The United States and Japan were at war when this photograph of members of the 81st Infantry Wildcats was taken.
The battle of Peleliu happened between September and November 1944. The 1st Marine Division went in first, relieved by members of the Army's 81st Infantry Division. The small coral island in the South Pacific looked innocuous, but was honeycombed with fortifications, caves, troops. The battle raged for more than two months. Peleliu had the highest casualty rate of any battle in the Pacific War (ratio of men involved and casulties.)
Leyte, then and now.
Above, Walter J. Gawel of the 81st Infantry parked his Jeep in front of the building depicted in this image - a building that may be the Provincial Capitol Building, Tacloban City, Leyte, Phillipines (look carefully, the Army Jeep appears in the center foreground of the vintage photo). A current image is shown just below.
(To see more about this area today, visit http://www.taclobanhotels.com/HOME.htm)
And here's a close-up of the Jeep and its young driver.
History waits in shoeboxes around the world. Photographs brought home, given to sons and daughters, some tossed out casually, others kept in a stack inside a hall closet.
Those photographs document time and accomplishments of young men and women called away to war in the 1940s.
Anyone lucky enough to have a parent who can identify the people and place (or who have written identifications on the reverse of the pictures) should get out the tape recorder and take time to listen. The first-person accounts can add depth and detail to history - ask about photographs, query who the people are who appear in the photos.
The photo above shows Japanese Zeroes shot down on an unidentified airstrip. There's more photos to feature here in days to come.
For more about the 81st and where they went - Leyte, Angaur, New Caledonia - or fought during WW II, see Wikipedia.
Editor's note: By the way, that's my dad, Walter Gawel, who took these images and appears in many of them. He did not talk much ever about his time in the service and he is gone now. My brother, also Walter Gawel, thankfully saved the collection and brought them to light to reveal this history. Credit goes to him for keeping them safe and providing many details.
Photo collection, Walter Gawel, Meriden, Connecticut, USA.
