Commentary by Justin Taylan
Peleliu Airfield Repaired
By the end of September 1944, the battle had moved to the northern portion of Peleliu. K Company was relieved from the line on September 27 and were able to briefly relax at Peleliu Airfield as construction equipment worked to repair it, and a Navy "Seabee" asked the Marines for souvenirs. Although not conveyed in the episode, US Army infantry and tanks were also fighting on Peleliu too.
Peleliu Airfield was repaired and immediately put into service. The airfield was expanded into a major base used by all three branches of service: Army Air Force, Marines and the Navy. On August 3, 1945, it was a PBY Catalina from Peleliu that first located survivors of the USS Indianapolis that had been sunk a week earlier.
Today, the main crushed coral runway is still in use for inter-island flights by light aircraft of Belau Air, the national airline of the Republic of Palau. Jungle has overgrown most of the roads and former taxiways.
Basilone Stateside
The episode continues with Sgt John Basilone selling war bonds and promoting the war effort stateside. Basilone was offered a commission or assignment as an instructor, but he declined both. Instead, he wanted to return to combat.
Ngesebus Island
Although not depicted in the episode, on September 28 the Marines made an amphibious assault against Ngesebus Island, to the north of Peleliu. This island threatened the Marine flank and had a garrison of approximately 950 troops. Opposition was deemed light, and the island was secured the next day. But, the invasion had an harrowing experience for K Company's mortarmen.
The episode depicts Burgin, Sledge and Snafu taking cover near a Japanese bunker believed to be neutralized. As they begin to setup their mortar, Sledge heard voices inside. Burgin wrote in his memoir, Island of the Damned, "I bent to look into one of the slits and a face looked back at me. Before he could duck I stuck my M1 between the bars and got off two or three rounds... I couldn't tell how many were in there. But I knew there had to be a bunch."
The Japanese inside the bunker tossed out a grenade that wounded two. The rest of the squad kept the defenders inside while Burgin ran to the beach and summoned an Amtrak with a 75mm gun to blast the bunker. After shelling, a sword welding Japanese emerged and Sledge shoots him, the first person he had personally killed.
In reality, this attacker was with a Japanese soldier holding a grenade. Sledge wrote in With The Old Breed "I lined up my sights on his chest and began squeezing off shots. As the first bullet hit him, his face contorted in agony. His knees buckled. The grenade slipped from his grasp." Afterwards, he records how a friendly flamethrower finished off the bunker, and Sledge reflected "I had just killed a man at close range. That I had seen clearly the pain on his face when my bullets hit him came as a jolt... The expression on that man's face filled me with shame and then disgust for the war and all the misery it was causing."
Death on Peleliu
After Ngesebus, the Marines return to Peleliu and continue mopping up. On October 12, near Hill 140, the charismatic Captain Andrew A. Haldane "Ack-Ack" was killed by a sniper. Learning of his death, Sledge remembers "I was stunned and sickened. Throwing my ammo bag down, I turned away from the others, sat on my helmet, and sobbed quietly." Haldane was buried at Arlington National Cemetery at section 12 grave 5367 on October 21, 1948.
A gruesome scene is depicted at the end of the episode as Sledge and Snafu rest near a destroyed Japanese machine gun position. Snafu throwing small pieces of coral into the head of one of the dead Japanese. Sledge is tempted to cut the gold teeth from a dead body, but Snafu warns him not to do it, due to germs. This incident is recorded differently in With The Old Breed. The germ warning was from their corpsman. Sledge wrote, "Doc Caswell didn't really have germs in mind. He was a good friend... whose sensitivity hadn't been crushed out by the war. He was merely trying to help me retain some of mine and not become completely callous and harsh." Also according to Sledge, the person throwing coral bits was another unnamed Marine, not Snafu.
Return to Pavuvu
The episode ends with the exhausted 1st Marines leaving Peleliu aboard ship and returning to Pavuvu. The island now has female nurses from the United States. Hardened by combat, Sledge felt "She's got no more business here than some damn politician. As we filed past to board trucks, I resented her deeply". On Pavuvu, the Marines begin recuperating from the ordeal of Peleliu.
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Marine F4U Corsair fighters based at Peleliu Airfield
Peleliu was developed into a major base
Satellite view from Google Earth in 2006
Peleliu Airfield runway in 2009 photo by Reid Joyce
Amtracks approach Ngesebus Island
R. V. Burgin
Diagram of Japanese bunker on Ngesebus
Marines advance on Ngesebus Island
Captain Andrew Haldane KIA October 12, 1944
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