One of the bloodiest battles in Marine Corps history, Operation Stalemate, as Peleliu was called, was overshadowed by the Normandy landings. It was also, in time, judged by most historians to have been unnecessary; though it had been conceived to protect MacArthur's flank in the Philippines, the US fleet's carrier raids had eliminated Japanese airpower, rendering Peleliu irrelevant. Nevertheless, the horrifying number of casualties sustained there foreshadowed the rest of the war: Rather than fight to the death on the beach, the Japanese would now defend in depth and bleed the Americans white.

Drawing extensively on personal interviews, the Marine Corps History Division's vast oral history and photographic collection, and many never-before-published sources, this book gives us a new and harrowing vision of what really happened at Peleliu - and what it meant. Working closely with two of the First Regiment's battalion commanders - Ray Davis and Russ Honsowetz - Marine Corps veteran and military historian Dick Camp recreates the battle as it was experienced by the men and their officers.