Official United States Marine Corps Photographs
World War II

Copy of original list

Click title to view image

1.      FIREWORKS ON HELL'S HALF ACRE--The first rounds take flight as Marine rocketeers launch pyramids of projectiles toward Japanese emplacements in support of a Leatherneck advance on Iwo. Being mobile, the rocket units resorted to hit and run tactics to escape enemy counterfire.                                                                 By: Staff Sgt. Rex R. Robbins
 

2.     ADVANCE ON THE DOUBLE--Burdened with heavy packs and equipment Marine communicators dash for cover during the inland drive from the Iwo beachhead.     By: Warrant Officer Oble Newcomb

3.      TAPE LINE TO SUDDEN DEATH--After taping off a small area, Marines probe for land mines, clearing a path for supporting vehicles to come ashore at Iwo. Driven from the shoreline by bombardment, the Japs planted mine fields in the loose volcanic ash. By: Warrant Officer Oble Newcomb.
 

4.      TWO MARINES--"Butch," a Doberman Pinscher Marine War Dog stands guard as his partner snatches a few winks in a sandy foxhole on Iwo Jima. Teams like this eliminated many Jap snipers who played possum in blasted pillboxes.                      By: Staff Sgt. Mark Kauffman.
 

5.      DEVIL'S BREATH ON HELL'S ISLAND--Two Marine privates hit the deck to throw a scorching inferno at the mighty defenses which blocked the way to Iwo Jima's Mount Surlbachi.

         By: Pvt. Bob Campbell.
 

6.      SPEEDY PASSAGE--Down the side of a steep hill on Guam, a Marine casualty on a stretcher is given swift passage to aid below by means of cables. 
 

7.     SMOKING THE JAPS OUT--Marines move up to wipe out a nest of Japs in the clump of trees In background during the battle to secure the island of Guam. 
 

8.      THAR SHE BLOWS--Marine engineers blow up another Jap dugout on Guam by tossing sticks of dynamite into the entrance. 
 

9.      FIRST MASS IN TWO YEARS--A Navy chaplain " conducts mass for Catholic Guamanians, their first they have attended since the Japs captured their homeland two and one-half years ago
 

10.     HE MADE THE CHOICE--Marines help a Jap soldier out of a dugout on Guam, after they convinced him life as a prisoner was more desirable than death for the Emperor. The Jap still holds the cigarette the Marine used to aid in coaxing him out.
 

11.    WARMED OVER--A Marine flame throwing tank turns a Jap pillbox Into a flaming hades on Saipan, while an interested lone Marine watches the proceedings from his ringside foxhole in the foreground.

         By: Corporal Clifford G. Jolly
 

12.    SUICIDE ASSAULT--Constricted to the northern tip of the island of Saipan, these Japanese launched a suicidal assault on the Marines. The weapons of the Leathernecks left the enemy grouped close in death on the beach. 

         By: Corporal Arthur Kiely, Jr. 
 

13.    SMOKING OUT THE JAPS ON SAIPAN--Marines drop a demolition charge into a nest of the enemy on the island of Saipau and with weapons at the ready, wait for the smoke to clear so they can fire on any Japs who break from cover.

         By: Corporal E. G. Wilbert.
 

16.    EQUIPMENT FOR RENDOVA--A bulldozer pulls a heavy field piece from the hold of an LST at Rendova after the Marines landed and pushed Japanese forces off. 
 

17.    WOUNDED AT TARAWA--Marines, wounded in the landing on Tarawa, are towed out to larger craft on a rubber landing boat by their buddies. The larger vessels took them to base hospitals for medical care. 
 

18.    MOVING UP--Marines take shelter behind a Japanese pillbox before advancing on the Jap airstrip on Tarawa. 
 

19.    HIGH ON A WINDY HILL--The leaves of the palm trees on Tarawa appear to be leaning against the wind but it really was caused by the concussion of the heavy guns used by both the Japs and the Marines. The Marines have taken cover behind a coral mound which the Japs intended for a gun mount. 
 

