Uncle Harry's South Pacific WWII story

Peleliu: A Living WWII Museum in Palau, Micronesia

One October 2017 week, with friends, I paddled the pristine country of Palau with a 4,000 year-old culture, experienced the largest storm on earth, picked up a WWII missile laying on the ground, swam, beside the deepest and in the 2^nd deepest, trenches on earth, walked the steps written in “With the Old Breed” and visited two US territories; Guam and Mariana.  I’d like to tell you what I saw and learned about the 1944-45 battle on Peleliu and my Uncle Harry’s concurrent military service in New Guinea.

 

After an October 2017 week of glamping, kayaking and snorkeling the magnificent Palau archipelago, recently designated an UNESCO site, we walked Dr. Eugene Sledge’s steps on Peleliu as described in “With the Old Breed” of Yale for Life WWII class. I’d like to tell and show you our discovery led by biologist and guide, Ron Leidich who walked us along the path of Dr. Sledge. He described the Japanese military tactics his father, a marine, and he reconstructed.  Ron convinced us the, nearly forgotten, lessons learned in the battle of Peleliu was important in winning Iwojima and the Pacific war. Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, 1901-1943 (d. New Guinea) Harvard grad, spent six months meticulously planning the Pearl Harbor attack while victorious during the previous 6 months of WWII.  Remember, the Japanese took Micronesia from the Germans in WWI. President Roosevelt’s embargo after the Rape of Nanking and the League of Nations withdrawal of support led to the 1939 pact of Japan, Germany and Italy.

Admiral Yamamoto meticulously planned Pearl Harbor attackfor six months.  General MacArthur envisioned the airstrip on Peleliu would be instrumental for a refuel station to win the Philippines.  The Marines had secured 2/3^rd of the airstrip in 3 days with plans to commandeer Peleliu island in one week.

 

Corsairs protected as LSTs landed (aerial) while Japanese shot withe machine guns from caves at the end of the Beach Orange and Beach White.  Tom Lee’s painting captures "Helmet’s Down" while ships exploded.

Tom Lee's painting of Peleliu landing

 

LST after being hit with Japanese bombs

US Ship hit accurately

U.S. Sherman Tanks, with revolving turret,  over coral reefs

US Marines land on Beach Orange

The Japanese led by Colonel Kuneo Nakagawa, with Korean slaves, dug tunnels and caves to protect their troops, cannons and missile launchers from air attack.  Machine guns were dug in at the ends of White and Orange beaches at the nose of Peleliu.  The Peleliuans had been evacuated by the Japanese to keep the caves secret.  The US Marines began with an airstrike of 16” guns and air shelling with nepalm to denude the island in 1944. Corsairs with 50 caliber machine guns kept Japanese occupants in bunkers.  UDT (WWII Navy Seals) had swum at night under barbed wire in shark infested water to clear the mine field. The terrain, with the 3,000 feet deep Palauan trench and rising 20,000 feet Palauan mountains, was a surprise.        

Japanese dug in a machine-gun post at the end of White Beach and Orange Beach.  As seasoned 5^th Marines jumped from the LSTs.  LVTanks moved over coral reefs with revolving turrets.  The battle of attrition was on the beach.  “Helmets Down!” was commanded as

Marines ran into fire.  The LVTs stopped firing after troops were onshore.  Missiles were sent overhead to hit ships, fire came from steep cliffs and side fire from machine guns in caves.

 

 

Marines received hostile fire on Beach White as they climbed unexpectedly steep cliffs after landing on short beaches.  US 1^st Division, led by George P. Hunt lost half of his company in November of 1944 on Beach White. The survivors landed with supplies, held and protected Bloody Nose Ridge between the two beachesThe most decorated Marine, Lt. General Chesty Puller and 85 Marines took the hills.Colonel William Harris slowed down the battle and loss of US soldiers on Beach Orange.US Marines established the perimeters of Peleliu and assaulted the      Japanese with 75 mm ammo from Sherman Tanks (3/4” thick carbon steel). Drinking water was in short supply.

Four Marines on rescue mission.
Tank number ID on open  door.

Four Marines tank hit by a land mine.

Sherman Tank number matches photograph with Marines

Exploded Sherman Tank, open door.

Commemorative plaque to
Four Marines in photograph

Photograph of denuded Peleliu
and tank battles from Ron's archive.

