Some numbers, to offer a flavour of what Sledge went through. (This attack) was the worst combat experience I had during the entire war." Of a Marine advance across an airfield there, Sledge writes: “To be shelled by massed artillery and mortars is absolutely terrifying, but to be shelled in the open is terror compounded beyond the belief of anyone who hasn’t experienced it. The battle lasted till the end of November. The Americans began their assault there in mid-September 1944. Peleliu, where Sledge fought, is about 10km long and 4km wide. American soldiers had to attack and overpower each of these one-by-one, then repeat on the next island. For on each island, the Japanese set up big guns and dug themselves into heavily fortified concrete bunkers.
This meant some of the War’s most brutal, bloody fighting.
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