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The 1st Marine Division took part in four campaigns in WWII. Guadalcanal, Cape Gloucester, Peleliu and Okinawa. Individual Marines were often rotated home after three campaigns, so only a small percentage of personnel were in all of them.

There was little fighting on Cape Gloucester, but it was very miserable. It rained continuously, and more Marines were killed by trees falling than by the enemy.

Peleliu and Okinawa were as bad as any campaigns the Marines were involved in during the war. By the time of Okinawa there were six divisions of Marines, and three of them were on Okinawa (1st, 5th and 6th) while the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Divisions were on Iwo Jima. Iwo Jima was an all Marine operation though. Okinawa was big enough that it was the only place outside the Philippines in the Pacific where the US deployed an entire field army, with the rest of the US 10th Army troops being US Army soldiers. Okinawa was the prewar home of the Japanese Artillery School, and they had every inch of it registered for fire. There were places where your life expectancy was measured in seconds.

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Q: What is the battle history of the first marine division in World War 2?
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