War against the United States continued to deteriorate, the Supreme War Council began transferring forces out of Manchukuo to the southern operational areas. The 14th Division under the command of Lieutenant General Sadae Inoue was assigned to Palau 24 April 1944, with its 2nd regiment and 3rd battalion of 15th regiment were sent to the island of Peleliu, one battalion of its 59th Infantry Regiment stationed on the island of Angaur, and the rest of the 59th regiment and 15th regiment were sent to the Babeldaob island along with divisional headquarters. Before departure, the infantry regiments were reorganized, absorbing divisional engineers, artillery, transport and reconnaissance units. The loss of machine cannon company during transportation also has resulted in abandonment of the plans to deploy a newly created 22nd independent mixed engineer regiment to the western New Guinea. The subsequent Battle of Peleliu and Battle of Angaur were among the fiercest of the Pacific War. At Angaur, 1338 of the 1400 defenders were killed, and at Peleliu, 10,695 of the 11,000 defenders perished from 15 September 1944 to 24 November 1944. As the troops on Peleliu were wiped out, the transfer of the 2nd battalion of 15th regiment to Peleliu was cancelled. The Babeldaob was never invaded, but the units stationed there have suffered severe casualties due airstrikes and starvation nonetheless. See also List of Japanese Infantry Divisions Reference and further reading Madej, W. Victor. Japanese Armed Forces Order of Battle, 1937-1945 2 vol. Allentown, PA; 1981 Gutman, Anatoly. Ella Lury Wiswell (trans.); Richard A. Pierce (ed.) The Destruction of Nikolaevsk-on-Amur, An Episode in the Russian Civil War in the Far East, 1920. Limestone Press (1993). This article incorporates material from the Japanese Wikipedia page 第14師団 (日本軍), accessed 16 February 2016. Notes Japanese World War II divisions Infantry divisions of Japan Military units and formations established in 1905 Military units and formations disestablished in 1944 1905 establishments in Japan 1944 disestablishments in Japan