num_pages: 381
description: Offers a moment-by-moment chronicle of the 1944 Battle of Peleliu, the little-known but bloodiest battle in the Pacific theater of World War II.Review:"The First Marine Division -- 'The Old Breed' -- was formed before Pearl Harbor around a cadre of career marines who, in the words of a contemporary, were characterized by "drilled shoulders and a bone-deep sunburn and a tolerant scorn of nearly everything else on earth." On Sept. 15, 1944, the division hit the beach at Peleliu, an island about 550 miles east of the southern Philippines whose capture was deemed necessary as a forward base for future Pacific campaigns. Bill D. Ross, a former Marine Corps combat correspondent and the author of "Iwo Jima," relates the story of this bloody, botched and nearly unsung campaign in "Peleliu: Tragic Triumph." At the top, there was terrible leadership; the divisional commander was aloof, overly optimistic and grossly lacking in ability and confidence. At the bottom, there was a terrible price to be paid for a few square miles of coral: 8,769 marines killed, wounded or missing out of a 17,400-man division. Worst of all, even at the time there was ample evidence that the invasion was a senseless operation, since the island and its 13,000-man Japanese garrison could easily have been bypassed. Mr. Ross tells the tale with sad pride, not as a military historian but as a marine among marines, quoting wherever possible from the men on the ground, both in contemporary accounts and in words that have been aged for nearly 50 years." - The New York Times
language: English
title: Peleliu: Tragic Triumph: The Untold Story of the Pacific War's Forgotten Battle
titlecomplete: Peleliu: Tragic Triumph: The Untold Story of the Pacific War's Forgotten Battle
genres: Nonfiction, Military History, Military Fiction, History, World War II
ratings_count: 37
publisher: Random House