Review: Operation Stalemate by Daniel Wrinn

Operation Stalemate by Daniel Wrinn

Operation Stalemate is the story of the grinding battle to take the island of Peleilu in the Pacific Theater during World War II. On Peleilu, Allied forces encountered a highly motivated enemy which had learned the lessons of their early Pacific Theater losses and was determined to make the Allies pay for every inch of ground they took. Wrinn gets into the heads of the Japanese commanders and shows how they developed their plans to stall the allies and make the price in human life as high as possible. Then he gets into the heads of the marines and shows them struggle to get out of a killing box and eliminate the Japanese threat. The cost was tremendously high. The battle, often described as a siege, was a long and grueling one. And while the Allies were victorious, victory was so hard won that it didn’t come with the feeling of triumph that accompanied the other battles Wrinn has recounted. Perhaps that’s why he chose to end the book by showing the actual tactical and strategic and even accidental importance that Peleilu assumed for the rest of the war. This included hosting the airfield from which the scout plane that discovered the crew of the famous Indianapolis, as they tried to survive in the water after their battleship was sunk on the return voyage from delivering its cargo of atomic weapons.