BGuthrie Photos: VA -- Quantico -- Natl Museum of the Marine Corps -- Gallery: World War II (1939-1945)

VA -- Quantico -- Natl Museum of the Marine Corps -- Gallery: World War II (1939-1945):

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. MCMWW2_130210_039.JPG: 1940-1945: Uncommon Valor: "Victory was never in doubt. Its cost was." -- MGen Graves B. Erskine, USMC America fought World War II in alliance with Great Britain and other nations against Germany, Italy, and Japan. Most Marines fought in the Pacific against Japan. The Marines entered the war as a small expeditionary force with an unproven new mission of amphibious assault. Enduring the early defeats at Wake, Guam, and the Philippines, the Leathernecks fought back, validating their new doctrine and arousing the nation with hard-fought victories at Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. Marine pilots dueled Japan's naval air arm in the skies over the embattled islands. The Corps expanded 20-fold, including for the first time significant numbers of women and African-Americans. The Marines sustained 86,940 combat casualties during the war. Eighty-two Marines received the Medal of Honor, 48 posthumously.
2. MCMWW2_130210_044.JPG: World At War: World War II was the bloodiest, most cataclysmic event in world history. World War II began with the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 and ended with the Japanese surrender to the Allies on the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945. The war claimed 60 million lives worldwide, the majority of them civilians, including 6 million Jews exterminated by German Nazis. The war created millions of refugees. America entered the war when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, on 7 December 1941. The United States mobilized 12 million men and women and endured 300,000 fatalities in its 44 months of global combat.
3. MCMWW2_130210_049.JPG: Japanese Aggression: American military planners, including Marine Lieutenant Colonel Earl "Pete" Ellis, predicted a future war with Japan as early as 1921. Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931, launching a decade of unbridled military expansion. The Japanese built an enormous fleet, withdrew from the League of Nations, and signed a pact with Germany and Italy. In 1937, they invaded China and ravaged its capital, Nanking. By late 1941, the US Fleet in Pearl Harbor represented the sole restraining force against further Japanese ambitions in the South Pacific.
4. MCMWW2_130210_053.JPG: Japan invaded Manchuria and China in the 1930s, raided Pearl Harbor in 1941, then invaded Hong Kong, Malaya, the Philippines, and the Dutch East Indies.
5. MCMWW2_130210_058.JPG: American Snapshot: "Mr. J. Edgar Hoover is asked to report to his office at once." -- Public announcement, Washington Redskins game, 7 December 1941 The 27,000 fans had just settled into their seats in Washington's Griffith Stadium that Sunday when the first report arrived of the Pearl Harbor attack. "Stupefying news!" wrote Shirley Povich, covering the game for the Washington Post. The war message alerted dozens of detachments of Marines deployed around the globe, including a 4,000-man Marine Brigade assigned to Iceland to protect that vital sea link between America and Great Britain against German invasion.
6. MCMWW2_130210_064.JPG: German Aggression: "We had seen a perfect specimen of the modern blitzkrieg ... the irresistible forward thrust of great masses of armor." -- Winston Churchill Adolf Hitler's blitzkrieg (lightning war) spearheaded the invasions of Poland, Holland, Belgium, France, and much of Russia and North Africa. Britain stood alone, protected by the North Sea, but battered nightly by German bombers and endangered by German submarines that savaged each resupply convoy. By late 1941, the Axis powers of Germany, Italy, and Japan controlled or threatened vast portions of the earth.
7. MCMWW2_130210_069.JPG: During 1939-40, Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany brutally conquered western Europe and threatened to overwhelm Russia and Great Britain as well.
8. MCMWW2_130210_083.JPG: Wake Island Flag: This US flag flew during the last days of the defense of Wake Island. With the surrender of American forces, it was captured by Lieutenant Commander Taro Fukatsu of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Upon his return to Japan in the spring of 1943, he gave the flag to his mother. Fukatsu was killed on 25 October 1944, during the battle of Leyte Gulf. The flag was returned to the Marine Corps in 1956.
9. MCMWW2_130210_109.JPG: Beach Assault, Iwo Jima: "At nine o'clock in the morning, several hundred landing craft with amphibious tanks in the lead rushed ashore like an enormous tidal wave." -- Lieutenant Satoru Omagari, Imperial Japense Navy, Mount Suribachi Iwo Jima's steep beaches, pounded by high surf and dominated by 556-foot-high Mount Suribachi, required a massive attack force delivered with precision timing. The assault regiments of the 4th and 5th Marine Divisions landed under the protective umbrella of carrier-based "Flying Leathernecks," whose Corsairs strafed the beach in advance of a "rolling barrage" of naval gunfire. Six thousand men hit the beach in the first fifteen minutes.
10. MCMWW2_130210_126.JPG: Marine Deaths at Iwo Jima: "Victory was never in doubt. Its cost was. What was in doubt, in our minds, was whether... the last Marine would die knocking out the last Japanese gunner." -- MajGen Graves Erskine, Commanding General, 3rd Marine Division, Iwo Jima More than twice as many Marines died in 36 days of combat on Iwo Jima than had been killed in all of World War I. The final death toll was 5,931 Marines killed in action, died of wounds, or missing in action and presumed dead. An additional 209 deaths occurred among the Navy corpsmen and surgeons assigned to the Marines. The Fifth Fleet and participating US Army and Army Air Force units suffered other fatalities during the battle. In all, more than 800 Americans gave their lives for every square mile of Iwo Jima's black volcanic sand.
11. MCMWW2_130210_131.JPG: Second Flag Over Mt. Suribachi
12. MCMWW2_130210_147.JPG: On 23 February 1945, Marines raised two flags over Mount Suribachi. Although fighting continued for another month, this symbolic victory gave strength to the embattled Marines.
13. MCMWW2_130210_148.JPG: The Suribachi Flags "The raising of that flag on Suribachi means a Marine Corps for the next 500 years." -- Secretary of the Navy James V. Forrestal to Lieutenant General Holland Smith, USMC, Iwo Jima These are the original flags raised by the Marines on Mount Suribachi on 23 February 1945. The attack transport Missoula donated the smaller flag, raised by the Schrier Patrol on the summit. Landing Ship Tank (LST) 779, then unloading at Green Beach, donated the larger flag, raised later in the day and portrayed in the Rosenthal photograph. Frayed by strong winds, it flew from Suribachi for the balance of the battle.
14. MCMWW2_130210_168.JPG: [Note that you can see the profile of Mount Suribachi in the reflection]
15. MCMWW2_130210_212.JPG: Congressional Gold Medal Presented to James Dixon, Navajo Code Talker: James Dixon joined the Marine Corps in 1942. As one of the first Navajo Code Talker recruits, he participated in the battle of Guadalcanal. He later served as an instructor at the Code Talkers' School before being discharged in November 1945. On 26 July 2001, President George W. Bush presented Congressional Gold Medals to the original 29 Navajo Code Talkers, their surviving spouses, or children. This medal was awarded to the family of James Dixon for his unique service during World War II.
16. MCMWW2_131221_001.JPG: 1940-1945: Uncommon Valor: "Victory was never in doubt. Its cost was." -- MGen Graves B. Erskine, USMC America fought World War II in alliance with Great Britain and other nations against Germany, Italy, and Japan. Most Marines fought in the Pacific against Japan. The Marines entered the war as a small expeditionary force with an unproven new mission of amphibious assault. Enduring the early defeats at Wake, Guam, and the Philippines, the Leathernecks fought back, validating their new doctrine and arousing the nation with hard-fought victories at Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. Marine pilots dueled Japan's naval air arm in the skies over the embattled islands. The Corps expanded 20-fold, including for the first time significant numbers of women and African-Americans. The Marines sustained 86,940 combat casualties during the war. Eighty-two Marines received the Medal of Honor, 48 posthumously.
17. MCMWW2_131221_007.JPG: World At War World At War: World War II was the bloodiest, most cataclysmic event in world history. World War II began with the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 and ended with the Japanese surrender to the Allies on the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945. The war claimed 60 million lives worldwide, the majority of them civilians, including 6 million Jews exterminated by German Nazis. The war created millions of refugees. America entered the war when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, on 7 December 1941. The United States mobilized 12 million men and women and endured 300,000 fatalities in its 44 months of global combat.
18. MCMWW2_131221_010.JPG: World At War: World War II was the bloodiest, most cataclysmic event in world history. World War II began with the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 and ended with the Japanese surrender to the Allies on the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945. The war claimed 60 million lives worldwide, the majority of them civilians, including 6 million Jews exterminated by German Nazis. The war created millions of refugees. America entered the war when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, on 7 December 1941. The United States mobilized 12 million men and women and endured 300,000 fatalities in its 44 months of global combat.
19. MCMWW2_131221_013.JPG: Japanese Aggression: American military planners, including Marine Lieutenant Colonel Earl "Pete" Ellis, predicted a future war with Japan as early as 1921. Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931, launching a decade of unbridled military expansion. The Japanese built an enormous fleet, withdrew from the League of Nations, and signed a pact with Germany and Italy. In 1937, they invaded China and ravaged its capital, Nanking. By late 1941, the US Fleet in Pearl Harbor represented the sole restraining force against further Japanese ambitions in the South Pacific.
20. MCMWW2_131221_018.JPG: Japanese aggression celebrated the surrender of US and Filipino forces in southern Luzon in 1942, completing their five-month conquest of the Philippines.
