1. Barrett Gallagher, USNR

A FOUR-TIME VICTIM OF JAP AIR ACTION, THE U.S.S. INTREPID HAS AGAIN RETURNED TO THE THICK OF THE PACIFIC BATTLE

November 25, 1944

Four times the USS Intrepid has been battered into flames by Jap air action, and four times the big Essex-class carrier has returned to rain more destruction upon the enemy. In 15 months of combat operation, the Intrepid's guns and planes have sunk 80 ships and destroyed 650 aircraft. That she is the most frequently hit carrier in the U.S. Navy makes this record even more incredible. Firefighters almost hidden by smoke turn hoses on dozens of small fires started by bombs from the suicide planes which crashed the USS Intrepid, November 25, off the coast of Luzon. About 60 men died in the blasts from these hits.

2. Ferman H. Dixon, USMC

TANK ALTAR

July, 1944

Navy Chaplain O. David Herrmann, of Omaha, Neb., attached to a Marine unit on Saipan, uses a destroyed Japanese tank for an altar as he holds services for the dead. Casualties in this campaign were triple those of the battle of Tarawa.

3. Robert A. Bailey, USMC

UNDER THE "DUCK'S" WING

September, 1944

With two of their amphibious tractors burning in the background, the result of direct hits by Japanese artillery, Marines of the famed First Division crawl to the shelter of the stern of a 'duck' [amphibious truck], on the beach at Peleliu in the Palau Islands.

4. Max Roemer, USMC

PELELIU CLEANUP

September, 1944

The do-or-die remnants of the Jap forces on Peleliu have to be cleaned out of strong positions in caves and dugouts in the many ridges of the island. Here Marine infantrymen, supported by tanks move up a small draw to attack enemy nests in the hillside. The smoke at left marks the blast of a shell fired by one of the tanks.

5. Unidentified U.S. Navy photographer

WAR MAKES A SHAMBLES OF CHERBOURG

June, 1944

Battered almost completely to the ground, the railroad station of Cherbourg is typical of the condition of much of the strategic French port following devastating Allied land and Naval bombardments loosed upon the city during the battle for its possession. In the center of the picture is the shattered tower of the station.

6. Arthur Green, USCGR

BUT YOU DON'T HAVE TO COME BACK

1944

A Coast Guardsman is killed at his battle station. His ship blasted by enemy fire, this twisted and lifeless body symbolizes the sacrifice that American youth is making for Europe's liberation. An American youth thousands of miles from his home. Dying at his post, this boy represents the blunt expression of a Coast Guardsman's duty in peacetime as in war: 'You have to go out, but you don't have to come back.'

Government censors did not release photographs of American war dead until September 1943. After this, pictures of Americans killed in action could be published so long as their faces were not visible.

7. Victor Jorgensen, USNR

WAITING

June, 1944

Captain Stuart H. Ingersoll (left) skipper on a carrier in Task Force 58, waiting in the pilots' ready room for the first word to come over the inter-plane system of his bomber pilots at this moment heading for Tinian on D-Minus-4-Day, June 11, 1944.

8. Unidentified U.S. Navy photographer

ADVANCING UNDER FIRE

February, 1944

“U.S. Marines crawl forward in a shallow ditch, their goal a smoke-shrouded Japanese pillbox on Kwajalein from which the entrenched foe aims a steady stream of fire. Stumps of trees and widely strewn debris testify to the power of the devastating pre-invasion bombardment, January 31 – February 1, 1944.

9. Unidentified U.S. Navy photographer

LANDING AT HUMBOLT BAY

November, 1944

First wave of American troops in LCPs [Landing Craft -Personnel] on way to White Beach, Humbolt Bay, New Guinea. Meeting little opposition, they moved quickly inland to Hollandia, April 22, 1944.

10. Unidentified U.S. Marine Corps photographer

TARAWA

November, 1943

U.S. Marines storming Betio's airport in the attack on Tarawa as they go over the top of a coconut log retaining wall, crouching low and firing until it is their turn to go through. This photograph was taken from the water's edge and gives some idea of the small strip of beach — only twenty feet wide at this point where Marines operated the first day.

11. Unidentified U.S. Navy photographer

TARAWA

November, 1943

Marines charging in on Tarawa against enemy cross fire that swept the palms like a tropical hurricane. The Leathernecks advanced until four thousand of Tojo's toughest fighters were wiped out.