What was planned for a one week invasion took two and a half months of fierce battles, to occupy an airstrip for refueling, with heavy loses of troops.  The 81^st Army regiment raised the American flag after 1200 casualties of 9,000 US men.  Latay, Pillipines battle had already ended.  The lesson learned from a Japanese POW found in the 1,000 man cave was the fearful flame throwers that blasted through and around corners of the underground tunnels.  The flame thrower was brought to the Iwojima battle, placed on tanks and saved lives there.  

Casisson Cave with electricity:

18 Mitsubishi 95, Japanese light tanks, were stored in underground vault Cassions Cave and not deployed.  Cassion Cave had fuel, lights, water, toilets, and hand-pulled carts.  The Mitsubishi tanks maneuvered with 2 toggles in front and back and went 30 miles per hour.  Two guns were front and back.  In June of 2017, Cassion Cave was cleared of ammunition, 18 tanks, 10 Japanese horse drawn field carriages, each carriage held 2-4 projectiles, 7 types of 75mm projectiles.  75 rounds had been peeled like bananas by flame throwers. Photographs show the debri-filled large, dark cave, and a hand cart.

     

Thousand Man Hospital and Cave:

Signage outside cave with map.

Map of Thousand Man Cave

 1,000 Man Cave tunnels

Steel door bunkers with explosion blocking entrance walls and escape hatches.  Fifty men could fit in these bunkers.

Steel doors in Bunkers

Japanese Bunkers

2017 photograph of undetonated ammunition
teams who survey and clear, by square yards, Peleliu Island.

End Game

I400 Class submarines with aircraft carrier capabilities was found recently by scuba divers in Macronesia and published by National Geographic.  Visit the Smithsonian West, in Dulles Annex under Inola Gay to see an I400 image.  I400 is an underwater aircraft carrier with planes railed ontop of a submarine.  Planes are vaulted, or catapulted into the air. 
I400 had enough fuel to circumference the earth 1 ½ times.   

1932 General Shiro Ishi – mastermind of flea bombs was pardoned after WWII. Japanese held biological and chemical warfare in ceramic vessels:  Centrax and buponic plague infested fleas were planned to be released by catapulted aircraft over the United States.  Japan is now an United States ally.

Peleliu Marine Memorial

Last Command Post of Japanese, Mariana

Bonsai Cliff with wedding ceremony Mariana

Suicide Cliff, Mariana

The U.S. Territories: Guam and Mariana Suicide Cliff and Bonsai Point (wedding)

Uncle Harry James Leahy was stationed in New Guinea the year after Admiral Yamamoto met his end and during these nearby Peleliu battles that were ancillary to capturing the Philippines and ending the Pacific battles of WWII.

Harry was with the 33rd (Quartermaster) Division.  Here is where they were during WWII:The 33d Infantry Division arrived in Hawaii on 12 July 1943. While guarding installations, it received training in jungle warfare. On 11 May 1944, it arrived in New Guinea where it received additional training. The 123d Infantry Regiment arrived at Maffin Bay, 1 September, to provide perimeter defense by aggressive patrolling for Wakde Airdrome and the Toem-Sarmi sector. The 123d was relieved on 26 January 1945. Elements of the 33d arrived at Morotai, 18 December 1944. Landings were made on the west coast of the island, 22 December, without opposition and defensive perimeters were established. Aggressive patrols encountered scattered resistance. The 33d landed at Lingayen Gulf, Luzon, 10 February 1945, and relieved the 43d Infantry Division in the Damortis-RosarioPozorrubio area, 13-15 February. The Division drove into the Caraballo Mountains, 19 February, toward its objective, Baguio, the summer capital of the Philippines and the headquarters of General Yamashita. Fighting against a fanatical enemy entrenched in the hills, the 33d took Aringay, 7 March, Mount Calugong, 8 April, and Mount Mirador, 25 April. Baguio and Camp John Hay fell on 26 April, under the concerted attack of the 33d and the 37th Divisions. Manuel Roxas, later President of the Philippines, was freed during the capture of Baguio. After mopping up isolated pockets of resistance, the Division broke up the last organized resistance of the enemy by capturing the San Nicholas-Tebbo-Itogon route, 12 May. All elements went to rest and rehabilitation areas on 30 June 1945. The Division landed on Honshu Island, Japan, 25 September, and performed occupation duties until inactivated.

While Uncle James Harry Leahy was battling in New Guinea, his cousin James Rogers  was on a ship that landed one day early in the Phillipines, they reversed and joined the fleet for the invasion the next day. Another cousin was fighting in Guam and Mariana.

Coral formation on Beach Orange

  

 Coral formation on Beach Orange, Peleliu