The Pittsburgh Press (September 21, 1944)
Worse than Tarawa and Saipan –
Marines storm Japs in Peleliu caves
Leathernecks charge ‘Gibraltar’ across jagged coral at high cost
AFHQ, Southwest Pacific (UP) –
Marines fighting across sheer, jagged coral, today assaulted a chain of superbly-constructed Jap cave fortresses on the ridges of western Peleliu under battle conditions even worse than those at Tarawa, Guadalcanal and Saipan, front dispatches reported.
Richard W. Johnston, United Press writer, who went in at the beach at Tarawa and scaled Mt. Tapochau on Saipan, reported from Palau: “Peleliu Ridge surpasses them both.”
He disclosed that the 1st and 7th Marines had suffered considerable casualties.
Caves connected
From connecting caves equipped with steel doors, Japs were reported pouring a crossfire of small arms, mortar and artillery at leathernecks inching their way over the sharp coral. The surface was so rough that men injured themselves merely by falling down.
Maj. Gen. Roy S. Geiger said the terrain was “the worst I ever saw.”
From the standpoint of territory captured, the Marines appeared near the end of the Peleliu campaign because they hold two-thirds of the island.
Blast Davao
Farther west, land-based Liberator bombers, intensifying the two-way drive on the Philippines, battered the port of Davao without opposition Monday.
Mr. Johnston said the caves on Peleliu were five levels deep, making the entire chain of coral cliffs into a gigantic bombproof shelter.
“This is the first Jap base in the Pacific which literally is comparable to Gibraltar,” he wrote.
Tokyo radio indicated that the Japs feared an American landing in the Philippines was imminent. More than 50 Liberators of the Far Eastern Air Force carried out the attack on Davao, showering 120 tons of bombs on airdromes, supply and personnel installations.
Clear Angaur Island
The heavy raid, first large-scale operation since carrier planes from Adm. William F. Halsey’s Third Fleet hit Mindanao nearly two weeks ago, came as soldiers and Marines were cleaning up enemy forces on Morotai, 250 miles south of the Philippines.
A Jap Dōmei News Agency broadcast said that about 80 carrier-based planes raided “the main island of Palau,” presumably Babelthuap, in daylight Tuesday (Tokyo Time). The dispatch also reported that U.S. planes raided Truk in the Central Carolines the same day.
The Army’s 81st (Wildcat) Infantry Division already crushed Jap opposition on Angaur Island in the Palau group, after killing 600 enemy troops.
Adm. Chester W. Nimitz announced that the Marines killed a total of 7,045 Japs, approximately three-fourths of Peleliu’s garrison, in less than one week of bitter fighting on the strategic island, 560 miles east of the Philippines.
Japs hemmed in
The remaining Japs, including picked troops. Were hemmed into an area 1,000 yards wide and 5,000 yards long, Blue Network correspondent William Ewing reported from the flagship off the Palaus.
Adm. Nimitz also disclosed that Marines from Peleliu had occupied a tiny unnamed island, 100 yards off Ngabad. The island, the fourth taken since the invasion of the Palaus last week, was apparently occupied without opposition.
On the right flank on Peleliu, along the eastern shore, enemy resistance practically ended, with only a few stragglers to be mopped up.
Headquarters revealed that the Army troops which overwhelmed the Japs on Angaur in four days were seeing combat for the first time.
Attack Talaud Islands
Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s stepped-up aerial offensive against the Philippines also brought new attacks on the Talaud Islands, nearly midway to Morotai, Celebes, Ceram and Amboina.
The raids, including the heavy strike on Davao, failed to bring a single Jap plane into the air, and only meager anti-aircraft fire.
Mitchell medium bombers and Lightning fighters joined in a heavy attack on Celebes Island airdromes, 200 miles south of Mindanao, for the 16th time in the last 17 days. Four enemy planes were destroyed on the ground.
In the ground operations on Morotai, a headquarters spokesman said U.S. troops have established a 12-mile perimeter on the island to protect construction work on the Pitu Airfield.