Marines slay half of Japs on Palau Isle
Americans expand invasion of area
By Frank Tremaine, United Press staff writer
Bulletin
Aboard expeditionary flagship, Palau –
The 1st Marine Regiment today captured “Bloody Nose” Ridge after a vicious fight and tonight the battle for Peleliu appeared to have passed the crisis point.
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii –
The bloody battle for Peleliu in the Southern Palaus was believed near its culmination today as U.S. forces wiped out more than half of the garrison, seized nearly half of nearby Angaur Island and occupied tiny Ngarmoked Island off Peleliu.
A Tokyo broadcast said approximately 50 U.S. planes, including Liberators and Lightnings, raided Davao, in Southwest Mindanao, yesterday, while some 100 carrier-planes attacked Koror Island in the Palaus north of Peleliu.
The intensified strikes in the Palaus came simultaneously with the opening of a new phase of the Southwest Pacific campaign by Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who will lead victorious Allied armies back to the Philippines.
Announced by Nimitz
For the first time of the war, Gen. MacArthur sent carrier-based planes against Halmahera’s airdromes Saturday to prevent attacks on American-held Morotai Island at the north end of the Halmahera group and 250 miles south of the Philippines.
Selection of Gen. MacArthur to command the campaign to reconquer the Philippines was announced last night by Adm. Chester W. Nimitz, Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Fleet, in a radio broadcast to the American Legion convention in Chicago.
The invasion of the Palaus, 560 miles east of the Philippines, by his own Pacific forces will provide a base “from which to cover and support Gen. MacArthur’s Philippines campaign,” Adm. Nimitz said.
5,495 killed
It was the first official confirmation that Gen. MacArthur will have full command of the reconquest of the Philippines, which he left more than two years ago resolutely pledging himself to return.
Despite severe losses which totaled 5,495 men killed by American count, the Japs fought fiercely on Peleliu’s difficult terrain and even attempted counterattacks which slowed the Marine drive northward from their southern beachhead.
Adm. Nimitz’s communiqué disclosed that the town of Asias, about a half mile north of captured Peleliu, fell to the 1st Marine Division, which also seized tiny Ngarmoked Island off the southern tip of the island to remove a potential threat from the rear.
Army troops of the 81st Infantry Division turned back several Jap counterattacks on Angaur, south of Peleliu, and continued their advance to gain control of the northern half of the island except for several strong pockets on the western shore. A total of 48 Jap bodies was counted on Angaur.
Battle from caves
Front dispatches said the Japs on Peleliu were fighting bitterly from caves and concrete pillboxes built in the sheer coral cliffs.
United Press writer Richard W. Johnston said they were dying by the hundreds in these escape-proof holes. The Marines were also suffering casualties, though not comparable with those at Tarawa or Saipan.
Mr. Johnston disclosed that the heaviest fighting was taking place on “Bloody Nose” Ridge, which overlooks the island. The Marines silenced Jap artillery which rained shells on the newly-captured airstrip.
A front dispatch from Leif Erickson, representing the combined Allied press, revealed that while the bitter ridge battle raged, U.S. planes were using the Peleliu Airdrome, less than a mile to the south.
Japs shackled to posts
Mr. Erickson reported that desperate Jap commanders shackled their soldiers’ hand and foot to their observation posts inside small caves, and made booby traps of the bodies of dead officers.
Warships and planes continued the unrelenting bombardment of the remaining Jap positions on Peleliu and Mr. Johnston said the combined forces have hurled “thousands of tons” of shells and bombs into the enemy defenses.
He said:
It appears likely that better than one half of the garrison has been wiped out or made ineffective. The stench of decaying bodies is already heavy on the beachhead.
Victory near
Although the Japs probably will fight to the end, observers believed that because of Peleliu’s small area – six by two miles – the Marines soon would be in full control.
Peleliu is the main eastern anchor of the Allied line around the Southern Philippines.
Gen. MacArthur’s troops were consolidating their positions and rapidly completing an airfield on Morotai Island, the southern anchor.
The carrier planes which attacked Halmahera airdromes also made sweeps over Wasile Bay. Thirteen barges were wrecked, three planes shot down and “many” planes destroyed on the ground. The assault came only a week after naval task force units made a three-raid attack on the Philippines.
Gen. MacArthur’s land-based bombers, meanwhile, hit nearby Celebes Island with 146 tons of bombs, concentrated on Kendari Airdrome. Two of eight Jap interceptors were shot down.
