Against.the.Odds.S02E02.The.Death.Ridges.of.Peleliu

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Transcript

00:00We landed there with 50 in the second platoon, and that afternoon at five o'clock the same

00:13day there were only nine of us.

00:15They were not killed or wounded.

00:18War in the Pacific on Peleliu was of a primordial nature.

00:26The Japanese were a brutal, take-no-prisoners kind of enemy.

00:32They knew going in, the only way to beat them was to descend to that level.

00:38They'd pop both arms out, two grenades would fly off the bottom of their armpits and blow

00:41both of you up.

00:43To be under heavy shell fire out in the open was terror compounded beyond the imagination.

00:56And you're losing man after man after man.

01:00Who's left?

01:02It's the PFC with guts who says, screw it, I'm going forward.

01:12I can remember my father talking about how they might wound me, they might kill me, they

01:17might disfigure me for life, but I'm not, I am not going to let the Japanese drive me crazy.

01:27I can't say enough for them, they're the best-fighting bunch in the world as far as I'm concerned.

01:39In July of 1944, President Roosevelt summons his top commanders to a private meeting in

01:58Hawaii to determine the next phase in America's island-hopping campaign against Japan.

02:07The debate, often contentious and discordant, was won by General Douglas MacArthur, who

02:13convinces Roosevelt that the Philippine Islands must be retaken.

02:18He has one controversial caveat.

02:22General MacArthur was about ready to go into the Philippines.

02:26To support his movement into the Philippines, it was thought to be essential that we took

02:31Peleliu Island.

02:35Peleliu sits just 500 miles east of MacArthur's planned invasion of the Philippines.

02:42He fears that Japanese aircraft, launched from Peleliu's airfield, could menace his

02:47approaching invasion.

02:50The airfield, MacArthur's main objective, is protected by 10,000 troops of the Japanese

02:5614th Division, battle-hardened by years of fighting in China.

03:02The island's horrific defenses are buried deep inside the coral rock in a nightmarish

03:08network of tunnels and cave systems, all of it cloaked and hidden under a thick canopy

03:14of dense green jungle that prevents any detection by aerial reconnaissance.

03:22The oncoming marines have no idea what is waiting for them.

03:26In early September 1944, Operation Stalemate heads towards the Philippines.

03:56On board the island of Peleliu.

04:01On board are the elite 1st Marine Division, coming off bitter, draining campaigns at Guadalcanal

04:08in Cape Gloucester.

04:10A solid corps of veterans augments a kid army, hardly out of its teens.

04:17They will hit the Peleliu beaches on September 15th.

04:22Major General William Rupertus was a division commander, had indicated at meetings and actually

04:31had published a letter saying that while this was going to be a tough campaign, it was going

04:36to be a quickie.

04:38Three days, four at the most.

04:41Among the young marines is 20-year-old Eugene Sledge.

04:46They call him Sledgehammer.

04:49His meticulously kept battle diary will, in the years to come, serve as the voice for

04:54every enlisted man in this war, when it is later published as With the Old Breed.

05:02The Old Breed was another name for the Marine Corps.

05:07The Old Breed was another name for the 1st Marine Division.

05:12The 1st Marine Division had a long and storied history.

05:17And he was immensely proud to have been assigned to that division.

05:27The Japanese fought to win.

05:30It was a savage, brutal, inhumane, exhausting, and dirty business.

05:37Our commanders knew that if we were to win and survive, we must be trained realistically

05:43for it, whether we liked it or not.

05:47The technology that developed the rifle barrel, the machine gun, and high explosive shells

05:52has turned war into prolonged subhuman slaughter.

05:59Men must be trained realistically if they are to survive it without breaking mentally

06:05and physically.

06:35Woo!

06:51On the morning of September 15th, under a massive naval bombardment,

06:56three Marine regiments head toward the beaches.

07:00Ahead wait 10,000 dug-in Japanese who have sworn to fight to the death.

07:12I broke out in a cold sweat as the tension mounted with the intensity of the bombardment.

07:20My stomach was tied in knots.

07:23I had a lump in my throat and swallowed only with difficulty.

07:28My knees nearly buckled, so I clung weakly to the side of the amphibian tractor.

07:34Huge geysers of water rose around the Amtraks ahead of us as they approached the reef.

07:41The beach was now marked along its length by a continuous sheet of flame,

07:45backed by a thick wall of smoke.

07:49It seemed as though a huge volcano had erupted from the sea,

07:53rather than heading for an island.