12. Unidentified U.S. Coast Guard photographer

PUSHING IN A JEEP

December 26, 1943

A Jeep from a Coast Guard-manned LST [Landing Ship — Tank] being pushed ashore through the surf at Cape Gloucester, New Britain, by Coast Guard and Marines, December 26, 1943.

13. James Hinds, USMC

BANZAI CHARGE IN REVERSE

April, 1945

Contrary to the Japanese policy of dying for the Emperor, these Sons of Heaven charge up an Okinawa hillside to surrender after they were flushed from their hiding place by Marine forces. Note the tail-end-Charlie toting the flag of truce.

14. Unidentified U.S. Navy photographer

HELLCAT WINGS HOME FROM FRANCE

August, 1944

In an impressive 'black and white' photograph, a Navy Grumman Hellcat is guided to a landing aboard the deck of its carrier by the signal officer in the early morning of D-Day in southern France.

15. Norris G. McElroy, USMC

ONE DOWN AND MORE TO GO

April, 1945

Advancing Marines sidestep as they pass the body of a Jap soldier killed in the fighting at southern Okinawa. Leatherneck units are coordinating with Army troops in the drive on the capitol city of Naha, desperately defended by the enemy garrison.

16. James Carroll, USMC

PILLBOX EXTERMINATORS

July, 1944

A Marine, (extreme left), uses a flame thrower to burn the enemy out of a hidden pillbox on Guam. Although the Japs were surrounded by Marines, they refused to surrender.

17. Angus Robertson, USMC

HURLING

July, 1944

Marines, assaulting Japanese entrenched in front of them on Saipan, hurl hand grenades at the enemy. One Leatherneck has just sent his missile on its way (upper center of the picture) and another draws back his arm for the throw.

18. Official U.S. Navy photograph

ANOTHER FOR DAVEY JONES

November, 1942

A Japanese merchantman lists heavily to the starboard after being struck by a torpedo fired by the U.S. submarine from which this periscope picture was snapped. It later went to the bottom to add another link in the chain of blows U.S. submarines are delivering against Rising Sun supply lines.

19. Earl K. Swenson, USMC

DEATH IN THE MORNING

August, 1942

The rising sun reveals the bodies of Japanese jungle fighters, half buried in the tidal sands of the Tenaru River where they fell in their vicious night attempt to dislodge the U.S. Marines from Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.

20. Unidentified U.S. Navy photographer

PLASMA ON GUAM

July, 1944

Navy hospital corpsmen tenderly lowering seriously wounded Marine PFC. Arthur Norris Robison, 20, to the ground at a first aid station on Guam on July 28, 1944, D-Day for the Marines who stormed the Jap bastion. Already one man has started to write the tag setting forth Robison's injuries, condition and care given.

21. Unidentified U.S. Navy photographer

SCENES SHORTLY AFTER D-DAY, MULBERRY

June, 1944

Germans and American dead waiting to be buried. Dog Red Beach.

Allied commanders planning the invasion of France divided the Normandy beachhead into sectors assigned to the different Allied forces. Mulberry was one of the American sectors; Dog Red Beach was a landing site in Mulberry sector.

22. John A. Mooney, USNR

NAVY ROCKET-FIRING HELLCATS WRECK NAZI TRAIN

July, 1944

Flames burst from the locomotive of this Nazi train following an attack west of Carcassone, France, by a U.S. Navy rocket-firing Hellcat (F6F). The pilot, Ensign John A. Mooney, USNR, of Rochester, N.Y., swooped back to take this picture following his strike.

23. Unidentified U.S. Navy photographer

ANZIO: STRUGGLE FOR THE BEACHHEAD

February, 1944

Paying a high toll in its desperate endeavor to win a victory, the Nazi Wehrmacht yields many prisoners, sheds much blood in counterattacking Allied positions on the Anzio beachhead below Rome…His thoughts far away — probably in the Fatherland — this Nazi prisoner of war presents a forlorn sight as he awaits shipment to a prison camp.

24. W. Eugene Smith

WOUNDED, DYING INFANT FOUND BY AMERICAN SOLDIERS IN SAIPAN MOUNTAINS

June, 1944

Abandoned infant is tenderly lifted up by the American soldier who found it lying wedged head down in the earth. Naked and diseased, the baby was sent straight on to a front-line hospital for care.