21. MCMWW2_131221_021.JPG: Japan invaded Manchuria and China in the 1930s, raided Pearl Harbor in 1941, then invaded Hong Kong, Malaya, the Philippines, and the Dutch East Indies.
22. MCMWW2_131221_024.JPG: American Snapshot: "Mr. J. Edgar Hoover is asked to report to his office at once." -- Public announcement, Washington Redskins game, 7 December 1941 The 27,000 fans had just settled into their seats in Washington's Griffith Stadium that Sunday when the first report arrived of the Pearl Harbor attack. "Stupefying news!" wrote Shirley Povich, covering the game for the Washington Post. The war message alerted dozens of detachments of Marines deployed around the globe, including a 4,000-man Marine Brigade assigned to Iceland to protect that vital sea link between America and Great Britain against German invasion.
23. MCMWW2_131221_029.JPG: Fred Astaire and and Ginger Rogers delighted 1930s audiences with romantic movies like Shall We Dance and Carefree, amid fears of the Depression and world war.
24. MCMWW2_131221_031.JPG: American farm families suffered through the Depression and a protracted drought. John Steinbeck told their story in his classic novel The Grapes of Wrath.
25. MCMWW2_131221_033.JPG: Dance fad swept the nation during the big-band era of the 1930s. The acrobatic jitterbug, promoted by Benny Goodman, shocked elders and delighted youngsters.
26. MCMWW2_131221_035.JPG: The corner newsstand in the 1930s reflected regional culture. Newspapers sold well, as did magazines featuring sports, glamour, movies, and true crime stories.
27. MCMWW2_131221_038.JPG: Many workers blamed President Herbert Hoover for the Depression. When farms foreclosed, families sought work in town, living in shanties dubbed "Hoovervilles."
28. MCMWW2_131221_041.JPG: Ted Williams hit .406 for the Boston Red Sox in 1941. The future Hall of Famer was a Marine pilot in World War II and Korea.
29. MCMWW2_131221_043.JPG: America's 14-year experiment with alcohol prohibition ended in 1933 with the 21st Amendment. A wild era of racketeering, speakeasies, and "bathtub gin" came to a close.
30. MCMWW2_131221_046.JPG: Drugstore soda counters flourished on every corner. In Corpus Christi, TX, in 1939, an adroit "soda jerk" flips ice cream into a malted milk shake.
31. MCMWW2_131221_049.JPG: Passenger trains, featuring elegant sleeping and dining cars pulled by "streamliner" locomotives, represented the ultimate in luxury travel in the 1930s.
32. MCMWW2_131221_051.JPG: Hometown movie theaters entertained and renewed stressed families. Saturday matinees featured action serials and door prizes. Movietone News reported the war.
33. MCMWW2_131221_055.JPG: German Aggression: "We had seen a perfect specimen of the modern blitzkrieg ... the irresistible forward thrust of great masses of armor." -- Winston Churchill Adolf Hitler's blitzkrieg (lightning war) spearheaded the invasions of Poland, Holland, Belgium, France, and much of Russia and North Africa. Britain stood alone, protected by the North Sea, but battered nightly by German bombers and endangered by German submarines that savaged each resupply convoy. By late 1941, the Axis powers of Germany, Italy, and Japan controlled or threatened vast portions of the earth.
34. MCMWW2_131221_058.JPG: During 1939-40, Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany brutally conquered western Europe and threatened to overwhelm Russia and Great Britain as well.
35. MCMWW2_131221_061.JPG: Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler reviewed elite SS troops in Nuremberg in 1938. Hitler would soon unleash blitzkrieg (lightning war) against much of Europe.
36. MCMWW2_131221_065.JPG: Japan Advances: "That's where we came in, standing between Japan's strike force and Australia, like gnats on the back of an elephant." -- PFC H. Robert Charles, USS Houston Japanese expansionist ambitions had been evident through the 1930s. Under the pretext of creating a "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere," Japan invaded Manchuria and sought to dismember China. The sneak attack on Pearl Harbor signaled Japan's intention to expel the United States from the Pacific. Powerful Japanese carrier forces roamed the oceans from Hawaii to Ceylon virtually unopposed. They destroyed scores of Allied vessels and demolished countless shore installations without losing a ship. Dominance of the sea and the air facilitated landings all across the Pacific. Within ten years after Pearl Harbor, the invaders captured Singapore, Hong Kong, Wake, Guam, the Dutch East Indies, and most of the Philippines. These were dark days. The Japanese juggernaut seemed unstoppable.
37. MCMWW2_131221_073.JPG: Marines at Pearl Harbor: "I thought we were all going to get cooked to death... I couldn't see anything but fire below." -- Major Alan Shapley, USS Arizona survivor Stunned Marines fought back desperately from shipboard gun-mounts and exposed ground positions against the attack. Many fired rifles -- even pistols -- at low-flying planes. Airmen at nearby Ewa Mooring Mast Field manned machine guns from the cockpits of their grounded, burning aircraft. The Leathernecks downed four Japanese planes but suffered total defeat. The Japanese air raid inflicted more than 170 Marine casualties and destroyed on heavily damaged all 79 of their aircraft.
38. MCMWW2_131221_076.JPG: Pearl Harbor: "Air raid, Pearl Harbor -- this is no drill." -- Radio alert, 7:38am, 7 December 1941 The surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, shocked complacently isolationist America. Japanese bombs and torpedoes ravaged the Navy's mighty battleships, killed more than 2,400 Americans, and wounded 1,200 others. Images of exploding warships and burning installations riveted attention on what President Roosevelt aptly called "a day that shall live in infamy." Japanese planes also devastated American airpower, most of it caught helpless on the ground. Fortunately, the US Navy's irreplaceable aircraft carriers were at sea and escaped the inferno. They would play an essential role in holding the line through 1942.
39. MCMWW2_131221_083.JPG: Wake "Don't surrender, lieutenant. The Marines never surrender." -- Enlisted Marines to Lieutenant David D. Kliewer, 22 December 1941 News of Pearl Harbor chilled the Marines defending remote Wake Island. Major James P.S. Devereux, commanding the 1st Defense Battalion, made final preparations for the Japanese attacks that hit the next day. For 15 days, the Americans thrilled the nation with their gritty resistance that sank 2 enemy ships, shot down 7 planes, and killed some 400 attackers. When the Japanese destroyed the final Wildcat, the surviving aviators manned the perimeter with rifles. The embarrassed Japanese returned with overwhelming force. "Enemy on island, issue in doubt" was Wake's final message. Fifty Marines died; the balance suffered a four-year captivity.
40. MCMWW2_131221_086.JPG: Major James Devereux survived four years of Japanese captivity, received the Navy Cross for his bravery at Wake, and later served in the US Congress.
41. MCMWW2_131221_088.JPG: Cat and Mouse over Wake Island, by Marc Stewart A Marine F4F-3 Wildcat from VMF-211 attacks a Japanese "Neil" bomber over Wake.
42. MCMWW2_131221_091.JPG: Marines of the 1st Defense Battalion defended Wake Island during Japanese air and sea attacks, December 1941
43. MCMWW2_131221_098.JPG: 1917A1 Browning Machine Gun: In the 1930s, small arms designers modified John Browning's original model 1917 heavy machine gun. The Rock Island Arsenal undertook and extensive modification process, converting almost 70,000 Model 1917s to new specifications, which included a new bottom receiver plate, a graduated rear sight, and modified tripod. Designated the M1917A1, the .30 caliber machine gun was water-cooled, belt-fed, and recoil-operated. With water and tripod included, the total weight of the M1917A1 was 93 pounds. In the Pacific theater, it was most often used as a defensive weapon, where, according to one colonel, it was "a grand gun with which to stop a banzai charge."
44. MCMWW2_131221_100.JPG: Guam "The situation was simply hopeless." -- Captain George J. McMillin, USN, garrison commander, Guam Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese bombers from nearby Saipan brought the war to Guam, a US possession since 1898. Several thousand Japanese troops landed before dawn on 10 December. The 150 Marines and their native counterparts fought bravely but were quickly overwhelmed and imprisoned. Other Marines -- especially those with fond memories of pre-war service on the island -- took delight in liberating Guam during their Central Pacific campaign 31 months later.
45. MCMWW2_131221_102.JPG: The invasion of Guam by Japanese amphibious forces during the night of 10 December 1941, as portrayed by a Japanese artist.
46. MCMWW2_131221_105.JPG: "My God, and I had to be the first Marine officer ever to surrender a regiment." -- Col. Samuel L. Howard, 41st Marines, Corregidor
47. MCMWW2_131221_107.JPG: Wake Island Flag: This US flag flew during the last days of the defense of Wake Island. With the surrender of American forces, it was captured by Lieutenant Commander Taro Fukatsu of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Upon his return to Japan in the spring of 1943, he gave the flag to his mother. Fukatsu was killed on 25 October 1944, during the battle of Leyte Gulf. The flag was returned to the Marine Corps in 1956.
48. MCMWW2_131221_112.JPG: Philippines "My god, and I had to be the first Marine officer ever to surrender a regiment!" -- Colonel Samuel L. Howard, 4th Marines, upon burning his regimental colors at Corregidor's surrender On 8 December 1941, Japanese naval aircraft hammered the Philippines, clearing the way for invasion landings. For five months the 4th Marines, augmented by a dozen small detachments, helped Army Major General Jonathan M. Wainwright defend the Bataan Peninsula and then the final stronghold, Corregidor Island in Manilla Bay. Here the Japanese won their greatest victory. The Marines suffered 250 casualties in the fight, but hundreds more died in captivity at the hands of the Japanese.
