Anthony Bracciante's Reviews > Brotherhood of Heroes: The Marines at Peleliu, 1944--The Bloodiest Battle of the Pacific War

This is a no holds barred account of the savage fighting that the U.S. Marines First Division known as the Old Breed encountered in their struggle for the corral island of Peleliu. The Marines were told before the invasion that it would be a brief, intense three day struggle that lasted six weeks and inflicted severe casualties that rendered the three infantry regiments of the division not fit for further combat. The Japanese on Peleliu had adopted a new defensive strategy for the first time with a system of interlocking caves dug into the coral. Their mission was to fight to the death and to take 10 Marines with them for every Japanese soldier's life. Peleliu was a foreshadow of what was to later occur on Iwo Jima and Okinawa. To this day historians question whether this attack was warranted as the strategic value of Peleliu was minimal at best. Peleliu taught the Marines that survived the battle and later fought on Okinawa how to fight against the new Japanese defensive system.