07:56We were being drawn into the vortex of a flaming abyss.

08:02For many, it was to be oblivion.

08:17My goal was to follow my fireteam leader, Bill Thompson.

08:23The entire squad of 13 was supposed to stay together.

08:29We hit the beach, running.

08:34He said, follow me.

08:37Follow me.

09:01People were getting hit all around us.

09:04But they said we had to keep going.

09:08We went on up about 30 or 40 more yards in a ditch.

09:14We were by ourselves, just two of us.

09:16We didn't know what happened to the other 11.

09:21The Japanese were on a coral ridge with caves dug out.

09:27They came out of those caves.

09:29The artillery that we had shot in there hadn't done anything to them.

09:33And they were firing down at us.

09:40We landed there with 50 in the second platoon, K-3-1.

09:46And that afternoon at 5 o'clock the same day, there were only 9 of us.

09:51They were not killed or wounded.

09:53The unfathomable savagery of Peleliu is just beginning to reveal itself.

10:02It will force the young, untested marines to go beyond courage,

10:07beyond what is deemed human.

10:10They will adapt and overcome unimaginable horrors

10:13against an enemy fortified in a fortress carved in history.

10:18Unimaginable horrors against an enemy fortified in a fortress

10:22carved into hell itself.

10:31Incoming!

10:35Incoming!

10:44Scared of a little...

10:48Assemble on foredeck for combat briefing in 14 minutes.

10:53All platoon leaders assemble on foredeck for combat briefing.

10:56General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area,

11:01has tasked the 1st Marine Division with capturing the island of Peleliu

11:05and its critical airfield.

11:07He believes the island poses an imminent threat

11:10to his coming invasion of the Philippines.

11:13His force commander speculates the assault will be fierce but brief.

11:18He is only half right.

11:31The first day we were ambushed,

11:36the death trap behind where I was,

11:39it looked like a morgue.

11:41Our commander had been killed,

11:44our maces was dead.

11:47Your dead friends lying around.

11:50Joe Gatto slept in the same tent I was in,

11:54had been shot through the eyes.

11:58When you see your buddies that you've become friends with

12:02lying around dead,

12:05was maybe the most horrifying part of the battle.

12:11But even that, it got worse.

12:17Also attempting to land on the fire-swept beach

12:21is Captain Hunt and his 228 men of K Company.

12:26As their Amtrak closes,

12:28they come under merciless gunfire

12:30from a terrifying feature of terrain

12:33known simply as The Point.

12:35Japanese engineers have selected a point of landscape

12:38that juts out into the sea

12:40as an overlook bringing the entire 2,500 meters

12:43of landing beach white

12:45under unbearable defensive fire.

12:48From thick concrete bunkers,

12:50mortars, machine guns

12:52and high-velocity artillery,

12:54the island has become a battlefield

12:57where the enemy can't escape.

12:59From thick concrete bunkers,

13:01mortars, machine guns

13:03and high-velocity anti-boat artillery

13:06unleash a point-blank massacre on the Marines.

13:14As the Amtraks come in,

13:17the Japanese open up.

13:29At one point,

13:31an aerial observer says,

13:33my God, there are at least 26 Amtraks

13:36burning in the water.

13:3826 Amtraks,

13:40there are at least 20 troops on each one of those.

13:43Do the math.

13:45There are at least 20 troops on each one of those.

13:47Do the math.

14:02Go, go, go!

14:06Straight out, I gotta go straight out.

14:08Go, go, go!

14:15Go, go, go!

14:19We've got the 10-mile right now

14:21and I'm getting ready to open up on the air.

14:23Down, down!

14:40So as they get in there,

14:42they take immediate casualties.

14:44He loses all his machine guns

14:46right off the bat.

14:49His lead platoon

14:51literally gets shot to pieces.

15:02The second platoon

15:04starts going ahead and they get caught

15:06in an anti-tank ditch.

15:08It looks like cover

15:10because they got this fire coming in

15:13and as they jump in this anti-tank ditch,

15:15the Japanese have a machine gun nest

15:17that covers the length

15:19of the ditch

15:21and so they gun them down.

15:25By this time

15:27of the 235 men,

15:29he's probably down to about 90.

15:31So he's had all those casualties

15:33and a lot of them are your unit leaders.

15:35Your corporals, your sergeants,

15:37your lieutenants.

15:39And so, who's leading

15:41these men ashore?

15:43It's the guy with the guts.

15:45It's the PFC that says

15:47I'm gonna do it.

