commanders predicted the battle for Peleliu would last only four or five days, it would stretch on for more than two months, as some 11,000 Japanese troops dug in and defended the island against 28,000 Americans. They hunkered down in a vast network of underground caves connected by passageways and tunnels in an attempt to protect themselves from Allied bombardment and bog the enemy down in a protracted conflict that would yield massive casualties. Having learned from past attacks, however, the island’s Japanese defenders took a new strategy. General Douglas MacArthur had pushed for the amphibious attack on the Japanese-controlled island and its airfield in order to diminish the potential threat to future Allied operations in the Pacific. Marines landed on Peleliu, a volcanic island in the western Pacific ocean measuring only 6 miles long and 2 miles across. One of the costliest battles of World War II began on September 15, 1944, when U.S.
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