Bloodybeaches.Pdf
0 O N 0 00 N en 000 ClUn Cl 0 0' Un,0.O 00' 0N en Cl enCl Cl fl en0 Un 0' N -l rn,-c'J — — -JLU LAS a- U, 0 C, Li- 5 C,, LU 0 a0 C= C,, a C 0 -U C Ca- — 0 - 0 00'-—= C -JLU 15D22cCu C _-o— Coo I— 6 g al 3 a ? — V IV 'V U — a - C -J •I U 0 a C.) a-, 'I- C.) C U- Aj V U I (3 L-(e -J Bloody Beaches: The Marines at Peleliu by Brigadier General Gordon D. Gayle, USMC (Ret) n D-Day 15 September 1944, five infantry bat- talions of the 1st Ma- rine Division's 1st, 5th, and 7th Marines, in amphibian tractors (LVTs) lumbered across 600-800 yards of coral reef fringingsmoking,reportedly smashed Peleliu in the Palau Island group and toward five selected land- ing beaches. That westward anchor of the 1,000-mile-long Caroline ar- chipelago was viewed by some U.S. planners as obstacles, or threats, to continued advances against Japan's Pacific empire. The Marines in the LVTs had been told that their commanding general, Major General William H. Rupertus, believed that the operation would be tough, but quick, in large part be- cause of the devastating quantityand quality of naval gunfire and dive bombing scheduled to precede their assault landing. On some minds were the grim images of their sister 2d Ma- rine Division's bloody assault across the reefs at Tarawa, many months earlier. But 1st Division Marines, peering over the gunwales of their landing craft saw an awesome scene of blasting and churning earth along the shore.
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