16:02Here's King Company

16:04that is in the attack

16:06and they're slowly making progress.

16:11But now, Captain Hunt

16:13is down to about 30 men.

16:15Out of 235 men,

16:17he's got 30 or so

16:19with him right now.

16:21I can't imagine as a unit leader

16:23myself, all of a sudden

16:25going from 200 men

16:27to 30 men with all these

16:29casualties. What do you do with casualties?

16:31I mean, do you leave them?

16:33Well, you have to.

16:35To me,

16:37it was a case of survival.

16:39Mainly survival.

16:41Help as many other guys

16:43as I could get out of there.

16:45That was the main thing.

16:47In a place like that

16:49where you're under shelling,

16:51you couldn't do much for them there.

16:53I can't say enough for them.

16:55They're the best fighting bunch

16:57in the world as far as I'm concerned.

16:59But Peleliu,

17:01to me,

17:03meant

17:05when I survived Peleliu,

17:07I was living on borrowed time.

17:19After nearly six hours

17:21of nonstop fighting,

17:23K Company has taken the point.

17:25They have sustained

17:27over 80% casualties.

17:29At the top,

17:31Hunt counts some 400

17:33enemy dead. A sign

17:35on both sides of the high

17:37price to be paid for the critical point.

17:39But

17:41with daylight giving away to night,

17:43Hunt knows the ordeal

17:45is just beginning.

17:51The Japanese were a brutal

17:53take-no-prisoners

17:55kind of enemy.

17:57I can remember my father saying to me

17:59that they knew going in,

18:01the only way to beat them was to

18:03descend to that level.

18:09Captain Hunt knows the Japanese

18:11will spare no ferocity

18:13in counterattacking to retake their vital

18:15position.

18:19And now, with darkness falling,

18:21there will be little chance of reinforcements.

18:26Surrounded by hundreds,

18:28if not thousands of enemy soldiers,

18:32the exhausted, bleeding band of Marine

18:34brothers brace themselves

18:36for the fight to come.

18:38All 30 of them.

18:58Fire!

19:15The Japanese night counterattack

19:17has failed to take back their critical

19:19point from the exhausted

19:21and dogged 30 Marines of K

19:23Company.

19:25Their incredible effort

19:27has taken out the horrific enemy

19:29gunfire that was shredding

19:31their fellow Marines still coming ashore.

19:35Now, they must hold

19:37it to provide precious time

19:39for even more Marines to land.

19:46I'd always been a church

19:48kind of guy. Put God,

19:50family, country

19:52in that order.

19:54But you know, when you're getting ready

19:56to kill or be killed,

19:58your family and your

20:00God and your country

20:02may be put on the table.

20:06You're only thinking about

20:08the guy in front of you is the enemy.

20:12You're thinking about you and your buddy.

20:16You're thinking about

20:18killing and

20:20trying not to get killed

20:22and to help your fellow Marines.

20:26After 30 hours

20:28of relentless, brutal

20:30fighting,

20:32the expected walkover invasion

20:34of Peleliu has turned into

20:36a meat grinder.

20:56Fire!

20:58Fire!

21:00Fire!

21:02Fire!

21:04We are flanked!

21:26Despite

21:28the savage losses

21:30on the beachhead,

21:32with K Company

21:34holding the point,

21:36hundreds of Marines move

21:38off the beaches and advance

21:40toward their main target,

21:42the airfield.

21:46The airfield

21:48is now

21:50under fire.

21:52The airfield.

22:08We gotta move!

22:10We gotta move!

22:20As Marines close in on the critical

22:22airfield, the Japanese

22:24unleash a speeding horde

22:26of 18 tanks, leading

22:28infantry to meet the Marines

22:30head-on.

22:34They've had a bunch of

22:36tanks. I think somebody told

22:38me there was 18 of them.

22:40And what they did, they lined them up up there

22:42on the airfield, and they massed their troops

22:44behind them, and they was gonna shove us right back

22:46in the ocean. And they came at us.

22:48Well, boy, they couldn't have picked

22:50a worse time.

22:54Here they come, this counterattack

22:56coming right for us.

22:58I'm proud to say that every

23:00Marine who could possibly shoot

23:02shot.

23:08They just

23:10knocked the crap out of these

23:12Japanese tanks. Our medium

23:14tanks were firing.

23:16Rockets were firing.

23:18Machine guns.

23:22And just stopped

23:24it in its tracks.

23:38They

23:50couldn't tell how many tanks were in assault

23:52because they blew them to pieces.