W. Eugene Smith participated in 13 island invasions in the Pacific as a photographer for LIFE magazine before he was severely wounded on Okinawa by enemy mortar fire. Smith's original caption was revised by the censor because it was too bitter. One of the most emotionally engaged photographers documenting the war, Smith wrote with the cynicism of an experienced combat veteran: A baby was found with its head under a rock. Its head was lopsided and its eyes were masses of pus. Unfortunately, it was alive. We hoped that it would die.

25. Unidentified U.S. Navy photographer

BURNING OIL

December 7, 1941

Streaming from shattered fuel tanks, oil turned parts of Pearl Harbor into a sea of flame following the Japanese attacks. This picture was taken from near the Naval Air station boat landing. Barely visible through the smoke are a damaged U.S. battleship and the capsized U.S.S. Oklahoma.

26. Unidentified U.S. Navy photographer

NAZIS ABANDON SUB

ca. 1944

Forty-four survivors of this U-boat were picked up as they thrashed about in the water beside the sinking ship.

27. Unidentified U.S. Navy photographer

INTERIOR DAMAGE CAUSED BY KAMIKAZE ATTACK

1945

This picture gives a good idea of the damage caused below decks by a successful Kamikaze attack on a carrier in the Pacific. The men are still fighting stubborn fires started by the suicide plane's bombs.

28. Unidentified U.S. Navy photographer

INVASION OF IWO JIMA

February, 1945

At 9 a.m. the first wave of Amtracs [amphibious tractors] streamed into Iwo Jima. An hour later big Japanese guns on Mt. Suribachi (left) pinned the Marines to the beach and cut off all reinforcement.

29. Unidentified U.S. Marine Corps photographer

WOUNDED RESCUED

1944

This is how heroes are made — and why impregnable Betio was taken after only 76 bloody hours. Two Marines braved the withering cross fire of the Japs to leave their trench and rescue a fallen buddy under the very nose and well within aim of enemy snipers on all sides.

30. Unidentified U.S. Navy photographer

BOMBING TRUK

February, 1944

Plumes of smoke testify to the accuracy of U.S. Navy bombers during the raid on Truk of February 16 and 17, 1944. The bombs seen falling are following their predecessors into the target area in the Jap installation on Truk.

31. Unidentified U.S. Navy photographer

TANKS CROSS KWAJELEIN AIRFIELD

February, 1944

On February 2nd, after previous carrier attacks and battleship bombardments, landings were made on Roi, Namur and Kwajalein in the Marshalls. By February 5th our troops (Seventh Division, U.S. Army) had captured the island. The entire atoll was in our hands by the 8th. Tanks charged across the airfield at Kwajalein to oust the Japs from trenches and foxholes. In the foreground, Japs in trenches fire at U.S. tanks which are driving them into the sea. Many destroyed Jap planes can be seen littering the ground and Jap gas tanks appear along the shore line. Behind the Japs can be seen the anti-tank barriers which were to prevent us from invading. To oust Japs, our tanks re-formed after first charge.

32. Unidentified U.S. Navy photographer

FINAL BARRAGE AGAINST MANILA

February 23, 1945

The final barrage against Manila, February 23, 1945, paved the way for liberation of the capital of the Philippines. A heavy column and pall of smoke from fires set by shells obliterate most of the city, while in contrast, brilliant sunlight splashes the relatively peaceful setting of burned and blasted-out buildings along the quay in the foreground.

33. Unidentified U.S. Navy photographer

[AERIAL VIEW OF A BATTLE AT SEA]

June, 1944

First battle of the Philippine Sea (off Saipan, June 20, 1944): a portion of the Japanese fleet pauses in flight to writhe and twist under attack by carrier planes of Task Force 58.

34. Unidentified U.S. Navy photographer

FIRST BATTLE OF THE PHILIPPINE SEA

June, 1944

Lt. (j.g.) Alexander Vraciu, USNR, of Chicago, Illinois, signifies he shot down six Japanese planes in this battle, June, 1944.

35. Unidentified U.S. Navy photographer

[A NAVY PILOT CONFERS WITH HIS DECK CREW]

ca. 1943

There are no notes for this image.

36. Unidentified U.S. Navy photographer

WOUNDED IN WARDROOM

1945

Casualties of the Second Battle of the Philippine Sea receive medical treatment in the wardroom of a carrier which has been converted into a sick bay to handle emergencies. Of the Navy wounded who lived to receive treatment, 98 out of 100 survived, thanks to the unheralded devotion of the 'medics'.

