy forces on Peleliu had been surrounded although it was not until the middle of October that the assault phase of the operation was completed.

COAST GUARD MANNED LST's AT PELELIU

On D-day at Peleliu the LST's, including LST's 19 and 23 Coast Guard-manned, had swept in a column seven miles long and a mile wide. They hesitated a moment to lower their boats, then moved on parallel to the shore and turned sharply into the beach. The huge steel doors at the bows opened and out of them came the stream of amtracks. First the armored tracks with the turret and cannon to lead the way, then the troop carriers packed with assault troops. Then the LST's swung off and away to each side and let others take their places on the debarking line. Back behind the activity alongshore they dropped their pontoons and barges, carried on their sides like packs on a packhorse. The LCT's riding their decks half way round the world from some Atlantic port were dropped by listing the ship and sliding them overside. Other LST's turned out to be repair ships giving first aid to disabled amtracks and landing boats, while some flew the medical flag with their tank decks turned into first aid and emergency operation stations. From the beach boats came to other LST's hunting for water, ammunition and rations, for they were mother ships to the smaller craft. The reefs off Peleliu Island were strewn with coral heads and boulders and were too shallow for smaller landing craft to pass over even at high water. The coral heads were too deep for causeways to be built quickly to the reef edge, so that cargo had to be transferred from the transports to the small boats and from them to amtracks before it could reach dry land. When the weather changed, shortly after the first landing on 15 September and the wind rose, swells from the southwest made it impossible to beach these smaller craft. The only type of craft remaining that could work through the rolling seas and pounding surf between reef and beach was the LST. During the blow that followed, three of the six LST's being used as lighters to carry food and ammunition the last critical hundred yards to the shore were caught aground at low water on the beaches. Here the seas broached them, pounding them up back against the ragged edge of the reef, tearing their bottoms out. All the surrounding harbors were in Japanese hands, and small boats and barges with no place to go were helplessly washed ashore. The three remaining LST's had to finish the job. Day and night the work went on, while at sea the Coast Guard manned Aquarius (AKA-16) and Centaurus (AKA-17) and other ships worked ablaze with cargo lights despite danger from planes and submarines. Ashore the trucks rushed their loads to the dumps, often to the whine of snipers bullets as they roared through the darkness. The island was fed, armed, clothed, and sheltered by the cargoes brought in by the LST's.

ANGAUR CAPTURE PROVIDES SUPPLY BASE

On 17 September, 1944, also, troops of the 81st Army Division were landed on Angaur Island, six miles south of Peleliu from the Coast Guard manned APA Callaway and other transports. Like Peleliu, Angaur had been subjected to a series of heavy preliminary bombardments by ships and aircraft. The troops landed on the northeast and east coasts with light

WESTERN CAROLINES OPERATION
ULITHI ISLANDS

opposition and before noon tanks had been landed and our forces were 400 yards inland. By nightfall the two beachheads had been joined and we were 1,000 yards inland with the right flank about halfway across the island. On the 18th the Japanese launched three counter attacks, all of which were thrown back, and before the end of the day we controlled more than half the island. Saipan, the principal town was captured on the afternoon of the 19th when two-thirds of the island had been occupied. Beach defenses along the east coast slowed up advances in that sector but the capture of Saipan on the west coast, split the island in two, isolating enemy troops in the northwestern and southern portions. The island was reported secured on the 20th with 178 Japanese killed and two captured. Our casualties had been very light. Possession of the island gave us a useful supply base as the pier at Saipan, which was used for loading products of the phosphate mines, was capable of accomodating large cargo vessels.

COAST GUARD LANDS ARMY AT ANGAUR

Coast Guard manned landing craft from the Coast Guard manned attack transport Leonard Wood approached the beach at Angaur in an early wave. Navy ships and planes had just laid down a magnificent barrage and a few minutes later the landing craft ground to a stop on top of a coral ledge in the surf. Everyone sought cover behind a stone barricade atop a tank trap as not many of our men were on the beach yet. Soon they were coming in by the hundreds, with bulldozers arriving, and demolition squads blasting holes through the coral ledge so that tanks and bulldozers could get to the tangled upland. The beach was rocky and covered with debris from the shelling. There was little enemy fire except from occasional snipers. Planes were bombing and straffing a cliff 100 yards away across a gorge, where Japs were thought concealed, when a Coast Guard landing craft moved in close to the beach and the Lieutenant spotted his fire into the mouth of the cave. As the Japs counter-attacked, some of them came out of that cave. We used starshells that night as they tried to infiltrate but it was hard to see them, though they could be heard knocking grenades against helmets to break the pins before they tossed them. The island was an incredible tangle of brush and caves, some of them with passages 200 yards long. The Japanese scurried from one end to the other and might pop out at any one of half a dozen outlets. Soldiers tossed in hand grenades and bulldozers were sent up to hole up the openings, just to be sure that no "dead" Japs crawled out during the night.

Table of Contents
Previous Part (17) ** Next Part (19)