The capture of this small coral airstrip was the official reason for the entire battle. Sixteen days of fighting cost the Marines around 1,500 dead before the field was secured; the planes that flew from it were never seriously needed. The runway is still in use as Peleliu's tiny civil airport, with one or two flights a week.
The bombed-out shells of the original Japanese hangars sit at the edge of the strip — concrete shells stripped to their reinforcing bars by sixteen-inch shells from the offshore battleships. Worth a stop on the way south.