37. Edward Steichen, USNR

ABOARD THE U.S.S. LEXINGTON: PREPARING FOR THE STRIKE ON KWAJELEIN

1943

Edward Steichen, one of America's most respected photographers when World War II began, headed a special photographic unit of the United States Navy. Commissioned a Lieutenant-Commander, he was the highest ranking military photographer of the war. Steichen's unit served in the Pacific and produced a large body of technically refined pictures dramatizing the Navy at war.

38. Unidentified U.S. Navy photographer

[EXPLOSION ON DECK OF AIRCRAFT CARRIER]

ca. 1944

A Philippine-based kamikaze pilot made a funeral pyre for himself amid planes parked on the stern of the light carrier 'Belleau Wood'.

39. Unidentified U.S. Navy photographer

ROCKET BURST, PELELIU

September, 1944

One of the Pacific fleet's landing craft launches an attack against the beaches of Peleliu in the Palau group on D-Day, September 15, 1945, preceding landings by troops of the First Marine Division.

40. Victor Jorgensen, USNR

PVT. J.B. SLAGLE RECEIVES HIS DAILY DRESSING OF WOUNDS ON BOARD THE U.S.S. SOLACE EN ROUTE FROM OKINAWA TO GUAM

May, 1945

Because only quick treatment could save many wounded men in the desperate island fighting of the Pacific, the hospital ships nosed under blasting guns into the beachheads while the battles raged. At night, they withdrew to open water, their huge red-lighted crosses blazing against the water. Each morning, they returned with the dawn to the beaches and the wounded. Here, a machine-gunned soldier undergoes his daily redressing aboard the U.S.S. Solace, en route from Okinawa to Guam.

41. Unidentified U.S. Navy photographer

ANOTHER CLOSE ONE

ca. 1945

Anti-aircraft gunners on board watch a Zero bore in on Admiral William F. Halsey's flagship, the U.S.S. Missouri, somewhere in the Pacific. A moment later, using one of the two principal Kamikaze tactics — a water skimming approach with a sudden climb and dive just before hitting the target — the plane flew over this gun battery and hit the superstructure, starting a small fire.

42. Ray R. Platnick, USCGR

COFFEE FOR ENIWETOK SURVIVORS

1944

These Marines, begrimed and weary from two days and two nights of fighting, are typical of the conquerors of Eniwetok Atoll.

43. Wayne Miller, USNR

WOUNDED GUNNER

November, 1943

Kenneth Bratton is lifted from the turret of a torpedo-bomber on his return to the U.S.S. Saratoga. By applying a tourniquet to his leg, Bratton had remained conscious, and helped to fight off attacking Japanese planes.

44. Robert Frederick Read, USN

JAPANESE BOMB HITS FLIGHT DECK OF U.S.S. ENTERPRISE

August, 1942

The film from his camera was saved, but this unique and famous picture cost the photographer his life.

45. Victor Jorgensen, USNR

ENSIGN V.A. PRATHER, IN CHARGE OF THE U.S.S. LEXINGTON'S FLIGHT DECK CREWS, DIRECTS CREWMEN AS THEY PUSH A DAMAGED PLANE OUT OF THE WAY

May, 1943

There are no notes for this image.

46. Unidentified U.S. Navy photographer

LAST HONORS

1945

The Navy pays tribute to its dead and gives them last honors in the tradition of men who go to sea. Officers and men of a U.S. carrier stand at attention beside the bodies of shipmates killed in the Second Battle of the Philippine Sea.

47. Obie Newcomb, Jr., USMCR

BLOOD PLASMA AND WHOLE BLOOD- NAVY DOCTORS AND CORPSMEN TREAT MARINES ON IWO JIMA

February, 1945

Some of the most heroic moments of the war were valiant attempts by Naval doctors and corpsmen to save lives of the wounded and to do everything possible to relieve the anguish of all who needed assistance.

48. W. J. Forsythe, USCGR

MUNITIONS EXPLODE ON U.S. CARGO SHIP FOLLOWING HIT BY NAZI DIVE BOMBERS- SICILIAN INVASION

1943

Munitions explode on U.S. cargo ship following hit by Nazi dive bombers- Sicilian invasion, 1943. A photographer caught this picture from the deck of a Coast Guard-manned combat transport. Fire started by bombs dropped amidships spread rapidly to the ship's munitions supply, which exploded to make this dangerous though picturesque scene.

