The Desperate WWII Island Fight that Went Unnoticed

On maps of the Pacific, it’s barely visible––a mere, seemingly insignificant speck in a vast ocean. Its name––unlike Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Iwo Jima, Okinawa––is virtually unknown today. Yet, in the autumn of 1944, Angaur Island became another hard-fought piece of real estate in a war that propelled so many previously unknown pieces of real estate into places of strategic importance until they quickly faded from the public’s consciousness.