Archives Branch: Campaign Collections
Official records documenting the Marine Corps' involvement in various campaigns.
Peleliu (Caroline Islands)
Official Documents from Peleliu
Documents include operation plans, operation orders, field orders, intelligence reports, action reports, administrative orders, captured Japanese documents, official correspondence, field messages, studies, and memoranda concerning operations on Peleliu.
Documents were produced by the III Marine Amphibious Corps and the 1st Marine Division during Operation Forager and Operation Stalemate II, June - November 1944.
If you have any questions about these collections, please contact the Archives at (703) 784-4685 or history.division@usmcu.edu.
- Peleliu box listThis box list comprises official record copies of operation plans, after action reports, and other documents from the Peleliu campaign.
Peleliu Photographs
The Archives Branch maintains a Flickr page dedicated to showcasing photographs found in our collections that are relevant to the study of Peleliu campaign during World War II.
Please note that some of the photographs found on our Flickr pages are considered public domain and have been cleared for release. While some imagery is public domain, any use of such imagery from this site must be attributed to the Marine Corps or the photographer. Photographs may not be used to deface the reputation of the Marine Corps, its personnel, or policies. Additionally, some imagery on this site may fall under copyright protection, such as imagery from personal photo collections. Please contact us for more information regarding copyright restrictions for these images.
- Peleliu Photographs on the Archives Branch FlickrSelections of Peleliu photographs from the collections of the Archives Branch
Monographs and publications from the Marine Corps History Division
Available as full-text, searchable PDFs from the Government Publishing Office or usmc.mil.
- "Bloody Beaches: The Marines at Peleliu"by Brigadier General Gordon D. Gayle, USMC
On 15 September 1944, five infantry battalions of the 1st Marine Division's 1st, 5th, and 7th Marines lumbered across 600-800 yards of coral reef on Peleliu. That westward anchor of the 1,000-mile-long Caroline archipelago was viewed by some US planners as obstacles to continued advances against Japan's Pacific empire. - "The Assault on Peleliu"by Major Frank O. Hough, USMCR
As initially conceived, seizure of Peleliu would constitute only one phase of a many-sided operation (designated Operation Stalemate) against the western Caroline Islands, embracing at one time or another capture of all the Palaus group, Yap and Ulithi. Subsequent revisions of the original plan, however, raised Peleliu from a secondary target to the primary one, precipitating one of the most bitterly contested campaigns in the Pacific Theater.