49. Unidentified U.S. Navy photographer

EXPLOSION ON DESTROYER SHAW, PEARL HARBOR

December 7, 1941

Bombed inside the floating dry dock, the destroyer Shaw blows up in fiery thundercloud. At right, fires outline turrets of battleship Nevada.

50. Unidentified U.S. Navy photographer

PILOTS AWAIT THE CALL

1944

Pilots await the call to man their planes as Task Force 58 scours the seas off Saipan for the fleeing Jap fleet.

51. Unidentified U.S. Coast Guard photographer

UNDERNEATH DROPPING BOMBS

September, 1943

U.S. Coast Guardsmen and Navy beach battalion men are shown hugging the shaking beach at Paestum, just north of Salerno, as a Nazi bomber unloads on them. In the background of the photograph — one of the most outstanding of the war — debris from a bomb hit can be seen in the air. Coast Guardsmen said this was much worse than the Sicilian and North African invasions, in which the Coast Guard also participated.

52. Unidentified U.S. Coast Guard photographer

TAXIS TO HELL—AND BACK—INTO THE JAWS OF DEATH

June 6, 1944

American invaders spring from the ramp of a Coast Guard-manned landing barge to wade those last perilous yards to the beach of Normandy. Enemy fire will cut some of them down. Their 'taxi' will pull itself off the sands and dash back to a Coast Guard manned transport for more passengers.

53. Unidentified U.S. Coast Guard photographer

TWO MARINES FALL IN STORMING BEACH ON SAIPAN

July, 1944

Jap snipers, hiding in the thickets, hit two Marines (center and left) toppling them into the sand as a landing party storms ashore in final mop-up operations in the final stages of the conquest of Saipan, Jap stronghold in The Marianas.

54. Unidentified U.S. Coast Guard photographer

TEACHING JERRY OUR LANGUAGE

June, 1944

A Coast Guardsman and an Army medic interview a German Warrant Officer (right) who was captured in the storming of the southern French coast on D-Day.

55. Unidentified U.S. Coast Guard photographer

NEAR NUFF WITH THAT SHRAPNEL STUFF

June, 1944

Shrapnel punched this hole in the helmet of Coast Guardsman Charles W. Tyner, Fireman First Class, of Portsmouth, Va. It was one of those things. Tyner received only a 'superficial scratch.' It happened in the invasion of southern France.

The Coast Guard was an integrated service in World War II and pictures by Coast Guard photographers are among the few that routinely show African American servicemen as combatants.

56. Unidentified U.S. Coast Guard photographer

THE LIEUTENANT COLONEL MIXES INTO A JIVE SESSION

ca. 1944

Down in the hold of a Coast Guard-manned transport, in the waters of India goes the Lieutenant Colonel with his clarinet. Strains of jive had seeped up to the deck and he decided to join in. And so, for an appreciative audience of G.I. Joes and Coast Guardsmen, the clarinet-accordion-drum trio 'goes to town' with the hottest tunes of the day. Left to right, the musicians are: Private Richard Tower of Cohasset, Mass., drums; Lieut. Col. Frederick L. Moore of Fillmore, Calif., clarinet; and Cpl. Lucien Phippins of St. Johnsbury, Vermont, accordion.

57. Unidentified U.S. Coast Guard photographer

THE DEAD AT PELELIU—ROW ON ROW

September, 1944

The Japanese defenders of Peleliu in the Palaus fought fanatically against the American invaders. This grim photo, made by a Coast Guard combat photographer, shows American dead shrouded in canvas and blankets awaiting removal to a South Seas graveyard. After two weeks of terrific battle, the Americans had driven their stubborn foes into a narrow pocket and were mopping up.

58. Unidentified U.S. Coast Guard photographer

JAP AMMUNITION DUMP GOES UP ON AN GAUR ISLAND

September, 1944

A burst of flame rends the heavens over Angaur Island just as a Coast Guard combat photographer clicked his shutter during the invasion of that Palau Island base in the Carolines. American invaders had scored a direct hit on a Jap ammunition dump. The island rocked, debris filled the air and concussion blurred the figure of a Yankee Marine (visible at left) moving toward the enemy.

