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The Battle of Angaur was a major battle of the Pacific campaign in
Bombardment of Angaur by the
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, fought on the island of Angaur in the Palau Islands
Palau,, officially the Republic of Palau and historically ''Belau'', ''Palaos'' or ''Pelew'', is an island country and microstate in the western Pacific. The nation has approximately 340 islands and connects the western chain of the Caro ...
from 17 September—22 October 1944. This battle was part of a larger offensive campaign known as Operation Forager which ran from June 1944 to November 1944 in the Pacific Theater of Operations, and Operation Stalemate II in particular.Moran, J. and Rottman, G.L., 2002, Peleliu 1944, Oxford: Osprey Publishing Ltd.,
Background
Angaur is a tiny limestone island, just long, separated fromPeleliu
Peleliu (or Beliliou) is an island in the island nation of Palau. Peleliu, along with two small islands to its northeast, forms one of the sixteen states of Palau. The island is notable as the location of the Battle of Peleliu in World War II.
H ...
by a strait, from which phosphate
In chemistry, a phosphate is an anion, salt, functional group or ester derived from a phosphoric acid. It most commonly means orthophosphate, a derivative of orthophosphoric acid .
The phosphate or orthophosphate ion is derived from phosph ...
was mined. In mid-1944, the Japanese had 1,400 troops on the island, under the overall command of Palau Sector Group commander Lieutenant General Sadae Inoue
was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II. He commanded the Japanese forces at the Battle of Peleliu and the Battle of Angaur.
Early life and education
Inoue was born in Kumamoto prefecture as the third son of a local police ...
and under the direct command of Major Goto who was stationed on the island.
The weak defenses of the Palaus and the potential for airfield construction made them attractive targets for the Americans after the capture of the Marshall Islands
The Marshall Islands ( mh, Ṃajeḷ), officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands ( mh, Aolepān Aorōkin Ṃajeḷ),'' () is an independent island country and microstate near the Equator in the Pacific Ocean, slightly west of the Inte ...
, but a shortage of landing craft meant that operations against the Palaus could not begin until the Mariana Islands
The Mariana Islands (; also the Marianas; in Chamorro: ''Manislan Mariånas'') are a crescent-shaped archipelago comprising the summits of fifteen longitudinally oriented, mostly dormant volcanic mountains in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, betw ...
were secure.
Once the assault on Peleliu was "well in hand", the 322nd Regimental combat team (RCT) would land on the northern Beach Red, and the 321st RCT on the eastern Beach Blue, both of the 81st Infantry Division commanded by Major General Paul J. Mueller.
The Japanese defending both Peleliu and Angaur, were the combat hardened men of the 14th Infantry Division with four years of experience fighting in Manchuria
Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer M ...
behind them, and personally sent to defend the Palaus by Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...
Hideki Tojo
Hideki Tojo (, ', December 30, 1884 – December 23, 1948) was a Japanese politician, general of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA), and convicted war criminal who served as prime minister of Japan and president of the Imperial Rule Assistan ...
himself. The 1,400 crack soldiers garrisoned on Angaur were the 1st Battalion, 59th Infantry Regiment.
Battle
Bombardment of Angaur by the battleship
A battleship is a large armour, armored warship with a main artillery battery, battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1 ...
, four cruisers, and forty Douglas SBD Dauntless
The Douglas SBD Dauntless is a World War II American naval scout plane and dive bomber that was manufactured by Douglas Aircraft from 1940 through 1944. The SBD ("Scout Bomber Douglas") was the United States Navy's main carrier-based scout/di ...
dive bomber
A dive bomber is a bomber aircraft that dives directly at its targets in order to provide greater accuracy for the bomb it drops. Diving towards the target simplifies the bomb's trajectory and allows the pilot to keep visual contact through ...
s from the aircraft carrier
An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows a ...
began on 11 September 1944. Six days later on 17 September, the two RCTs landed on the northeast and southeast coasts. Not having enough troops to defend all the beaches, Goto selected the most attractive Beach (code named Green Beach by the Americans) for an amphibious landing to build his beach defenses. His defenses consisted of a formidable array of pillboxes, blockhouses, trenches and antitank ditches. Seeing the buildup around Green Beach, Mueller decided to land his troops at the more constricted but less defended beaches of Red and Blue Beach. The 322nd RCT received sporadic mortar and machine gun fire, but landed fairly unopposed and with light casualties. The 321st landing at Blue Beach faced heavier machine gun and mortar fire, but it too was able to get ashore with minimal casualties. Unbeknownst to them, this was all part of the Japanese new "defense in depth strategy" that they and the 1st Marine Division
The 1st Marine Division (1st MARDIV) is a Marine division of the United States Marine Corps headquartered at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California. It is the ground combat element of the I Marine Expeditionary Force (I MEF).