49. MCMWW2_131221_115.JPG: The 4th Marines deployed from China to the Philippines just before Pearl Harbor. The regiment hurriedly reinforced General MacArthur's forces defending Corregidor.
50. MCMWW2_131221_118.JPG: The Japanese overwhelmed Allied troops defending Bataan and Corregidor in 1942, forcing their captives to endure brutal death marches to distant POW camps.
51. MCMWW2_131221_122.JPG: China "This is a sad day, Smitty." -- Captain John A. White to Sergeant Robert A. Smith, 8 December 1941 The 4th Marines sailed from Shanghai on 28 November, reaching the Philippines barely before the Japanese invasion. About 200 Marines in detachments in Japanese-occupied Peking and Tientsin surrendered the day after Pearl Harbor. A detail of 21 Marines near Chinwangtao, under fiery Chief Marine Gunner Bill Lee of Nicaragua fame, fortified a strong point and prepared to fight the entire Japanese empire, until official orders directed them to lay down their arms.
52. MCMWW2_131221_125.JPG: Chinese refugees in Chungking fled Japanese bombing attacks in 1937. Extensive targeting of civilian noncombatants became World War II's most horrific feature.
53. MCMWW2_131221_127.JPG: Japan invaded China in 1937, winning the initial battles, but then became vulnerable to Chinese hit-and-run guerrilla attacks. The fighting endured for eight years.
54. MCMWW2_131221_130.JPG: U.S. Outposts Attacked "Rumors that reinforcements were on the way... spread rapidly.... It was too good to be true." -- Lieutenant Woodrow M. Kessler, USMC, Wake Island So devastating had been Japan's surprise strike against Pearl Harbor that even six months later the US Pacific Fleet was still unable to mount a credible relief expedition to the Philippines to rescue the besieged garrison at Corregidor. Meanwhile, the Japanese had smothered every Marine outpost west of Midway, including China, Guam, Wake Island, and northern Luzon. The Marines' stout-hearted defense burnished the Corps' legend and inspired the American public, but in the end their sacrifice produced little more than a certain immortality and long years of brutal imprisonment.
55. MCMWW2_131221_136.JPG: U.S. Wartime Mobilization "A military man can scarcely pride himself having smitten a sleeping enemy..." -- Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto The United States' reluctant entrance into the Second World War revealed a nation woefully unprepared. The First World War damaged the national conscience and failed to produce the enduring peace sought by President Woodrow Wilson. At the cost of over 122,000 lives, frustrated Americans reverted to their traditional foreign policy of isolationism. The 1920s and '30s were notable for disarmament, pacifism, neutrality acts, and the Great Depression's destruction of the national economy. The combined effects of these events left the country a weakened third-rate power. The U.S. had been ranked only the 19th largest military force in the world in 1939, and it faced monumental challenges as hostilities began. In 1940, with war raging in Europe, President Franklin D. Roosevelt attempted to strengthen the military. He instituted the Selective Service Act in September 1940 and rallied the "great arsenal of democracy" to assist the United Kingdom in the struggle against Germany. Fighting a war of unprecedented size, American wartime production and military forces grew extraordinarily, bringing wide-sweeping social change to a nation and the birth of a superpower.
56. MCMWW2_131221_140.JPG: Earning the Right to Fight "If it were a question of having a Marine Corps of 5,000 whites and 250,000 Negroes, I would rather have the whites." -- Major General Thomas Holcomb Classified Letter of Instruction No. 421 stated in stark terms then challenges facing black Marines. Not accepted as equals, the order stated that "in no case shall there be colored noncommissioned officers senior to enlisted men in the same unit..." The Commandant's previous declarations that blacks were "trying to break into a club that doesn't want them" left little doubt concerning the official attitude of the Marine Corps African Americans had entered. Confronted with the prevalent mindset of the era and the realities of segregation, the Marines of Montford Point found inspiration and solidarity within their own ranks. Ably led by a cadre of non-commissioned officers, such as Edgar R. Huff and Gilbert H. Johnson, they persevered in the face of internal and external prejudice. The injustices of segregation inspired a determination to excel. Rally within their units and camaraderie, Montford Point Marines were proud to break the obstacle of racism and earn the hard fought title of United States Marines.
57. MCMWW2_131221_146.JPG: Expansion and the Origins of Diversity: "Since 1775 the United States Marines have upheld a fine tradition of service to their country. They are doing so today. I am confident they will continue to do so..." -- President Franklin D. Roosevelt By the end of 1941, partial mobilization had expanded the United States Marine Corps to more than 54,000 men, the most in the service's history. However, the complex nature of global warfare called for far greater numbers. Numerous new missions, such as the defense of remote island bases, fleet amphibious operations, extended land campaigns, and close air support, required a Marine Corps of six divisions and half a million personnel. Nearly 670,000 Marines would serve by war's end. With unparalleled growth came new challenges and opportunities. No longer could the Marine Corps meet its requirements through a relatively small, all white, all male volunteer force. New Marines arrived in the form of reservists and draftees in numbers never before imagined. They represented all facets of the American population. For the first time, African Americans and women were allowed to serve in significant numbers.
58. MCMWW2_131221_152.JPG: A New Marine Corps "They told me the girls learned more in one hours than most men did in the same length of time. They just seem to catch on faster." -- Captain R. G. Reynolds in Leatherneck Magazine, September 1943 The effects of national mobilization were not limited to African Americans. With the need for additional personnel came the creation of the Women Marine Reserve. Established in February 1943, the organization freed over 18,000 active duty men to fight. By war's end, Women Marines served in approximately 225 specialties. They filled 85 per cent of the enlisted duties at Marine Corps headquarters and two-thirds of the permanent Marine billets assigned to posts and bases. Perceptions of ethnicity in the Marine Corps during World War II also changed. Interspersed among white units, Marines of Hispanic and Native American heritage fought in every major battle in the Pacific theater. Serving in numbers higher than their proportion of the American population, Marines of Hispanic heritage would receive a Medal of Honor and 15 Navy Crosses. Native Americans provided vital service as Code Talkers and took part in the iconic flag-raising during the battle of Iwo Jima.
59. MCMWW2_131221_155.JPG: Women Marines assumed many tasks formerly performed by male Marines
60. MCMWW2_131221_157.JPG: PFC Harold Gonsalves, of Hispanic heritage, was awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism during the battle of Okinawa.
61. MCMWW2_131221_159.JPG: PFC Ira H. Hayes, a Pima Native American, was one of six men who raised the American flag on Iwo Jima
62. MCMWW2_131221_162.JPG: The first Chinese American Marine Corps officer, Wilbur Carl Sze, was commissioned a second lieutenant in 1943.
63. MCMWW2_131221_169.JPG: The Marines of Montford Point "There was much pride mixed with bitterness in all of us at Montford Point. Rea; as well as imagined injustices were with us daily in those segregated units." -- Master Gunnery Sergeant Brooks E. Gray, Jr. The US Marine Corps and Navy Department resisted the addition of African American recruits until it was ordered by President Franklin Roosevelt in the spring of 1942. Reluctantly, the Corps' leadership ordered the creation of segregated defense battalions. The transition to offensive operations in the Pacific theater, however, made the use of island defense forces less relevant. Logistical units to support large-scale amphibious operations were critically needed. The majority of African American Marines was assigned to these depot and ammunition companies. The units were given the crucial but often thankless task of unloading ammunition and supplies for assault Marine units. The men referred to themselves as "Montford Point Marines," after the segregated camp at New River, North Carolina, where they received their training. Camp Montford Point was opened on 18 August 1942 and was the sole training installation for African American Marines until 1949. Over 19,000 men passed through the camp with nearly 13,000 serving overseas by war's end.
64. MCMWW2_131221_173.JPG: Junk on the Bunk: "I was an ogre on the drill field and in the huts of Montford... but I was fair." -- Sergeant Major Gilbert H. "Hashmark" Johnson "Hashmark" Johnson became the first black drill instructor for the Montford Point Marines. Like drill instructors at Parris Island or San Diego, his fierce demeanor scared the recruits, but he also gave them the motivation needed to become combat Marines. Drill instructors everywhere conducted "Junk on the Bunk" inspections to instill greater discipline into their recruits. In a stressful procedure familiar to all Marines, the recruits struggled to display their clothing and equipment -- cleaned, labeled, serviceable -- in exact compliance with The Guidebook for Marines.
65. MCMWW2_131221_176.JPG: Gilbert "Hashmark" Johnson Edgar R. Huff
66. MCMWW2_131221_188.JPG: Amphibious Improvisations: Equipment: In 1942, the Marines faced a gap between amphibious doctrine and amphibious assault capabilities. Early in World War II, Marines had to rely on smaller weapons for breach assaults, such as the M3 Stuart tank and the 75mm pack howitzer, because they did not have landing boats with bow ramps and troops ships with heavy-lift cargo handling systems to get heavier equipment ashore. The pack howitzer, for example, was designed in the 1920s for transport by pack mules. Marines simply disassembled them and manhandled the components ashore through the surf Tarawa and other beaches in the Pacific. The Leathernecks found the light weapons handy in jungle fighting in the Solomon Islands. Later, however, as the Marines encountered Japanese blockhouses and heavy artillery in the Central Pacific, they needed sturdier tanks and higher velocity howitzers. Fortunately, American technology caught up with the Marines. Specialized landing ships and ramped landing craft were produced that could deliver larger weapons ashore.
