Battle Of Peleliu Analysis

The American forces plan consisted of a “divide and conquer” methodology. The U.S. focused on landing its assault force expediently and quickly and securing Mt. Suribachi and dominant high ground of the island. The Americans expected victory in less than a week. Their forces consisted of the 3rd, 4th and 5th Marine Divisions. The 4th and 5th Marine Divisions were to land on the eastern beaches the 4th on the right and the 5th on the left. The 3rd Marines would either land on the eastern beaches or assume a defensive role, which ever was called (Planning for the Battle of Iwo Jima, n.d.).

the Pacific war’s rare bayonet charges. The Marines swept forward with a yell to kill

This disassociation allows for the whole sale slaughter of people with moral justification. The unforeseen byproduct of this disassociation, as Cameron points out, can be seen in the 1950’s and 1960’s, when many veterans consigned their wives to the kitchen. The intended product of this disassociation, however, was to kill Japanese soldiers. The Marines would reap the benefits of this first in the Guadalcanal campaign of 1942. With the U.S. Marines of First Division engaged in a life or death struggle against their Japanese opponents, the cartoonish portraits of four-eyed, slow Japanese soldiers burned into the American Marine’s mind kept them from thinking about the enemy as men who are carrying pictures of their families eerily similar to the pictures that were carried by Americans. Using the invasion of Peleliu as a backdrop for his analysis, Cameron expands upon his analysis of the individual Marine to the collective thought of the organization. The U.S. Marine self-image caused Marine units on Peleliu to charge head-first into the waiting Japanese defense with foolhardy, head on assaults which they stubbornly pressed. The Marine Corps, even through their hyper-masculine indoctrination, had not prepared their Marines any better than their U.S. Army counterparts on the island. Before Peleliu, the perception of combat had been that of a clean affair due to the romanticized images of World War I. After, due to Tom Lea’s reporting of events, the

The battle for Okinawa begin on 01Apr1945 and went until 22Jun1945. The capture of Okinawa was part of the plan to win the Far East war. The island of Okinawa is a part of a group of islands at the southern end of Japan. The main focus for the Americans were four airfields that were on the island that they wanted to control. The forces that made up the American landing party were the III Amphibious Corps and XXIV Corps, making the Tenth U.S. Army under the command of Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr. American forces had not been able to gather very much intelligence about the island which made it difficult to determine how many enemy forces there were. There were over 130,000 Japanese troops waiting on the island. There were over 450,000 civilians which made operations harder for American forces. The enemy forces where mainly down in the southern sector of the island waiting for the Americans. The beach landings on the island where prepped with

The invasion with this type of landscape was not as easy as one would think. One Naval officer suggested that the invasion of this island would cost only fifteen-thousand Marine casualties. His Navy companions thought that he would be way off. Which he was by about

Brown led the Army’s 7th Division of three regiments of infantry, four battalions of artillery, the 13th Combat Engineer Battalion, and the attachment of the 50th Combat Engineer Battalion.1 Nearly a year before the battle took place, June 3rd, 1942, the Japanese seized Attu with only natives living there. The Japanese reestablished a base on Attu on October 29, 1942 under the leadership of Lieutenant Colonel Hiroshi Yanekawa.1 The Japanese set up strong defensive positions with antiaircraft and numerous caches of arms, ammunition and food spread across different locations on the island. U.S. forces did not have such advantage and had a difficult time with logistics due to the unforgiving elements. The islands beaches consisted of muskeg which created very difficult circumstances for U.S. vehicles that the engineers were crucial in resolving. Although the harsh climate and terrain caused many problems for both sides, it was more impactful against the Japanese due to the long period of acclimation they endured.2

There were many battles that occurred in the Pacific during World War II, the most significant ones being the Battles of Midway, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. The Battle of Midway, an American naval victory in June 1942 is considered a significant point in the Pacific war with the Japanese fleet sustaining heavy losses and having to retreat. The Battle of Midway is significant as it firstly, “only lost one carrier… and it meant that four carriers (Enterprise, Hornet, Saratoga, and Wasp) were available when the U.S navy went on the offensive during the battle of Guadalcanal.” Secondly, subsequent to this battle, the Japanese would react to the Americans, and not the other way around, this meant that the “operational initiative” had passed

Pacific warfare was indisputably the most harsh warfare for any troop that was sent overseas. Unlike the war in Europe, the troops in the pacific did not know what they were fighting. The Japanese were committed to their leader and to their philosophy of bushido. Bushido meant “death before dishonor” this meant that if it came down to it they would rather die than to give up. This made it a lot harder for the troops to win the battles because there was no surrender. The second thing that made the warfare different between the two theatres was the fact that there was greater distance to travel. There were islands that the Americans needed to take over before they won. This is where the idea of island hopping came along. Island hopping was

What happened during this battle? The Japanese really practiced and prepared carefully for their attack on Pearl Harbor.

(1) Identify the war this Battle is fought in to include the time frame and locations.

Conditions were perfect, sunshine with a little cloud cover the Americans were expecting strong opposition as soon as they touched down on the beaches but there was little opposition to meet them. Weather considerations were minimum, heavy rain was the only key factor in the battle which made the ground muddy and troop movement and resupply at times could become difficult. Okinawa is 60 miles long and 18 miles wide. The terrain in northern Okinawa is extremely mountainous with elevations of 1,000 feet or more usually with steep cliffs associated with them. With such uneven terrain troop movement in the north was very difficult. With poor road conditions vehicle movement was not much better. The southern part of Okinawa where the main part of the fighting took place had a number of different terrain obstacles. Rolling hills, with the majority of this half under cultivation and contained three fourths of the population of the island. The terrain gave the Japanese Army a slight advantage with natural caves and burial tombs that they turned into underground positions. There are more roads in the south due to the increased population but still not suitable for military vehicles.

World War II consisted of many devastating battles in both the European and the Pacific Theater. The Battle of Okinawa was fought in the Pacific theater. In the beginning of the battle there was little opposition from the Japanese soldiers but as the American troops traveled more inland the more resistance they met. Eventually, the 10th Army came against the fierce challenge of the intricate defense lines the Japanese held up. Many caves and pillboxes in the hills created a formidable challenge for American troops. Slowly though the Allies gained ground and continued to push back the defensive lines of General Ushijima and his troops. The Japanese tried to use kamikaze air and land attacks as successful offensive measures, these

The Normandy Invasion may have been the single most important battle on the Western Front of World War II. Much planning went into the siege of these beaches that ensured a tough, but inevitable victory, as well as other factors, such as the exploitation of the Germans’ ignorance of the attack.

The first thing that should be noted was the reason why the Northern Force was used to lure the 3rd Fleet away from the Philippines. Four months earlier in June 1944 the battle of the Philippine sea took place. This was the Japanese attempt to defeat the US Carrier Force with everything they had. The end

The Battle of the Philippine Sea was an engagement between the United States Pacific Fleet and the Japanese navy in World War II. This Battle occurred started on June 19 and ended on June 20 in 1944. The Japanese goal at the very beginning of this conflict was to discourage American forces by incurring such great damage to the military that the public majority would become weary of the war and discontinue its support of the war. The loss of support from the public would then cause the US Government to retract its forces from Japan.( Willmott, H.P. June 1944. New York, NY: Blandford Press, 1984. ISBN 0-7137-1446-8) Willmott 1984, p. 143.)