23:54They just blew

23:56everything to pieces out there.

24:08The

24:22Marines, having stopped the initial thrust

24:24of the Japanese to protect their

24:26airfield, must now take it

24:28and hold it.

24:34Just ahead of the Marines

24:36is Umerbrugel, a dark

24:38forbidding fortress of ridges

24:40including a nightmare the Marines

24:42call Bloody Nose Ridge.

24:46It is a ghastly jumble of

24:48upthrust coral and limestone ridges,

24:50box canyons,

24:52natural caves and sheer

24:54cliffs.

24:56Every inch of it painstakingly

24:58fortified by their enemy.

25:06...

25:08...

25:10...

25:12...

25:14...

25:16...

25:18His unit started

25:20across.

25:24And I remember him describing to me

25:26the white hot coral

25:28and

25:30just the terror of being

25:32out in the open.

25:36...

25:38...

25:40...

25:42...

25:44...

25:46...

25:48...

25:50...

25:52...

25:54...

25:56...

25:58...

26:00...

26:02...

26:04To be an enemy, fire was a terrifying thing, but to be under heavy shell fire out in the

26:32open and without the ability to either get below ground or get under cover was terror

26:40compounded beyond the imagination.

27:10Five days after the attack began, the exhausted, dehydrated Marines secure Peleliu's airfield,

27:28paid for in Marine blood. Despite the horrendous casualties, the division commander, Major General

27:50William Rupertis, refuses the offer of his commanding officer, General Roy Geiger, to

27:56bring in Army reinforcements. Peleliu will be a Marine victory not to be shared. General

28:12Rupertis, determined to have his Marines secure the island, orders his exhausted men, resume

28:19attack with maximum effort in all sectors. But the ridged defenses and nightmare landscape

29:20With the news of the bloody attacks making its way to General Roy Geiger, he is shocked at the

29:26horrendous casualties. He immediately overrides Rupertis' initial refusal of reinforcements and

29:32rushes in Army units. But these units, too, are blunted by the same storms of metal on Bloody

29:50Nose Ridge, day after horrid day. The effort to secure the island is again bogged down as death

29:58drenches the battlefield. To those who entered the meat grinder itself, the war was another world

30:11of horror, from which escape seemed less and less likely, as casualties mounted and the fighting

30:18dragged on and on. Time had no meaning. Life had no meaning. The fierce struggle for survival in

30:42the Abyss of Peleliu had eroded the veneer of civilization and made savages of us all.

30:52With the critical airfield in American hands, there remains the bloody job of securing the

31:07rest of the island. The horrific task of digging out an adversary buried deep inside a treacherous

31:15maze of caves and tunnels is left to the ingenuity of the individual Marine. That goal, and survival

31:25itself, depends entirely on their ability to find new ways to kill an enemy protected within a

31:32subterranean fortress chiseled into hell.

31:43As the designer of HGTV Dream Home 2024, I...

31:52Despite the chaos of slaughter surrounding the young Marines, they have captured MacArthur's

31:57main objective, the critical airfield. Now, along with their armory counterparts, they must secure

32:04the island. The dirty, near-impossible task of routing out thousands of enemy troops buried in

32:11caves and canyons, determined to fight to the death, will not be done by the mighty fleet sitting

32:17offshore, but by the individual ingenuity and fierceness of the young Marines and soldiers.

32:27I didn't know I did that, I don't know where I'm from.

32:29You gotta hand it to me, huh?

32:30No, I didn't.

32:33Let's bump up.

32:34Everybody, with up!

32:35Copy, I got it.

32:47And, uh, we'll keep working with you guys.

32:49The rest of us will stay over here and stick together, okay?

32:58Okay.

33:17Fleet, keep moving!

33:20Fleet, four people on attraction. The rest of you, take six, over.

33:28You're attacking into the teeth of the enemy defenses.

33:34And you're losing man, after man, after man.

33:39Your unit leaders are gone.

33:42Who's left?

33:43It's the PFC with guts who says,

33:47screw it, I'm going forward.

33:49Who's left?

33:51It's the PFC with guts who says,

33:55screw it, I'm going forward.

34:11War in the Pacific and on Peleliu

34:15was of a primordial nature.

34:19I don't think most present-day Americans can even comprehend the level of hatred and

34:33anger that you have to have to survive and win a conflict like that.

34:49As I looked at the stains on the coral, I recalled some of the eloquent phrases of politicians

34:54and newsmen about how gallant it is for a man to shed his blood for his country, and

35:02to give his life's blood as sacrifice, and so on, and so on.