67. MCMWW2_131221_191.JPG: Marine Parachutists: [The Parachutists were] "... a notably tough-looking outfit among Marines, who all look tough." -- Time magazine, 11 August 1941 The Marines trained four battalions of parachutists at Lakehurst, NJ, but their South Pacific campaigns never involved airborne assaults. Undismayed, the parachutists fought as shock troops, displaying a zeal for hand-to-hand combat throughout the Solomons. The 2nd Parachute Battalion's diversionary assault on Choiseul caused the regional Japanese commander to reinforce that island, reducing his defenses against the main Marine landing at Bougainville.
68. MCMWW2_131221_194.JPG: Marine Raiders: "We were small, but we had a time." -- Colonel Stewart N. Griffith II Their legendary leaders included "Red Mike" Edson, Evans Carlson, Sam Griffith, James Roosevelt (the President's son), "Harry the Horse" Liversedge, Lew Walt, and Anthony "Cold Steel" Walker. The Raiders blazed an enduring legacy in their two years of existence, paddling stealthily ashore in rubber boats from submarines or destroyers, and fighting with manic fierceness. Disbanded in 1944, the survivors campaigned on as the 4th Marine Regiment, notably at Guam and Okinawa.
69. MCMWW2_131221_197.JPG: Turning Points: Throughout the first half of 1942 the Japanese Combined Fleet seemed to the Americans to be an invincible juggernaut. The US Pacific Fleet remained chronically short of carriers, destroyers, submarines and oilers as it tried to stem the Japanese tide. Naval task force commanders like William "Bull" Halsey, Jack Fletcher, and Raymond Spruance could at best conduct hit-and-run sorties. The gravest threat to the United States arose in late May when the Japanese Combined Fleet sailed towards Midway defenders. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto sought to seize Midway, draw and crippled US fleet into a decisive naval battle and sink its remaining carriers. Japanese aircraft based in captured Midway could then bomb Hawaii relentlessly. Yamamoto's campaign could represent Japan's best opportunity for victory in the Pacific. At the critical moment, the Americans broke the Japanese naval code, alerted the Midway garrison, and deployed its carriers in a desperate effort to intercept Yamamoto.
70. MCMWW2_131221_201.JPG: Special Training: "This is war, boys -- nothing like starting it in a graveyard." -- Marine Gunner Cecil H. Clark, 7 August 1952, Tulagi, upon landing in a cemetery President Roosevelt's interest in forming the Marines into commando units along the British lines led to experiments with special troops: battalions of raiders and parachutists and squadrons of gliders and barrage balloons. Commandant Holcomb did so reluctantly, opposed to "forming elite units from units already elite." Several raider and parachute units fought courageously throughout the Solomon Islands in 1942-43. While the jungled Solomons proved unsuitable for parachute drops or glider landings and while sparse shipping limited the use of seaborne raiders, the tough and cocky special troops fought as light infantry with a ferocity that inspired the US home front.
71. MCMWW2_131221_204.JPG: U.S. Marines Weapons: "A machine gun fired... with a vibrating roar, BAR's and rifles and grenades chattered in a wild medley." -- Capt. George P. Hunt, Peleliu Young Marines reared in the Depression knew how to "make do" with outdated firearms. The Leathernecks fought for much of the war with old, familiar weapons like the 1903 Springfield rifle, 1911 Colt automatic pistol, and 1918 Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR). Marines valued the BAR for it's "striking-penetrating power in the jungle," despite its 20-pound weight. The Corps had developed a superb marksmanship program around the beloved '03 Springfield. Marines only grudgingly accepted the semi-automatic Garand M-1 rifle after the new weapon proved its mettle on Guadalcanal.
72. MCMWW2_131221_208.JPG: The Marines defended Midway with everything that could fly. Here, an outmoded Brewster Buffalo tried to lure a Zero into range of Midway's anti-aircraft guns.
73. MCMWW2_131221_210.JPG: Vought Vindicator dive bombers of Marine Scout Bombing Squadron 241 took off from Midway to attack the Japanese carriers 150 miles away. Few returned.
74. MCMWW2_131221_213.JPG: Japanese carrier-based aircraft attacked Midway on 4 June 1942, killing scores of Marines among the defense battalions, the air group, and Carlson's Raiders.
75. MCMWW2_131221_216.JPG: On the second day of the battle for Midway, Marine dive bombers damaged the Japanese cruiser Mikuma, which was then destroyed by naval carrier aircraft.
76. MCMWW2_131221_223.JPG: Gen. Holland M. ("Howlin' Mad") Smith "This great and grand old man had inside him the hearts of all his Pacific Marines." -- Captain John A. DeChant
77. MCMWW2_131221_224.JPG: The Battle of Midway "Well, never expected to see you again." "Hell, neither did I." -- Marine aviators Captain Bruce Prosser and Lieutenant Allen H. Ringblom Marine defense battalions and raiders stood ready as the powerful Japanese fleet bore down on Midway. Two squadrons of Marine aircraft launched to intercept the invaders, but the obsolete F2F Brewster Buffaloes proved no match for the Japanese Zeros. The Marines lost half their planes and both squadron commanders, but their sacrifices caused a fateful delay in the enemy's schedule. Aided by code-breakers' reports of the Japanese advance, US carriers lurking nearby launched Navy dive-bombers,. The US aircraft caught Japanese planes rearming on their flight decks and sank all four carriers. America celebrated its first clear-cut victory in the Pacific.
78. MCMWW2_131221_230.JPG: LtCol Lewis "Chesty" Puller "The idol of every noncom and drill instructor." -- 1956 Newspaper Account Lewis Burwell Puller, a quintessential warrior whose barrel chest and jutting jaw made for instant recognition, became the most famous combat Marine in the annals of the Corps. Five Navy Crosses -- an unsurpassed record -- attested to his bravery under fire. A former enlisted Marine and a disciple of Stonewall Jackson, Puller's concern for his troops earned their fierce loyalty. His scorn for desk-bound officers ("them potted palms up at division") added to his enduring legend. Sgt John Basilone
79. MCMWW2_131221_233.JPG: A Marine reconnaissance patrol crossed a Guadalcanal river at dusk. Beyond the coconut palms were the dark jungle -- and the Japanese.
80. MCMWW2_131221_235.JPG: The October Crisis "Puller's presence alone represented the equivalent of two battalions." -- Lieutenant Colonel Merrill Twining, Guadalcanal The Japanese Sendai Division assaulted "The Coffin Corner" sector of the Marine perimeter at night in a driving rain. Lieutenant Colonel Lewis "Chesty" Puller's 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, greeted the onslaught with sheets of 37mm canister rounds and machine gun fire. The Japanese attacks ebbed, then flowed again out of the jungle. After midnight, Puller deployed newly arrived National Guardsmen from North Dakota into his depleted line and withstood this latest threat to Henderson Field.
81. MCMWW2_131221_238.JPG: So many ships of both sides were sunk during the six-month battle for Guadalcanal that the Marines nicknamed the waters offshore "Iron-bottom Sound."
82. MCMWW2_131221_240.JPG: The Battle of Edson's Ridge: "We never felt we'd get out. We thought we'd be paraded in cages in Tokyo. It came out our way by the skin of our teeth." -- Lieutenant Thomas Mullahey, Edson's Raiders The Japanese came closest to recapturing Henderson Field during two bloody nights when their 35th Brigade swarmed out of the jungle toward the grassy ridge that led directly to the airfield. Colonel Merritt Edson, facing the fight of his life, defended the ridge with his 1st Raider Battalion, reinforced by Marine parachutists, engineers, and artillery. Savage fighting raged at point blank range both nights. The Raiders held on desperately, preserving the airfield and the campaign.
83. MCMWW2_131221_243.JPG: The Battle for Guadalcanal America's first offensive against Japan began on 7 August 1942 when the 1st Marine Division assaulted Guadalcanal and Tulagi, in the southern Solomon Islands. The Marines captured the primitive Japanese airfield on Guadalcanal and renamed it after Major Lofton Henderson, killed at Midway. Henderson Field became the focus of a prolonged battle for control of the air, the sea, and the island itself. Ill-supplied, malnourished, malaria-ridden Marines clung to positions in dense jungle on "Starvation Island." Marine aviators challenged Japanese aerial might. Violent naval battles in surrounding waters sank dozens of warships. The intense conflict gradually yielded decisive American success. Japanese Admiral Raizo Tanaka, a key combatant in the campaign, concluded, "Japan's doom was sealed with the closing of the struggle for Guadalcanal."
84. MCMWW2_131221_246.JPG: Turning Point Victory Victory at Guadalcanal came at a high cost in combat casualties, malnutrition, and rampant malaria. Both sides were so successful at interrupting supply convoys during the five-month campaign that it seemed that neither would survive the short rations or jungle pestilence. For the Marines, Guadalcanal marked the coming of age of a new generation of combat leaders. The "Old Corps" represented by mortar wizard and Belleau Wood veteran Lew Diamond, yielded to brash newcomers like Joe Foss, soon to become a legendary fighter ace.
85. MCMWW2_131221_252.JPG: The Makin Raid "If you can't find a submarine, just get me as close as possible to North Carolina." -- Captain Oscar Peatross to his boat crew, Makin withdrawal On a dark night behind Japanese lines in Makin Atoll, Lieutenant Colonel Evans Carlson led 200 Raiders ashore in rubber boats from transport submarines. In an urgent attempt to distract the unremitting Japanese reinforcements of Guadalcanal, the Raiders -- among them Major James Roosevelt, the president's son -- surprised the garrison and raised havoc. Withdrawing Raiders struggled desperately toward the submarines through seething surf, losing more men to the ocean than they had to gunfire. Later, the Japanese beheaded nine stranded Marines.