20.   AFTERMATH--Quietness had returned to this lagoon on Tarawa, Gilberts, following the fierce battle for the island. A few hours earlier it was an inferno of bursting shells, yelling men, and roaring motors. The Marines have forced back the enemy and the aftermath of dead bodies and wrecked amphibious tractors, following the fight remain on the battlefield. 
 

21.    JAP HUNTERS--U. S. Marine Raiders and their jungle- trained Devil Dogs, on a Bougainville trail, ready to go to work hunting Jap snipers. The dogs beside running messages are invaluable in seeking out Japs too well hidden for the sharp eyes of the men to locate. The sharper senses of the dogs locate the Japs who are quickly dispatched to their ancestors by the Leathernecks.

            By: Tech. Sgt. Jerry Sarno
 

22.   MARINES LAND AT BOUGAINVILLE-BEACHED LANDING CRAFT--When the tide started to go out, the shores were lined with beached landing craft struggling to get back into deep water. Note the heavy surf pounding the other landing craft.
 

23.    TOUGH GOING--Marines on Bougainville carry a wounded buddy over a rough trail on Bougainville. The wounded Marine will be evacuated to a rear base for medical attention and rest. 
 

24.    "VE" PLUS TWO--Two days after the Victory in Europe was celebrated the Marines of the First Division, fighting the do-or-die Japs hill by hill in their drive for Naha, capital city of Okinawa, wait on the crest of one slope while a barrage of phosphorous shells explodes among the Japanese positions on the farther incline. After the bombardment, the Leatherneck infantry will commence their push across the intervening valley to attack the enemy.

         By: Private Bob Bailey
 

26.    THE CHARGE--An amphibious tractor battalion of a Marine regiment forms into a line as the Leathernecks start the dash for the shores of Okinawa on first of April, 1945, D-Day.

         By: P.F.C. L. P. Walker
 

26.    WARM ATTENTION--Marine gives his warmest attention to some enemy in a cave on Okinawa. Near him a rifleman waits to account for any Nips who make a break from the enveloping flame.

         By: Sergeant David Peskin
 

27.    SEEING THE LIGHT--A Marine rifleman signals his companions to hold their fire as a Japanese soldier emerges from a cave on Okinawa. Persuaded by a smoke Grenade, the occupants of the hideout surrendered to the Leathernecks, adding to the large bag of prisoners taken in this island campaign.

         By: P.F.C. Frank Rogers
 

28.    SCRATCH ONE--Sixth Marine Division Leathernecks, calmly watch as one of their dynamite charges explodes, eliminating a Japanese cave on Okinawa. With flame- throwers and demolition men and materials the Sixth Division effectively deal with the enemy who insist on holing up to be blown to their ancestors.

         By: Corporal Robert Cusack.
 

29.    JAP SNIPER--Below Shuri Castle, on Okinawa. a Japanese sniper hides in a Christian church. The Marines in the foreground cover the sniper's lair in the church steeple while a patrol moves in from the rear. 

            By: P.F.C. John T. Smith
 

30.    SHELLING RIDGE--Feverishly, the Marine crewmen work their 76mm howitzer as they slam shells into Japanese 90mm mortar and artillery emplacements on a ridge on Peleliu Island.
 

31.    HOT SHOT--A Marine amphibious tractor turns on the heat with a powerful flame thrower to dislodge stubborn Japanese holed up in the caves and bunkers in the difficult terrain of the hills on Peleliu Island, in the Palau group.

            By: P.F.C. Robert Bailey

32.    HALTED AND DESTROYED--Marines on Peleliu quickly accounted for this Jap tank and its crew. The Japs were victims of a Marine flamethrower after gunfire had halted their tank.
 

33.    POUNDING PELELIU--As supporting Naval and air units pave the way with high explosives, Marine laden as8ault craft 'form the first wave and move in for the attack on Peleliu, in the Palau Islands. The Leather necks hacked out a mile and one-half long beachhead and after bitter fighting, began the advance on the Japanese airfield.

