Trip to Palau and Peleliu

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The Palauans requested that the bodies be removed after the war.

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The plants spell U S A.

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what it looked like after the battle. Notice the chapel in back ground.

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There are the remains of a chapel on the site which was destroyed by a typhoon sometime after the war.

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interesting details on the wall

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After the 81st Division memorial we race across the airfield, or whats left of it. This airfield was the reason why the Americans felt it was important to take Peleliu. As it turned out, the entire Peleliu campaign, which was supposed to take three days and lasted three months, in hindsight was not necessary. As it turned out, the island’s strategic value was questionable. And, the Americans casualty rate was very high. It exceeded that of all other amphibious operations during the Pacific War. The National Museum of the Marine Corps called it "the bitterest battle of the war for the Marines". The airfield is no longer usable for fixed wing aircraft. However, there is a helipad that was built when the Emperor of Japan visited in April, 2015.

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nothing landing here except choppers.

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And speaking of the Emperor, Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko visited Palau and Peleliu back in April 2015 to mourn the war dead. Here they are after landing on that helipad at the Peleliu Peace Memorial Park.

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and at the 81st Division memorial to honor American war dead.

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and overlooking Orange Beach 2.

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Found another at the Peleliu Peace Memorial Park as Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko bow their heads towards Angaur Island.

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The informal attire of Akihito is in striking difference with that wore by his father the disgraced Hirohito.

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ORIGINAL: Mark VII

What is this?

Japanese amphib tank ( the best of the war).

Don't ask me for numbers, type 1 or something like.

[CaptBeefheart]

Great photos and thanks for posting this. I hope you had some Red Rooster beer there. The head brewer of Palau Brewing Co. until recently is a buddy of mine.

I did the Truk Aggressor in 1998, which dive tour I can heartily recommend to all players of this game. I've been meaning to get to Palau ever since.

Cheers,
CC

[Kull]

Sobering stuff, thanks for posting this.

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I am not a beer drinker(bourbon) but my wife tried it at a lunch or dinner an liked the Red Rooster.

We rode the Rock Islands Aggressor for a week and they have a great crew, would highly recommend them if you get to Palau. Many on our trip who had done other Aggressors thought this boat to be the best they had been on. Our first live aboard, it was nice. They also offer a half day land trip to Peleliu later in the week. We also dove Orange Beach.

When diving I mostly shoot video, we tried to dive several Jap ship wrecks but vis was horrible. Iro Maru....you could see the faint outline of another diver 4 feet away. It was like diving our local quarry, just a brown mask ever where. Chuyo Maru, vis better but still couldn't get much of a wide shot. The Jake seaplane we dove on a charter before the live aboard was also murky. I will post those pics soon as that was after our trip first trip to Peleliu. German Channel not great and Blue Corner was average, maybe a 100 feet vis but not clear like when we were in Fiji. I did get a coupe of nice shark shots. just bad luck with the water conditions.

We would go again.

ORIGINAL: Commander Cody

Great photos and thanks for posting this. I hope you had some Red Rooster beer there. The head brewer of Palau Brewing Co. until recently is a buddy of mine.

I did the Truk Aggressor in 1998, which dive tour I can heartily recommend to all players of this game. I've been meaning to get to Palau ever since.

Cheers,
CC

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Back to the tour...
Coming off the North end of the runway we find two Marine LVT's. We were getting behind schedule so we took photo's from the bus.

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This is a LVT-A4. Armed with a 75mm howitzer, one 50 cal and two 30cal machine guns.