86. MCMWW2_131221_255.JPG: Marines of Carlson's Raiders boarded transport submarines in Pearl Harbor to launch a long-range raid against Japanese facilities in Makin Atoll in the Gilberts.
87. MCMWW2_131221_257.JPG: Raiders who survived the Makin raid and the difficult extraction through high surf displayed captured Japanese weapons to the submarine crew who picked them up.
88. MCMWW2_131221_259.JPG: Lieutenant Colonel Evans Carlson and Major James Roosevelt were photographed with Lieutenant Commander Jack Pierce, Commanding Officer, USS Argonaut, following the rain on Makin Island.
89. MCMWW2_131221_265.JPG: LtCol Evans F. Carlson Colorful, visionary Evnas Carlson emerged from the turbulent 1930s as one of the era's most controversial Marines. Evans Carlson's admiration for Chinese Communist guerrilla leader Mao Tse-tung's leadership principles made his fellow officers uneasy, but no one questioned Carlson's courage. His "gung ho" ("work together") creed infused his newly formed 2nd Raider Battalion with a unique fighting spirit. Following his raid at Makin, Carlson led his men on a daring, long-range patrol behind enemy lines on Guadalcanal. His novel small-unit organizations evolved into Corps doctrine.
90. MCMWW2_131221_268.JPG: "The Grumman Wildcats snarled through the tropical skips like stiff-winged bumblebees." -- Capt John DeChant
91. MCMWW2_131221_271.JPG: The Cactus Air Force: "Cactus pilots have made the name 'Guadalcanal' a synonym for death and disaster in the language of our enemies." -- General Alexander A. Vandergrift Planes and pilots from the Navy, Army Air Forces, and the Royal New Zealand Air Force joined Marine fighters in the air war above Guadalcanal. Collectively nicknamed the "Cactus Air Force" ("Cactus" was Guadalcanal's code name), the young and initially green pilots lived in muddy squalor and flew at great risk each day. Marine Brigadier General Roy S. Geiger commanded the diverse and exuberant force with an aggressive, scrap-iron toughness that overcame the seemingly insuperable odds.
92. MCMWW2_131221_273.JPG: Air War Over Guadalcanal "The Grumman Wildcats... snarled through the tropical skies like stiff-winged bumblebees." -- Captain John DeChant Each dawn at Guadalcanal, a handful of intrepid Allied airmen scrambled aloft from shell-torn Henderson Field to duel Japanese Zeros, attack enemy shipping, and support hard-pressed Marines. American pilots faced the cream of Japanese naval aviation in this crucial campaign and often came away victorious. The air war cost the enemy at least 600 planes and 2,300 irreplaceable airmen. The US pilots' record is remarkable, considering they mostly flew the stubby Grumman F4F Wildcat fighter. No match for the awesome Zero one-on-one, the Wildcat pilots overcame their disadvantages by fighting as teams.
93. MCMWW2_131221_277.JPG: Ford GPW Jeep In 1941, the word "Jeep" became part of the American lexicon. In 1940, Charles Payne of American Bantam Car Company and the Army Quartermaster put together a list of requirements for a four-wheel-drive light vehicle. The vehicle needed a rectangular body, folding front windshield, a .30 caliber machine gun mount, and blackout lighting, and it must weigh no more than 1,200 pounds. Later specifications included a motor with at least four cylinders. No aluminum could be used in the cylinder head. In 1941, the US issued contracts to manufacture the first production vehicles to Willys-Overland and Ford Motor Company. Jeeps like this one were used by the Marine Corps throughout World War II.
94. MCMWW2_131221_281.JPG: Fighting for Survival: The Japanese responded to the Marine landings on Guadalcanal with furious counterattacks and bombing raids. The US landing at Guadalcanal combined strategic surprise with tactical defense. This enabled the Marines to shock the Japanese garrison long enough to seize a bridgehead and the airfield, but for the next four months they fought for their lives against waves of enemy counterattacks by land, sea, and air. Time and again, the Japanese seemed on the verge of overwhelming the beleaguered Marines. Each time, the Marines, soldiers, and sailors held the line.
95. MCMWW2_131221_289.JPG: Japanese Weapons: "I heard the high chatter of Jap machine guns... the snapping whine of bullets." -- Capt. George P. Hunt, Peleliu Marines in combat soon learned the fallacy of the early war stereotype of near-sighted Japanese infantrymen who could not shoot straight. Instead, enemy soldiers delivered deadly fire from sniper rifles and well-sited machine guns. The Type 92 heavy machine gun wreaked havoc on Raiders caught in the open at Bairoko, New Georgia. Japanese troops also skillfully employed a lethal grenade discharger, which Leathernecks mistakenly called a "knee-mortar" (more than one Marine broke his leg trying to fire the small weapon braced against his knee instead of the ground).
96. MCMWW2_131221_292.JPG: Weapons of War
97. MCMWW2_131221_294.JPG: The Air War: "Keep Rebaul burning!" -- Slogan of American aviators For 44 months, Allied fighters and bombers attacked Rabaul from airbases spread across a widening arc. Nearly 30,000 sorties, half of them by Marines, hurled 41 million pounds of bombs into Rabaul. The Marines introduced lethal new aircraft during the Rabaul campaign, including their first long-range B-25 Mitchell bomber and the renowned F4U Corsair fighter. The gull-winged Corsair pleased the infantry for its awesome ground attack capabilities and delighted the aviators for its speed, range, and payload. At long last, the Marines had a fighter that could prevail in one-on-one clashes with the Japanese Zero.
98. MCMWW2_131221_298.JPG: Japanese gunners defending Rabaul shot the rudder off Major Thomas Coles' fighter, forcing him into a desperate, erratic return flight and an emergency landing.
99. MCMWW2_131221_300.JPG: In the Solomons, American pilots initially faced veteran opponents, and both sides lost heavily in aerial duels. Such aerial combat is depicted in the painting What a Helluva Thing by Paul J. Chinkenbroomer.
100. MCMWW2_131221_303.JPG: Marine Corsairs attacked Rabaul relentlessly in 1943-44, often returning with major tail and fuselage damage after aerial dogfights with Japanese Zeros.
101. MCMWW2_131221_306.JPG: New Georgia: "My feet have now turned purple from the water in my boots." -- Sergeant Henry C. Poppell, 1st Marine Raider Regiment Marine raiders and defense battallions supported the Army's campaign to seize the Japanese airfield at Munda in heavily jungled New Guinea. The raiders made an epic march in torrential rains across Dragons Peninsula to surprise Enogai on the Jula Gulf, then made a valiant effort against the larger port of Bairoko. New Guinea eventually fell to the Army. Marine Corsairs soon took off from Munda for Rabaul.
102. MCMWW2_131221_309.JPG: Bougainville: "It was hand-to-hand and tree-to-tree. One company alone suffered 50 casualties, including all its officers." -- Major Donald M. Schmuck The 3d Marine Division stormed ashore on Bougainville to secure an airfield site only 210 miles from Rabaul. They could not hope to control the entire mountainous island -- the largest of the Solomons. Instead, Marines carved out a perimeter deep enough to protect the airfield. In close, bitter encountered in the thick rain forest, they made famous places they called Hellzapoppin Ridge, Piva Forks, and Cibik's Ridge.
103. MCMWW2_131221_312.JPG: The Marines needed only enough to Bougainville's hilly jungle to carve out a new airstrip to bomb Rabaul. The alarmed Japanese counterattacked fiercely.
104. MCMWW2_131221_315.JPG: Raider machine gunners defended a fighting hole along the Piva Trail on Bougainville. Incessant rain and boot-sucking mud added misery to a bloody campaign.
105. MCMWW2_131221_318.JPG: Evacuation of wounded Raiders from the Dragons Peninsula of New Georgia after the failed attack on Bairoko. Enemy aircraft strafed the seaplane moments later.
106. MCMWW2_131221_321.JPG: Soldiers and Marines of the 1st Raider Regiment advanced through the swampy Dragons Peninsula to attack the Japanese barge port at Bairoko but were repulsed.
107. MCMWW2_131221_325.JPG: Cape Gloucester: "It had been a hellhole. We called it Suicide Creek." -- Corporal Edwin C. Bearss, 7th Marines The 1st Marine Division attacked Cape Gloucester with a surprise landing on western New Britain, 260 miles from Rabaul, but separated from that stronghold by impenetrable jungles. Fighting in heavy rain and abysmal mud, the Marines disappeared into a green inferno so dense and dank that it defied description. Marines were killed by falling trees, stung to death by insects, attacked by wild animals -- all in addition to battling the fanatical Japanese.
108. MCMWW2_131221_328.JPG: The veteran 1st Marine Division resumed the advance on Rabaul by landing in western New Britain, entering Cape Gloucester's jungled "Green Inferno" in late 1943.
109. MCMWW2_131221_335.JPG: The strain of 19 days of fighting on Cape Gloucester showed in the face of Private First Class George Miller, machine gunner, after the battle for Hill 660.
110. MCMWW2_131221_338.JPG: Maj Gregory "Pappy" Boyington "This is the only thing I'd ever want to get up before breakfast for -- to fly." -- Gregory Boyington Swashbuckling "Pappy" Boyington first went to war as a civilian volunteer with the "Flying Tigers" in China, where he shot down six Japanese planes. Later, he led his "Black Sheep" Squadron and their F4U Corsair fighters in a fierce war against Japanese pilots defending Rabaul. After recording 22 kills as a Marine (a record 28 total) he was shot down. Boyington survived brutal captivity and received the Medal of Honor.
