Battle of Peleliu 1944
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 27 November 1944 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1944 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | World War II era (1939–1945) | derived from year |
| Location | Palau | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Oceania | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Pacific War | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Empire of Japan, United States | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 7.0167, 134.2500 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Peleliu, codenamed Operation Stalemate II by the US military, was fought between the United States and Japan during the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign of World War II, from 15 September to 27 November 1944, on the island of Peleliu.
US marines of the 1st Marine Division and then soldiers of the US Army's 81st Infantry Division fought to capture an airfield on the small coral island of Peleliu. The battle was part of a larger offensive campaign known as Operation Forager, which ran from June to November 1944 in the Pacific War.
Major General William Rupertus, the commander of the 1st Marine Division, predicted that the island would be secured within four days. However, after repeated Imperial Japanese Army defeats in previous island campaigns, Japan had developed new island-defense tactics and well-crafted fortifications, which allowed them to offer stiff resistance and extended the battle to more than two months. The heavily outnumbered Japanese defenders put up such staunch resistance, often fighting to the death in the name of the Japanese Emperor, that the island became known in Japanese as the "Emperor's Island."
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Peleliu (revision 1377053303), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Battle of Angaur 1944 · 18 km
Other battles of the Pacific War
- Battle off Horaniu 1943
- Bougainville campaign 1943
- Landing at Nadzab 1943
- Landing at Scarlet Beach 1943
- Landings at Cape Torokina 1943
- Battle of Angaur 1944
- Battle of Biak 1944
- Battle of Leyte Gulf 1944
- Battle of Morotai 1944
- Battle of Ormoc Bay 1944
All 56 battles of the Pacific War →
Browse more: battles in Palau · Oceania · World War II era battles