Down on the island’s southern lowlands, the rear-echelon engineering and logistics forces were already hard at work converting Peleliu into an advanced operating base. Three navy construction battalions (“Seabees”) had come ashore on D plus 3. They had improvised an ingenious quarter-mile-long causeway made of pontoon barges, allowing vehicles to drive directly out of the LSTs and over the reefs to Orange Beach. By D plus 4, the airfield and bivouac areas were teeming with trucks and bulldozers.