111. MCMWW2_131221_345.JPG: Close-Air Support: "The air-infantry team takes the highest degree of understanding and coordination to be successful." -- LtCol Lewis W. Walt The unique relationship forged in the Pacific between riflemen and aviators became a Marine benchmark for future conflicts. Men, who trained first as riflemen and then as aviators, expertly called in air strikes from comrades flying by Marine fighters and dive bombers. The long anticipated arrival of the Vought F4U Corsair in 1943 gave Marine aviators convincing superiority over the Japanese Zero and also provided the infantry a first-class ground attack capability. By assigning experienced aviators as forward air controllers with front line infantry units, the Marines enhanced the success of the new Corsairs, causing Japanese riflemen to nickname the gull-winged plane "the Whistling Death."
112. MCMWW2_131221_350.JPG: Free a Marine to Fight: "We were in for a long war, and women in the Corps could free men to fight." -- Colonel Ruth Streeter, USMC By war's end, nearly 19,000 Women Marines constituted the majority of permanent personnel at all major Marine bases in the country. They served in 225 different military specialties, ranging from truck mechanics to parachute riggers. Their contributions made it possible for the Commandant to deploy 90% of all male Marines overseas, the highest percentage of any other armed force. The Commandant, General Alexander A. Vandergritt, commended Colonel Ruth Streeter for recruiting and training sufficient Women Marines to enable him to transfer the equivalent number of male Leathernecks overseas to form the 6th Marine Division in time for the invasion of Okinawa.
113. MCMWW2_131221_353.JPG: Women Marines in summer service uniforms performed "eyes right" as they passed the reviewing stand.
114. MCMWW2_131221_355.JPG: Sergeant Lena Riggi Basilone christened the destroyer USS Basilone in memory of her husband, the late Gunnery Sergeant John J. Basilone.
115. MCMWW2_131221_358.JPG: Colonel Ruth Cheney Streeter, first director of the Marine Corps Womens Reserve, recruited and trained thousands of women to replace males in stateside billets.
116. MCMWW2_131221_364.JPG: The Homefront: "You may see me in the newsreels if you watch." -- Marine William J. Quinn, letter to his wife Halfway through America's longest conflict since the Civil War, citizens at home planted "Victory Gardens," clipped ration coupons, and avidly followed the war in magazines and theater newsreels. Guadalcanal Diary, by correspondent Richard Tregaskis, fascinated millions of readers. Civilian women like "Rosie the Riveter" worked in factories in unprecedented numbers. Women Marines served in billets ranging from aircraft maintenance to cryptology. Home folks heard from their overseas sons by postage-free "Victory Mail" ("V-Mail"). An agonizing number received government telegrams announcing casualties to loved ones.
117. MCMWW2_131221_383.JPG: Col. David M. Shoup "Casualties: Many. Percentage dead: unknown. Combat efficiency: we are winning!" -- Col. Shoup situation report, 21 November 1943 David Monroe Shoup, 38, from Battleground, Indiana, was a little-known staff officer when MGen Julian Smith chose him as his field commander for the Tarawa assault. Wounded in his four-hour odyssey ashore on D-Day, Shoup remained on his feet for the next 36 hours, exercising fierce command of eight scattered battalions. His first message set the tone: "Tell the general we are going to stick and fight it out." Shoup received the Medal of Honor for Tarawa and later became the 22nd Commandant.
118. MCMWW2_131221_386.JPG: Across the Reef "We could see the American landing craft coming towards us like dozens of spiders. One of my men exclaimed, 'The God of Death has come!' " -- Kitoshi Ota, Imperial Japanese Navy General Julian Smith's Marines converted their logistical amphibian tractors into assault craft to negotiate Betio's barrier reef and man-made obstacles. The "AmTracs" survived heavy fire and delivered the first three waves of assault troops ashore, but the Marines lacked enough vehicles to transport the reinforcements. These troops, embarked in conventional landing boats, were blocked at the reef by a bizarre low tide. A murderous cross-fire raked them as they waded ashore. By dusk, 1,500 Marines were dead, drowned, or wounded.
119. MCMWW2_131221_389.JPG: Issue in Doubt: "The night of D-Day was the greatest danger to our landing forces. This was the crisis of the battle." -- Major General Julian C. Smith, USMC "Issue in doubt!" General Smith's radio warning from Tarawa was chilling. The Marines had not used those words since Wake Island. The Marines clinging to Betio's north shore the night of the invasion were acutely vulnerable to a counterattack. Yet the death that afternoon of their commander, Admiral Shibasaki, left the Japanese disorganized. A rare type of neap tide slowed wholesale Marine reinforcements until the second evening when Major William K. Jones led his 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, ashore in rubber boats. Betio's tide had turned.
120. MCMWW2_131221_392.JPG: Into the gates of hell on invasion day at Tarawa. Somewhere ahead, beneath the smoke, was Betio Island. Even closer was the unseen barrier reef.
121. MCMWW2_131221_395.JPG: 1,500 Marines in the assault waves rode tracked amphibians over the reef to the beach. Crewmen of My Deloris, right, claimed to be the first ashore.
122. MCMWW2_131221_396.JPG: Low water over Betio's coral reef blocked the landing boats, forcing many Marines to wade ashore under heavy fire. The lone pier provided some shelter.
123. MCMWW2_131221_399.JPG: Just getting ashore during the invasion took great courage and determination. Attacking inland beyond the relative safety of the seawall required an even greater measure.
124. MCMWW2_131221_401.JPG: When the reef blocked their boats, gunners of the 10th Marines disassembled their 75mm howitzers and lugged the parts ashore to provide direct fire support.
125. MCMWW2_131221_403.JPG: Fighting their way ashore on Betio was tough enough for the Marines, but the subsequent fighting inland, waged entirely within grenade range, was even deadlier.
126. MCMWW2_131221_410.JPG: Red Beach: Red Beach on Betio Island in the Tarawa Atoll was desperate and chaotic on 20 November 1943 when the Americans landed. One of the surviving senior officers, likely either Colonel David Shoup, commanding the 2nd Marines, or Major Henry Crowe, commanding the 2d Battalion, 8th Marines, stood upright on the fire-swept beach, directing a Marine NCO to lead his squad across the sea wall and attack the Japanese bunkers inland.
127. MCMWW2_131221_413.JPG: Trial by Fire: "Last week some 2,000 or 3,000 United States Marines, most of them now dead or wounded, gave the nation a name to stand beside those of Concord Bridge... the Alamo... and Belleau Wood. The name was 'Tarawa.' " -- Time magazine, December 1943 Tarawa's carnage shocked the nation. Seventy-six hours of bitter fighting left 4,000 Japanese and 1,100 Americans dead on a tiny island. Yet the Marines and Navy had validated their new doctrine of amphibious warfare and learned invaluable lessons. Six weeks later they would invade the Marshalls with improved naval gunfire and air support, many more tracked landing vehicles, and innovative flamethrower tanks, waterproof radios, and underwater demolition teams. A grim confidence appeared among the veterans.
128. MCMWW2_131221_418.JPG: Victory in the three day battle for Tarawa resulted from the initiative of junior officers and noncommissioned officers (NCO), like this wounded corporal leading his men forward.
129. MCMWW2_131221_421.JPG: The Oscar: In 1944, the Motion Picture Academy presented the Marine Corps this Oscar for its gritty documentary With the Marines at Tarawa. Graphic and shocking to American audiences, it was filmed by Marines of the 2d Photographic Division and released on the order of President Frnaklin D. Roosevelt.
130. MCMWW2_131221_425.JPG: Tarawa: "Tarawa was one of those rare battles in which every participant became a hero in spite of himself. Just getting ashore, or trying to was a major act of courage." -- Lieutenant George D. Lillibridge, USMC The Japanese bomber strip on tiny Betio Island, lying within Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands, became the first objective of the US Central Pacific campaign. In American hands, the airstrip would facilitate the subsequent invasion of the Marshall Islands, 600 miles westward. Major General Julian C. Smith's 2nd Marine Division received the mission of forcibly seizing Betio and Tarawa Atoll. Admiral Keiji Shibasaki defended Betio with 5,000 Special Naval Landing Force troops ("Imperial Marines"). The Japanese had so shrewdly fortified the island with high-velocity weapons and blockhouses that yard for yard -- Betio would become the most heavily defended beach the Marines ever assaulted.
131. MCMWW2_131221_430.JPG: Central Pacific Campaigns: "Our time has come to attack!" -- Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, 11 November 1943 The Pacific War changed dramatically on 20 November 1943 when an enormous US fleet appeared unexpectedly in the heart of the Japanese occupied Gilbert Islands and launched concurrent amphibious assaults against Tarawa and Makin Atolls. To this point the United States had fought desperately with limited resources in the South Pacific while waiting for the nation's industry to reach full wartime production. That day had come. Admiral Chester Nimitz, Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Fleet, abruptly found himself possessing more ships and planes than any commander in history. Included in this new arsenal were enough Marines, amphibious ships, and landing craft for the Leathernecks to spearhead a drive across the vast Central Pacific to the very doorstep of Japan. Yet first it was essential that the Marines validate their still unproven doctrine of offensive amphibious assault against a heavily defended shoreline. Betio Island, in Tarawa Atoll, the first objective in the new campaign, would provide that trial by fire.