59. Unidentified U.S. Coast Guard photographer

BAPTISMAL SERVICE IN THE SOUTH SEAS

1944

A mountain pool in a remote Pacific island serves as a baptismal font for servicemen, some about to undergo their baptism of fire against the Japs. Here, Chaplain Harold G. Saunders baptizes Coast Guardsman Farley Archer, of Los Angeles, Calif. Approximately 30 servicemen are baptized each Sunday in this picturesque setting while the voices of the base choir add impressiveness to the service.

60. Unidentified U.S. Coast Guard photographer

THIS IS THE BUNK

ca. 1944

Five deep they sleep in the troops' quarters aboard a Coast Guard-manned transport crossing the seas toward a combat zone. Two soldiers pass the half hour before 'lights out' reading, while others are already 'in the hay' pounding off slumber. The bunks were not designed for comfort.

61. Unidentified U.S. Coast Guard photographer

VICTORS DISPLAY FLAG OF THE VANQUISHED

1944

Marines and Coast Guardsmen who stormed and captured Engebi Island in the Marshalls display a bullet-riddled Japanese flag which went down under terrific firepower of the Americans' initial sweep from the Coast Guard-manned landing barges.

62. Unidentified U.S. Coast Guard photographer

HYMNS BEFORE BATTLE

ca. 1944

Moved to song while they move toward battle, members of a negro Cavalry unit lighten their Atlantic voyage with hymns and spirituals. They are gathered on the after-deck of a Coast Guard-manned assault transport under the leadership of their Chaplain, Lieutenant Joseph R. Cole, Army Chaplain Corps., of Jackson, Tennessee.

63. Unidentified U.S. Coast Guard photographer

MOP-UP IN GREENLAND—THE COAST GUARD SMASHED A NAZI WEATHER BASE, CAPTURES 12

1944

A file of bewildered Germans is under the guns of Coast Guardsmen who landed from a combat cutter and captured a Nazi radio-weather station on the northeast coast of Greenland. The Germans showed no signs of fight and surrendered. Radio and weather equipment and supplies were seized. A short time after, two Coast Guard combat cutters closed on and captured a German armed trawler, the Externstein, in the ice pack.

In ten weeks of dramatic action, the Coast Guard knocked out enemy attempts to gain a foothold in Greenland, taking 60 prisoners, destroying two radio-weather bases, capturing one armed ship, forcing the scuttling of another and finding a third abandoned in the ice fields.

64. Unidentified U.S. Coast Guard photographer

THE PRICE OF PHILIPPINE LIBERATION

October, 1944

Out from the hell-fire that swept the Leyte Island beachhead, an American is carried on a makeshift litter by his comrades. He fell in the initial assault upon the Philippines. A Coast Guard combat photographer, going in with the early waves, made this grim picture of the price of Philippine liberation.

65. Paul Queenan, USCG

SUPPLIES POUR ONTO IWO JIMA BEACHHEAD

February, 1945

out of the gaping mouths of Coast Guard-manned and Navy landing craft rose the great flow of invasion supplies to the blackened sands of Iwo Jima, a few hours after the Marines had wrested their foothold on the vital island in the front yard of Tokyo. Under raking fire from emplacements concealed at each end of Futatsue Beach, the early waves secured a beachhead but suffered heavy casualties.

66. Unidentified U.S. Coast Guard photographer

D-DAY FINDS A SHAMBLES ON IWO JIMA'S BEACHES

February, 1945

Amtracs [Amphibious tractors] from Coast Guard-manned LST's [Landing Ship — Tank] carrying Fourth Division Marines poke through the wreckage to crawl up on the blackened sands if Iwo Jima. At right is a shattered Jap transport, shelled to destruction by the terrific pre-invasion bombardment of U.S. Navy guns.

67. Unidentified U.S. Coast Guard photographer

FROM "HELL'S ACRE" TO "GOD'S ACRE"

February, 1945

Sprawled face down in the soft volcanic dust of an Iwo Jima shell hole dug by the great guns of the U.S. fleet, a Marine finds his 'journey's end' on the tiny island which the Japs defended with ferocious tenacity. A Coast Guard combat photographer, going in with the invaders, made this picture, grimly symbolic of the courage-unto-death with which the Marines fought their bitterest fight.