It is th ...
would also face on nearby Peleliu. The Japanese strategy was to now allow the Americans to land rather unopposed and move inward, with "in depth" defensive lines further inland, and initiating nighttime counterattacks en masse while the Americans were still heavily congregated on the beachheads, attempting to drive them back into the sea. Suicidal Banzai charges as seen on Tarawa
Tarawa is an atoll and the capital of the Republic of Kiribati,Kiribati
''
By the end of the third day, 19 September, the RCTs had cut the island in half, with two pockets of resistance. The main Japanese force to the Northwest on Ramauldo Hill and the other dug in at the Green Beach defensive fortifications. After two days of harsh fighting and heavy casualties, the 321st had overrun the Green Beach defenses and the 400 dug in soldiers by flanking them from behind. At a cost of 300 casualties, the southern half of the island was now declared secure. While the 321st was embattled to the south, the 322nd RCT moved across the island to the western coast securing the only inhabited area of the island, "Saipan Town", then swept north towards "Shrine Hill" and Romauldo Hill where the main 750 strong force was awaiting them, heavily dug in to the island's most formidable and difficult terrain. With the southern half of the island now secured, on 23 September, the 321st RCT was dispatched to nearby Peleliu, where the 1st Marine Division was taking massive casualties and nearing becoming combat ineffective as a unit. Securing the rest of Angaur now fell to the 3,200 men of the 322nd RCT.
The Japanese defensive network on Romauldo Hill and the intense fighting that would take place there was in effect, a microcosm of the brutal fighting taking place in the Umurbrogol pocket on nearby Peleliu by the Marines, and later the 81st Infantry Division. The entire hill was honeycombed with interconnecting caves, pillboxes and bunkers built into the coral rock, forming an almost impregnable position where the hardened defenders were dug in, determined to fight to the death and take as many American lives with them. Near the top of the hill was a small bowl-like valley with a lake surrounded by coral ridges almost tall, which became known as "the Bowl". To add to the defenders' advantage there was only one way into and out of the bowl, through a narrow gorge, later named "Bloody Gulch." As the 322nd RCT advanced on "the Bowl", near Lake Salome they were met with withering machine gun, mortar and sniper fire, being stymied in their tracks.
From 20 September, the 322nd RCT repeatedly attacked the Bowl, but the dug in defenders repulsed them with artillery, mortars, grenades and machine guns, inflicting heavy losses. Gradually, hunger, thirst and American shellfire and bombing took their toll on the Japanese, and by 25 September, after three costly frontal attacks the Americans had penetrated the Bowl. Rather than fight for possession of the caves, they used bulldozers to seal the entrances. By 30 September, the island was said to be secure although the Japanese still had about 300 more soldiers in the Bowl and surrounding areas that held out for almost four more weeks.
Toward the end of the first week of October, the protracted conflict had degenerated into patrol action with sniping, ambushing, and extensive booby-trapping employed by both sides. Goto was killed on 19 October fighting to keep possession of a cave.The HyperWar websit
here, on pages 178 and 179
describes it as "up until the night of the 19th" of October when Major Goto was killed. The last day of fighting was 22 October with a total of 36 days of fighting and blasting the Japanese resistance from their caves with explosives, tanks, artillery and flamethrowers. The 81st Infantry Division had finally taken the whole of Angaur although at a high cost. The 322nd RCT sustained 80% of the American casualties on Angaur, with a 47% casualty rate. On Peleliu, men of the 321st and 323rd RCT's would go on to fight the remaining 3,600 Japanese defenders holding out in the Umurbrogal pocket for almost two months, often resorting to fierce hand to hand combat. There, another 282 men of the 322nd RCT would lose their lives with another 4,409 being wounded. Of all the casualties sustained by the 81st Wildcat Division in Operation Stalemate II, only about 52% would be fit enough to return to duty. A great number of American casualties were the result of head wounds inflicted by extremely accurate Japanese sniper fire and their use of smokeless powder.
The battle is one of the unique engagements of the Pacific War in which Allied casualties exceeded those of the Japanese, attesting to the ferocious resistance put up on the island.
''
Guadalcanal
Guadalcanal (; indigenous name: ''Isatabu'') is the principal island in Guadalcanal Province of Solomon Islands, located in the south-western Pacific, northeast of Australia. It is the largest island in the Solomon Islands by area, and the se ...
and Saipan
Saipan ( ch, Sa’ipan, cal, Seipél, formerly in es, Saipán, and in ja, 彩帆島, Saipan-tō) is the largest island of the Northern Mariana Islands, a Commonwealth (U.S. insular area), commonwealth of the United States in the western Pa ...
were forbidden. Both RCTs were counterattacked during the night, but achieved little more than quickly depleting valuable troops Goto could not replace. Late the next day on 18 September, both RCTs were able to link up and push on to their respective objectives.
