Peleliu

Brought to you by Penguin. An in-depth exploration of one of the little known battles of World War II. It began as a routine attempt by the US to take a small and negligibly strategic airstrip on a remote island in the Pacific and ended up as a blood-soaked battle of over two months which left tens of thousands dead and a scar on the American drive to victory. It is to the Pacific War what Passchendaele was to the Western Front in WW1. In the pivotal battle between the Americans and the Imperial Japanese Army, both sides would learn invaluable lessons that would prove vital in the battles that would follow - in Iwo Jima, Okinawa and, ultimately, in the final days of the Pacific War. This book would be the first to explore this battle in any detail, drawing upon never-before-translated Japanese language sources that provide an account of the battle thus far unknown to the West. And like the best single battle narratives, will shed light on the macrocosm of how the war in the East was fought, which ultimately necessitated (in the US’ mind) the detonation of two atomic bombs. © Aaron Young 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026