10-281 Garand Picture of the Day Dec 14

[Snafu]

Marines using rifle grenades, hand grenades, and "Molotov cocktails" battle Japanese holed up in caves in northern Peleliu. Note the torch in the foreground which was used to ignite the "cocktails" and the flaming bottle of gas ready to be thrown.
Department of Defense Photo (USMC) 95375
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[Allen Humphrey]

Pictures like that serve to remind you of how close to the enemy they were. You can't lob a Coke bottle very far in that type of overgrowth. Seems like a lot of the pictures from Peleliu show bayonets fixed. Probably a function of how much natural cover there was.

[Bob Seijas]

Peleliu was supposed to be a piece of cake, take three days. As we know, it was one of the fiercest battles the Marines had to fight. Worse, it was probably unnecessary, should have been bypassed and the enemy just starved out.