Contents

Bloody Beaches:
The Marines
at Peleliu

Marines in
World War II
Commemorative Series

By Brigadier General
Gordon D. Gayle
U.S. Marine Corps (Ret)

“Down from Bloody Ridge Too Late. He’s Finished—Washed Up—Gone As we passed sick bay, still in the shell hole, it was crowded with wounded, and somehow hushed in the evening light. I noticed a tattered Marine standing quietly by a corpsman, staring stiffly at nothing. His mind had crumbled in battle, his jaw hung, and his eyes were like two black empty holes in his head.” Caption by the artist, Tom Lea.

TABLE OF DISTANCES FROM PELELIU
In Nautical Miles

Pearl Harbor 3990
Guadalcanal 1589
Espiritu Santo 2067
Admiralty Islands 960
Hollandia 705
Morotai 430
Saipan 820
Yap 237
Ulithi 323
Truk 1030
Davao 540
Manila 920
Tokyo 1725