At the southern end of Palau lies a small five square mile island named Peliliu. Today, 700 Palauans call it home, but in 1944, 11,000 Japanese soldiers and airmen were resident on the island. Palau was a major strategic base for Imperial Japan in the western Pacific and Peleliu housed the primary airfield commanding the airspace in this area of the Pacific.
However, as the tides of war shifted to the Allies advantage, Palau (as with Truk) became another target in the island-hopping campaign of the United States military. Peleliu was supposed to be taken in three days......
It took two months. Over 2,000 Americans and 10,000 Japanese died in some of the bloodiest fighting in the war in an area that has become immortalized as Bloody Nose Ridge
Many say the Americans could have bombed and bypassed Palau on the way to the Philippines, but the airfield was considered a strategic priority by certain military leaders.
Here is the memorial that was erected by the landing beaches.
The landing beach.
More pictures after the jump