132. MCMWW2_131221_433.JPG: The Marshall Islands: Marine war plans since the 1920s anticipated the need to seize the widespread Marshall Islands for advance naval bases in any future war against Japan. Now was the time. Admiral Raymond Spruance's Fifth Fleet, bolstered by its victory at Tarawa, hit the Marshall Islands with vehemence. Using his carriers as an effective shield, Spruance bypassed the eastern Marshalls to strike directly at Kwajelein and Roi-Namur, then moved swiftly against Eniwetok on the far western edge of the islands. Sharp fighting ensued, and a thousand Marines and Army soldiers died in a dozen landings, but conditions did not approach the level of desperation seen at Tarawa. The Marines had converted the amphibious assault lessons learned at great cost at Tarawa into improved tactics, firepower, and mobility. In less than three months, the amphibious forces had taken a thousand-mile bite out of the Japanese perimeter.
133. MCMWW2_131221_436.JPG: Seizing Roi-Namur: The Marine Force Reconnaissance Company helped seize Majuro at the onset of the Marshall Islands campaign. Shortly, there were 30 ships anchored in the lagoon. A Marine dive bomber squadron soon arrived. The newly formed 4th Marine Division received the mission of seizing the twin islands of Roi and Namur, lying within Kwajalein Atoll. Learning from Tarawa, the Marines seized small islets around their objective in advance as fire support bases for field artillery. Following sustained heavy bombardment by ships and howitzers, the Marines swept ashore with a combined arms assault, using tanks, halftracks, and new armored amphibian vehicles to maintain the advance. Both islands fell within two days.
134. MCMWW2_131221_439.JPG: Admiral Chester Nimitz by-passed the outer ring of islands to strike Kwajelein Atoll in the center of the Marshalls. The 4th Marine Division assaulted Roi-Namur.
135. MCMWW2_131221_442.JPG: Eniwetok Atoll "I stayed awake all night with a knife in one hand and a grenade in the other. They crept in among us, and every bush or rock took on sinister proportions." -- Second Lieutenant Cord Meyer The swift amphibious victories at Kwajalein encouraged Admiral Chester Nimitz to accelerate the seizure of Eniwetok, 300 miles farther west. This required Major General Holland Smith, USMC, commanding V Amphibious Corps, to commit his reserves, including the 22d Marines. As at Kwajelein, the Americans seized islets for advance artillery bases and sacrificed surprise for sustained bombardments. The 22d Marines assaulted Engebi, helped the 104th Infantry seize Eniwetok Island, then captured Parry, completing the 23-day conquest of the Marshall Islands. American forces now abruptly threatened the Japanese Marianas.
136. MCMWW2_131221_444.JPG: A heavy machine gun crew of the 24th Marines wrestled its Browning .50 caliber weapon into firing position on Namur Island in Kwajalein Atoll.
137. MCMWW2_131221_447.JPG: Necklace-shaped Eniwetok Atoll contained strong Japanese positions on the larger islets. The 22d Marines assaulted Engebi and Parry in short and violent battles.
138. MCMWW2_131221_449.JPG: Exhausted members of the 22d Marines celebrated their safe return aboard ship after the three-day battle for Engebi in the Marshall Islands, February 1944.
139. MCMWW2_131221_453.JPG: The Marine Fire Team: "Four brave men who do not know each other will not dare to attack a lion. Four less brave, but knowing each other well... will attack resolutely." -- Colonel Ardent du Picq, 1821-1870 The 12-man rifle squad, led by a sergeant, remained the Marines' smallest tactical unit for years. But the chaotic beach assaults of the Pacific War revealed control and firepower deficiencies in the squad's structure. Before the Marshalls, the Marines subdivided their squads into three four-man fire teams led by corporals, each centered on a Browning automatic rifleman. This innovation improved the sergeant's ability to control the fire and maneuver of his squad, while having three Browning Automatic Rifles enhanced his firepower. Generations of Marines would gain their first leadership experience as fire team leaders.
140. MCMWW2_131221_456.JPG: The Marines devised the four-man fire team to improve the rifle squad's control and firepower. Diagrams in the Guidebook for Marines depicted tactical formations.
141. MCMWW2_131221_460.JPG: Riflemen of the 23d Marines on Roi Island engaged Japanese marksmen from the dubious cover but fair concealment of a fallen palm tree.
142. MCMWW2_131221_463.JPG: Assaulting the Marianas: "Now we are up against mountains and caves when the Japs can really dig in. A week from now there will be a lot of dead Marines." -- Lieutenant General Holland M. Smith, 7 Amphibious Corps America's wartime production reached full capacity by June 1944, enabling the US to launch two enormous amphibious operations simultaneously on opposite sides of the earth D-Day at Normandy, France, and the other in the Marianas. By seizing Saipan, Tinian, and Guam in the Marianas, the Marines for the first time breached Japan's "Absolute Defensive Sphere" and secured airfields within strategic bombing range of the enemy's homeland. In a desperate sortie, the Japanese Mobile Fleet threatened the US invasion armada cluster around Saipan, but the Fifth Fleet won an epic victory in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. While the Marines still faced fierce fighting ashore on each island, they no longer feared Japanese counter-landings.
143. MCMWW2_131221_468.JPG: The Battle for Saipan: "The enemy met the assault operations with pointless bravery, inhuman tenacity, cave fighting, and the will to lose hard." -- Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, USN The Marines paid a top-heavy price for Saipan. Their well-orchestrated amphibious assault delivered the veteran 2d and 4th Marine Divisions ashore in good order, but Japanese artillery fire soon raked the beaches, inflicting 2,000 casualties by nightfall. The ensuing battle for Saipan's rugged interior cost 10,000 more. The Japanese fought to the death. At the end, 3.000 survivors, some armed only with spears, unleashed the largest banzai charge of the war. After a night of wild fighting, most lay dead.
144. MCMWW2_131221_470.JPG: Magicenne Bay held Saipan's best landing beaches, but the Marines surprised the Japanese by assaulting the opposite coast. Looming Mt. Tapotchau was one objective.
145. MCMWW2_131221_472.JPG: Navy and Marine amphibious forces surprised the Japanese at Tinian, diverting them in the south while landing the main force over narrow openings northward.
146. MCMWW2_131221_475.JPG: In the Mariana Islands campaign, Montford Point Marines saw combat for the first time. On Saipan, the 18th and 20th Marine Depot Companies landed under fire. Members of the 18th Depot Company served as emergency infantry men during the height of the battle, while the rest of the company eliminated Japanese infiltrators the next morning. For the first time, black Marines received medals for valor. Privates First Class Jeff Smith and Charles F. Smith were awarded the Purple Heart. PFC Luther Woodard received a Silver Star for his heroism on Guam.
147. MCMWW2_131221_478.JPG: Marines dashed through the burning streets of Garapan, capital of Saipan, engaging in the Corps' first street fighting since Vera Cruz, Mexico, 30 years earlier.
148. MCMWW2_131221_481.JPG: Chaos seemed to rule the Saipan beachhead on invasion day as Japanese artillery fire rained down from the hills, yet 20,000 Marines landed by dark.
149. MCMWW2_131221_483.JPG: The most critical axiom in amphibious assault was to get off the beach and move inland. At Saipan, a lieutenant led his men forward.
150. MCMWW2_131221_485.JPG: Most Marines deployed to the Pacific for two or three years and moved about often. Mail call was an infrequent and most welcome event, even in battle.
151. MCMWW2_131221_488.JPG: Unlike the jungled hills of nearby Saipan, Tinian was flat and cultivated, an ideal future base for long-range bombers to take the war to Japan.
152. MCMWW2_131221_492.JPG: The Battle for Tinian: "You don't need tanks. You need undertakers. I never saw so many dead Japs." -- Major Robert I. Neiman, Marine tanker, after the enemy counterattack Tinian represented the most successful application of amphibious virtuosity in the Pacific War. The Marines combined innovative planning with violent execution, surprising the Japanese with a major diversion in the south accompanied by a stealthy landing over two narrow gaps in the north. After repulsing a major counterattack, the 2d and 4th Marine Divisions drove relentlessly southward. Tinian fell in nine days. Navy Seabees converted Tinian's canefields into airfields for the new B-29 Superfortresses. From here one year later, the Enola Gay launched with the first atomic bomb.
153. MCMWW2_131221_496.JPG: The Battle for Guam: "Get the lieutenant! They're coming!" -- Private Dale Fitzer, war dog handler, on being alerted by Skipper, his Labrador retriever Guam was a liberation operation. The island had been home to generations of Marines since 1898. While the Japanese resisted fiercely, the Guamanians cheered their liberators. General Roy Geiger, the first Marine aviator to command an amphibious corps, worked well with his Navy counterpart, Admiral Richard "Close In" Conolly, who earned his nickname by bombarding from short range. Seizing the Marianas cost 21,000 Marine and 5,000 Army casualties, yet the United States now held airbases within bombing range of Japan. "Hell is upon us," declared a senior Japanese official.
154. MCMWW2_131221_499.JPG: The Japanese stacked their defenses around Tumon Bay, the principal site of their 1941 landing, but the Marines forged ashore at two sites further south.
155. MCMWW2_131221_501.JPG: Marines lept from an amphibian tractor on Guam's west coast, commencing the liberation of that island after 31 months of Japanese occupation.
