Peleliu’s Forgotten World War II Battlefield

Mission Overview

At 0800 on September 15, 1944, the first waves of men in 73 amphibious tractors started for the beaches of Peleliu, one of the Palau Islands of the western Pacific. The subsequent battle was the bloodiest first-day landing of the entire Pacific campaign. Despite this, the amphibious element of the invasion is largely ignored in World War II histories. This project was the first of its kind in Peleliu to explore the landing beaches and fringing reef by conducting a comprehensive, systematic remote sensing search for the material remains from this forgotten battlefield.