68. Unidentified U.S. Coast Guard photographer

OLD GLORY WINS NEW GLORY AT IWO JIMA

February, 1945

From the crest of Mount Suribachi, the stars and stripes wave in triumph over Iwo Jima after U.S. Marines had fought their way inch by inch up its steep lava-encrusted slopes, wiping out Japs contesting their climb from caves guarded by pillboxes. Below stretches the beach, called Futatsune, where Coast Guard-manned and Navy LST's [Landing Ship — Tank] pour forth men and armaments to carry the battle for Iwo to its northern edges.

69. Unidentified U.S. Coast Guard photographer

IWO JIMA PRESS CLUB

February, 1945

A series of foxholes scooped in the volcanic ash serve as press and photo headquarters for the men covering the battle for Iwo Jima. From these crude shelters, the Coast Guard combat photographers operated after landing with the assault waves from Coast Guard-manned invasion transports and LST's [Landing Ship — Tank].

70. Unidentified U.S. Coast Guard photographer

THE FLAG RAISERS OF OKINAWA

April, 1945

Emulating the now famous flag raising on Iwo Jima's volcanic Mount Suribachi, Marines and Coast Guardsmen bend their backs to the planting of the first stars and stripes to wave over Okinawa. The flag caught the breezes on a height from which the sea was visible on both sides.

71. Unidentified U.S. Army Air Forces photographer

FRANCE—BEACHHEAD LANDINGS

June 6, 1944

Men and assault vehicles storm the beaches of Normandy as Allied landing craft make a dent in Germany's west wall on the 6th of June. As wave after wave of landing craft unload their cargo, men move forward and vehicles surge up the roads.

72. Unidentified U.S. Army Air Forces photographer

HIROSHIMA ATOMIC BOMB DAMAGE

1945

Total area devastation by the atomic bomb strike on Hiroshima is shown in darkened area (within circle) of photograph. Numbered items are military and industrial installations with percentages of total destruction.

73. Unidentified U.S. Coast Guard photographer

THE LITTER BEARERS WILL COME

June 6, 1944

The storm of shells and bullets subsides on the beaches of France. With the patience of the dead, this invader awaits the litter bearers, seeking out the men who fell in the wreckage of invasion. This picture, made by a Coast Guard combat photographer, gives mute evidence of the terrific conflict that preceded the establishment of the liberation beachhead.

74. Unidentified U.S. Coast Guard photographer

COAST GUARD BARGES HIT FRENCH COAST

June 6, 1944

From Coast Guard landing barges hitting the French coast with the first waves of invaders, American fighting men wade ashore under heavy machine gun fire from Nazi beach nests. This dramatic D-Day picture, taken from a landing barge by a Coast Guard combat photographer, shows the soldiers waist deep as they spring forward to the attack.

75. Joe Rosenthal

OLD GLORY GOES UP ON MOUNT SURIBACHI, IWO JIMA

1945

Mt. Suribachi is taken and the American flag is raised on its summit. On February 23 the Marines gained the crest of the extinct volcano on the southern end of the island.

Joe Rosenthal, an Associated Press photographer, won the Pulitzer Prize for this picture, the best-known American photograph from World War II.

76. Unidentified U.S. Coast Guard photographer

BOMB-BURSTS BELOW

1944

There are no notes for this image.

77. Robert Capa

D-DAY, OMAHA BEACH

June 6, 1944

“Crawling through the water, U.S. soldier edges toward the beach. Immense excitement of moment made photographer Capa move his camera and blur picture. The Germans were still pouring machinegun and shellfire down on the beach, apparently from concrete pillboxes.”
–LIFE, June 19, 1944

Robert Capa, one of Life’s most celebrated photojournalists, was with the first wave of American troops assaulting the Normandy beachhead. He used a 35mm Contax camera to take this picture of soldiers landing under heavy enemy fire in the first moments of the invasion of France. A careless darkroom technician destroyed all but a few frames of the film Capa exposed on D-Day.

78. Unidentified photographer

ANOTHER NAZI HORROR CAMP UNCOVERED

1945

General Patch's Twelfth Armored Division uncovered another Nazi concentration camp at Schwabmunchen, near the Austrian border, southwest of Munich.

79. Edward Steichen, USN

A GRUMMAN F6F HELLCAT TAKES OFF FROM THE DECK OF THE U.S.S. LEXINGTON

1943

There are no notes for this image.