35:09The words seemed ridiculous.

35:16Only the flies benefited.

35:23I can remember my father talking about how one thing that he feared as much as being

35:29maimed physically was to lose his sanity.

35:35He came to this visceral decision that they might wound me, they might kill me, they might

35:43disfigure me for life, but I'm not going to let the Japanese drive me crazy.

35:57War is brutish, inglorious, and a terrible waste.

36:06The only redeeming factors were my comrades' incredible bravery, and their devotion to

36:14each other.

36:22Marine Corps training taught us to kill efficiently, and to try to survive, but it also taught

36:29us loyalty to each other, and love.

36:36The Vesperia Corps sustained us.

36:48After months of vicious non-stop fighting, the battle for Peleliu is far from over.

36:56While the relentless push and sacrifice of the young marines and soldiers have cleared

37:00large sections of the island, the long northern edge of Peleliu, thick with deeply dug-in

37:09enemy forces, remains a nightmare.

37:14To the withering, exhausted men who must dig them out, and the Japanese soldiers unwilling

37:19to surrender, there are but two ways off the island, death or victory.

37:39By mid-October, the bloodbath on Peleliu has devolved into a cruel marathon of horrors

37:59along the island's mountainous northern edge.

38:05Dug-in, concentrated groups of Japanese soldiers are determined to hold the island.

38:12Exhausted marines and soldiers slugging it out in daily deathmatches against an enemy

38:17sworn to fight to the bitter end, must break their enemy's resolve before the island and

38:24MacArthur's flank can be secured.

38:31The Japanese, at times, would purposely shoot a marine so as not to kill him, but just to

38:40wound him, knowing that four more guys would come out as a stretcher team.

38:54The Japanese opened up on stretcher bearers with everything they had.

39:20They would come out to surrender with a white flag, nothing on but shorts, and they'd come

39:26out, surrender, surrender, give up, give up, and they'd run right up to you.

39:29They'd pop both arms out, two grenades would fly off the bottom of their armpits and blow

39:32both of you up.

39:36So all you could do was shoot them when they'd come out like that.

39:39You just couldn't trust it.

39:44The defiant Japanese defenders have kept their oath to protect the island to the death.

39:50As the battle draws down, only a handful will be taken alive.

40:00Colonel Kunio Nakagawa, commander of the division's second regiment, proclaimed,

40:06Our sword is broken and we have run out of spears.

40:14He then burns his regimental colors and performs ritual suicide.

40:27On November 27th, after 73 days of nonstop fighting, the worn out marines and soldiers

40:35accomplished their mission.

40:38In a campaign originally thought to be a cakewalk, America's sons had endured, adapted,

40:44and overcome blistering heat, nightmarish fortifications, and an enemy fighting to the

40:50death, forever a band of brothers.

41:04We depended on each other as a brother, and we looked after each other, and we shared

41:10a lot of stories together.

41:12We were frightened together, but we fought together.

41:16Oh my God, what did I get into?

41:20If I had to do over again, I'd do the same thing.

41:24You get a real bond with them, and I've still got that bond, I've still got it, right now.

41:32One of us got on the ship going back, and they said, Marine, did you bring any souvenirs?

41:39And one of them said, yes, we brought our A-double-S back, he said, that's our souvenir.

41:54For 73 days, Eugene Sledge wrote about his experiences at Peleliu in the margins of a

42:00small Bible he kept at his side.

42:06Marines were not allowed to keep diaries in World War II, so he had this Bible with him,

42:12as most of them did.

42:14But this Bible is so significant to people that know the story, because he also kept

42:20notes in it, and on the pages here.

42:25As the years went by on nights, after when my brother and I were small kids, and we had

42:29gone to bed, he would sit up at night by the fireplace, and he wrote more and more

42:36detailed notes as he could remember things.

42:40It grew from there to eventually become, with the old breed, John Keegan referred to it

42:46as the most arresting document of wartime literature to come out of World War II.

42:57Now I can write this story, painful though it is to do so.

43:04In writing, I am fulfilling an obligation I have long left to my comrades in the First

43:09Marine Division, all of whom suffered so much for our country, none came out unscathed.

43:18Many gave their lives, many their health, and some their sanity.

43:27All who survived will long remember the horror they would rather forget.

43:41But they suffered, and they did their duty, so a sheltered homeland can enjoy the peace

43:47that was purchased at such high cost.

43:52We owe those Marines a profound debt of gratitude.

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