            By: Sgt. William A. McBride
 

34.    FIRST JAP TERRITORY SEIZED--Tank8, landing craft, and Marines crowd the beach on Namur, Kwajalein Atoll. These Leathernecks captured the island after 24 hours of bitter fighting. This is the first Jap territory seized since Pearl Harbor. 
 

35.    HARI-KARI--This Japanese soldier's big toe is still depressing the trigger of his rifle in a trench on Namur Island, Kwajalein Atoll. Most of the Japs were killed, but a few committed hari kari when they saw the situation was hopeless. The usual form of the ancient rite is committed with a sword, but the Marines never gave them a chance to perform the long ceremony.

            By: Sgt. A. Zurick
 

36.    MARINES MOVE UP--Shortly after landing on Namur Island, Kwajalein Atoll, these Marines started moving inland. Here they take advantage of a shallow trench before moving in closer to investigate the building in the background. The blasted trees give mute evidence of the heavy air and sea bombardment the island took before the Leathernecks landed.

            By: Sgt. Andrew. Zurick
 

37.    FORTUNES OF WAR--This Jap, miraculously alive after four days and nights of heavy aerial and sea bombardment and being blown out of a concrete blockhouse by an explosion, sits on the ground as Marines move toward the steel doorway to take three more prisoners who were wounded in the explosion.
 

            Thirty-six hours after Namur Island, Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands, was "secured" a supposedly silenced Jap blockhouse blew up. Through the huge steel door stumbled one dazed enemy soldier and Marines discovered three more inside. Before the explosion there had been 20 Jap soldiers inside.
 

38.    BOMBARDMENT--As the Marine amphibious tractors start the dash for the beach of Tinian, in the Marianas, a U. S. Cruiser fires a salvo into the Jap positions, softening up the enemy for the Leathernecks' landing.

            By: Staff Sgt. Mark Kauifman
 

39.    GET WET FEET AND AN ISLAND--Marines wade ashore on Tinian from landing barges. which could not make the beach. They got their feet wet but nine days later they had the Island too. The amphibious tractors in the assault wave came all the way into the beach and then crossed the Island.
 

40.   MARINES WATCH JAPS COME OUT OF CLIFF CAVES ON TINIAN.
 

41.    SHAMBLEB--A column of Marine infantry and vehicles push through the street of a town, reduced to shambles by the fighting on the island of Tinlan, in the Marianas.

42.    NEW GEORGIA CEMETERY--Marines in full combat gear stand at attention as a rifle squad fires over the graves of Leathernecks buried in this New Georgia cemetery.

43.    JUNGLE PATROL--Through treacherous jungle trails covered with dense thickets which have to be hacked away with knives, through swamps, rivers and streams, these Marines carryon in their push against the Jap enemy on New Georgia Island. In this photo the Leathernecks, garbed in camouflage suits, ford a malaria-infested stream.
 

44.    LST BECOMES HOSPITAL SHIP--Wounded soldiers and Marines are evacuated from Munda on the tank deck of an LST.
 

45.    OVER THE MATANIKAU--Marines were able to rush assault troops and small supply units over the Matanikau River following the battle, by means of this suspension bridge constructed by Navy Seabees.
 

46.    MARINE WELCOME STATION--Field gun emplacements of the Marines in the Solomon Islands, camouflaged by the jungle and protected by sand bags will welcome any Jap attack. This particular emplacement was constructed by the Japs captured and revamped by the Leathernecks.
 

47.    COMFORT--A Navy Chaplain attached to a Marine unit on Guadalcanal gives first aid and comfort to a wounded Marine while under fire on the front lines west of the Matanikau River.  
 

48.    START OF MISSION--At sunset a Marine patrol starts out on a mission on Guadalcanal. They wade the shallow river in the first stage of their trek.
 

49.    THEY CHOSE TO DIE--The early morning sun reveals the corpses of Japs half-buried in the tidal sands of Guadalcanal's Tenaru River after a Banzal attempt to dislodge Marines on the island. Very few Japanese surrendered in the bitter fight for this Allied toehold in the Solomons.  
 

 50.   TYPICAL PROPAGANDA LEAFLET DROPPED BY JAPANESE AIRMEN.
 

Return to Online Finding Aid