156. MCMWW2_131221_507.JPG: The Japanese Code of Bushido: "The Jap soldiers would not surrender and would not permit the civilians to surrender.... The women would throw their children into the ocean and jump in and commit suicide." -- Lieutenant Colonel Justice M. Chambers, Marpi Point, Saipan The sight of Japanese soldiers and civilians leaping to their deaths from Saipan's Marpi Point shocked the Marines. The Japanese military subscribed to the ancient Samurai code of Bushido, "the way of the warrior." The code regarded surrender a disgrace, enemy prisoners of war subhuman, and suicide a glorious sacrifice for the Emperor. Japanese leaders utilized this blind obedience in 1944-45 to launch suicidal raids against the US fleet with kamikaze aircraft, explosive powerboats, and "human torpedoes" aboard midget submarines.
157. MCMWW2_131221_516.JPG: Japanese soldiers fought hard and died hard. More chose death over surrender. Many committed suicide at battle's end. Guam, August 1944.
158. MCMWW2_131221_518.JPG: Marine Aviation at Sea: "The Marine aviator and the Marine foot soldier must be a team." -- Brigadier General Louis E. Woods, Director of Marine Aviation, Time magazine, 12 June 1944 The Marine air-ground team, a distinctive characteristic of the Corps since the 1920s, lost cohesion after the Rabaul campaign because land-based Marine aircraft could not keep within range of the fast-paced, island-hopping war in the Central Pacific. Resuming the pre-war practice of deploying Marine fighter squadrons aboard Navy carriers took months because the Marines had unwisely halted carrier training for their pilots in 1943. As a consequence, Marine riflemen had to put their faith in Navy carrier aviators for close support of each assault landing from Tarawa through Peleliu. The return of sea-based Marine aviation came just in time to intercept a deadly new threat: the massed Japanese kamikaze suicide attacks that dominated the Okinawa campaign.
159. MCMWW2_131221_521.JPG: Marine Pilots on Fleet Carriers: "One Marine. One bomb. One Navy Cross." -- Correspondent Robert Sherrod, describing the contribution of Marine Corsair pilot Kenneth E. Huntington against the Japanese battleship Yamato Threatened by Japanese kamikazes, the Navy requested 8 Marine squadrons to augment the fleet carriers for Iwo Jima and Okinawa. The accelerated qualification program proved costly to Marine aviators, losing 13 aircraft to accidents in the first 9 days. Once qualified, the Leathernecks contributed significantly. They provided spectacular close-air support to the Marine landings on Iwo Jima, participated in the first fighter strikes against mainland Japan, helped sink the battleship Yamato, and flew desperate interception missions against massed kamikaze attacks throughout the Okinawa campaign.
160. MCMWW2_131221_524.JPG: "Jeep Carriers" "I am willing to take my ship to the shores of Japan if I could have these Marines with me." -- Commander Baron J. Mullaney, praising the escort-based Marine Corsairs during his destroyer's battle against kamikazes The pint-sized Navy escort carriers proved to be the best available aircraft platform for Marine fighter squadrons to support their riflemen assaulting the beach. Four Marine "Jeep carriers" fought in the Okinawa campaign, setting a precedent for the Korean War. Early seizure of enemy airfields during an amphibious assault provided an alternate means of positioning Marine tactical aircraft within range of the infantry. Marine pilots flying from captured airfields on Peleliu and Okinawa proved they could protect the riflemen as well as the fleet.
161. MCMWW2_131221_530.JPG: PFC Eugene B. Sledge
162. MCMWW2_131221_532.JPG: Death Valley: The Marines called the heavily defended southwest approach to the Umurbrogal Highlands "Death Valley." Japanese soldiers defending "Death Valley" manned heavy machine guns in scores of caves in the sheer cliffs of the Umurbrogal Highlands. They fortified low-lying cave entrances with 55-gallon drums filled with coral rocks. The Marines attacked these positions with Sherman tanks, often at point blank range. In turn, Japanese antitank mines took their toil. Veterans returning to Peleliu on the 50th anniversary of World War II found a Sherman tank in the jungle, blown upside down by such a mine.
163. MCMWW2_131221_538.JPG: The Umurbrogal Highlands: "It was a young man's war. Only a young man could fight all night, then attack all day." -- Captain John E. McLaughlin, USMC The Marines seized the airfield and developed an expeditionary port in a matter of days, but the battle for the Umurbrogal Highlands dragged on another ten weeks. The abominable terrain, broiling heat, and incessant fire from hundreds of Japanese caves exacted a heavy toll on the attackers. By 20 October, the 1st Marine Division, reduced by 6,500 casualties, had to be relieved by the 81st Army Division. Army bands of Japanese held out for three more years.
164. MCMWW2_131221_540.JPG: Marines used small rocket launchers (bazookas) against Peleliu's caves when steep terrain limited tank operations, but the weapon's back-blast drew enemy fire.
165. MCMWW2_131221_547.JPG: The strain of close combat in Peleliu's craggy highlands was evident in this Marine's face. The Japanese were well led, heavily armed, and virtually invisible.
166. MCMWW2_131221_550.JPG: Seizing the Beachhead: "The beach was a sheet of flame backed by a huge wall of black smoke, as though the island was on fire." -- Privat [sic] First Class Eugene B. Sledge, USMC Japanese gunners inflicted 1,100 casualties on the 1st Marine Division on 15 September 1944. Yet sufficient riflemen and tanks fought their way ashore to establish a tenuous beachhead and repulse a tank-led counterattack late that afternoon. The most desperate fighting took place at "The Point," a fortified promontory on the left flank, seized by "King" Company of the 1st Marines, then defended by their remnants for two days and nights to safeguard the exposed beachhead.
167. MCMWW2_131221_553.JPG: A Marine shared his canteen with his wounded buddy. Peleliu, 420 miles from the equator, was scorching hot. Temperatures reached 115 degrees F the second day of the battle. The natives called the Peleliu highlands Umurbrogal. The Marines soon nicknamed the jumbled moonscape of limestone cliffs and canyons "Bloody Nose Ridge."
168. MCMWW2_131221_559.JPG: Photographer Joe Rosenthal took this shot of charging Marines and burning landing craft at Peleliu, five months before his epic Iwo Jima flag-raising image.
169. MCMWW2_131221_562.JPG: Marines crawled forward under grazing fire along the center of Peleliu's Orange Beach. Other troops stormed a Japanese stronghold dug into the coral knob ahead.
170. MCMWW2_131221_565.JPG: Peleliu: "Everything about Peleliu left a bad taste in your mouth." -- Colonel Merwin H. Silverthorn, USMC Peleliu would be the bitterest battle of the war for the Marines. The Joint Chiefs of Staff regarded the island's Japanese bomber strip a major threat to General Douglas MacArthur's imminent "return to the Philippines." While subsequently enemy losses in the region diminished the danger, the Marines' mission remained unchanged. Riflemen of the 1st Marine Division stormed ashore at Peleliu to encounter a well-armed Japanese force defending 500 caves that honey-combed the sheer coral cliffs of the Umurbrogal Highlands. It was a nightmarish maze the Marines soon nicknamed "Bloody Nose Ridge." The fighting did little to enhance MacArthur's return to the Philippines and cost the joint force 10,000 casualties, a price many survivors considered excessive.
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Description of Subject Matter: World War II: 1939-1945
America entered WWII on 7 December 1941 against a formidable opponent. In the months following the�attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese had swept away several Marine Corps outposts in the Pacific; and�the Marine Corps was a small expeditionary force with outdated equipment and an unproven new�mission: amphibious assault. However, the Marines’ amphibious assault on Iwo Jima and the hard won�success of taking the island from the Japanese was a turning point in regaining control in the Pacific. As�US forces fought their way across the Pacific and turned early losses into victories, they redefined the�meaning of “uncommon valor.”�
The gallery showcases the gripping story of the Pacific campaigns. With the help of tanks, artillery�pieces, aircraft, small arms, and an individual Marine’s everyday “junk on a bunk,” visitors can see and�“feel” what a Marine experienced during those harrowing days. Exhibits highlight war time innovations�in tactics and equipment, special units, Women Marines, racial integration, Navajo code talkers, and the�role of the Navy corpsmen.�
In one immersive exhibit, visitors are briefed on their pending assault landing on the island of Iwo Jima�before they board a Higgins boat for the perilous trip to the beach. Sound and video provide a realistic�experience. Close by is the flag raised on Iwo Jima and photographed by Associated Press photographer�Joe Rosenthal.�
The poignant display of 6,000 Marine Corps and US Navy insignias represents the cost in human lives�that were required to take that one island. This gallery honors the uncommon valor, sacrifices, and�accomplishments of America’s “Greatest Generation.”

The most interesting features of this gallery, at least to me, were the "immersive" landing experience at Iwo Jima and the flag lifted at Mt. Suribachi. They have both of the flags. The second one, the bigger one which is pretty well ripped up, is the one that was photographed in the famous Joe Rosenthal phot ...More...
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2013 photos: Trips this year: three Civil War Trust conferences (Memphis, TN, Jackson, MS [to which I added a week to to visit sites in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Tennessee], and Richmond, VA), and my 8th consecutive San Diego Comic-Con trip (including sites in Nevada and California). Ego Strokes: Aviva Kempner used my photo of her as her author photo in Larry Ruttman's "American Jews & America's Game: Voices of a Growing Legacy in Baseball" book. Equipment this year: I mostly used my Fuji XS-1 camera but, depending on the event, I also used a Nikon D7000 and Nikon D600. Number of photos taken this year: just over 570,000.
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