By the end of the third day, 19 September, the RCTs had cut the island in half, with two pockets of resistance. The main Japanese force to the Northwest on Ramauldo Hill and the other dug in at the Green Beach defensive fortifications. After two days of harsh fighting and heavy casualties, the 321st had overrun the Green Beach defenses and the 400 dug in soldiers by flanking them from behind. At a cost of 300 casualties, the southern half of the island was now declared secure. While the 321st was embattled to the south, the 322nd RCT moved across the island to the western coast securing the only inhabited area of the island, "Saipan Town", then swept north towards "Shrine Hill" and Romauldo Hill where the main 750 strong force was awaiting them, heavily dug in to the island's most formidable and difficult terrain. With the southern half of the island now secured, on 23 September, the 321st RCT was dispatched to nearby Peleliu, where the 1st Marine Division was taking massive casualties and nearing becoming combat ineffective as a unit. Securing the rest of Angaur now fell to the 3,200 men of the 322nd RCT.
The Japanese defensive network on Romauldo Hill and the intense fighting that would take place there was in effect, a microcosm of the brutal fighting taking place in the Umurbrogol pocket on nearby Peleliu by the Marines, and later the 81st Infantry Division. The entire hill was honeycombed with interconnecting caves, pillboxes and bunkers built into the coral rock, forming an almost impregnable position where the hardened defenders were dug in, determined to fight to the death and take as many American lives with them. Near the top of the hill was a small bowl-like valley with a lake surrounded by coral ridges almost tall, which became known as "the Bowl". To add to the defenders' advantage there was only one way into and out of the bowl, through a narrow gorge, later named "Bloody Gulch." As the 322nd RCT advanced on "the Bowl", near Lake Salome they were met with withering machine gun, mortar and sniper fire, being stymied in their tracks.
From 20 September, the 322nd RCT repeatedly attacked the Bowl, but the dug in defenders repulsed them with artillery, mortars, grenades and machine guns, inflicting heavy losses. Gradually, hunger, thirst and American shellfire and bombing took their toll on the Japanese, and by 25 September, after three costly frontal attacks the Americans had penetrated the Bowl. Rather than fight for possession of the caves, they used bulldozers to seal the entrances. By 30 September, the island was said to be secure although the Japanese still had about 300 more soldiers in the Bowl and surrounding areas that held out for almost four more weeks.
Toward the end of the first week of October, the protracted conflict had degenerated into patrol action with sniping, ambushing, and extensive booby-trapping employed by both sides. Goto was killed on 19 October fighting to keep possession of a cave.The HyperWar websithere, on pages 178 and 179
describes it as "up until the night of the 19th" of October when Major Goto was killed. The last day of fighting was 22 October with a total of 36 days of fighting and blasting the Japanese resistance from their caves with explosives, tanks, artillery and flamethrowers. The 81st Infantry Division had finally taken the whole of Angaur although at a high cost. The 322nd RCT sustained 80% of the American casualties on Angaur, with a 47% casualty rate. On Peleliu, men of the 321st and 323rd RCT's would go on to fight the remaining 3,600 Japanese defenders holding out in the Umurbrogal pocket for almost two months, often resorting to fierce hand to hand combat. There, another 282 men of the 322nd RCT would lose their lives with another 4,409 being wounded. Of all the casualties sustained by the 81st Wildcat Division in Operation Stalemate II, only about 52% would be fit enough to return to duty. A great number of American casualties were the result of head wounds inflicted by extremely accurate Japanese sniper fire and their use of smokeless powder.
The battle is one of the unique engagements of the Pacific War in which Allied casualties exceeded those of the Japanese, attesting to the ferocious resistance put up on the island.
Aftermath
Airfields were being constructed as the battle was still being fought, but the delay in the start of the Palaus operation meant that the airfields were not ready in time for the start of thePhilippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
operations in October 1944. Admiral William F. Halsey, Jr.
William Frederick "Bull" Halsey Jr. (October 30, 1882 – August 16, 1959) was an American Navy admiral during World War II. He is one of four officers to have attained the rank of five-star fleet admiral of the United States Navy, the others ...
had argued before the invasion of the Palaus that the operation was unnecessary, and military historians have agreed with him, suggesting that the main benefit was the combat experience gained by the 81st Infantry Division.
During the fighting, Seabee
, colors =
, mascot = Bumblebee
, battles = Guadalcanal, Bougainville, Cape Gloucester, Los Negros, Guam, Peleliu, Tarawa, Kwajalein, Saipan, Tinian, Iwo Jima, Philippin ...
s created an airstrip that would house B-24 Liberator
The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models ...
bombers of the 494th Bombardment Group 494th may refer to:
* 494th Bombardment Squadron, inactive United States Air Force unit
* 494th Bombardment Wing, inactive United States Air Force unit
*494th Fighter Squadron (494 FS), part of the 48th Fighter Wing at RAF Lakenheath, England
See ...
, 7th Air Force which engaged in frequent bombings of the Philippines and other Palau Islands.
The 81st Infantry Division moved on directly to the battle on Peleliu to aid the 1st Marine Division, which had encountered extremely stiff resistance in the central highland of that island. They would remain on Peleliu for another month taking the island and mopping-up the remaining Japanese forces.
References
* *External links
* {{coord, 6.9, N, 134.133, E, source:kolossus-hewiki, display=title Angaur Angaur Palau in World War II Angaur 1944 in Japan September 1944 events October 1944 events Peleliu