Photographs from the Battle of Iwo Jima

26-G-4121 First waves of Marines head for the shores at Iwo Jima.

26-G-4122 Across the litter on Iwo Jima’s black sands, Marines of the 4th Division shell Japanese positions cleverly concealed back from the beaches. Coming ashore in Coast Guard-manned and Navy landing craft, Marines seized a foothold under murderous crossfire and soon had set up artillery to reply to enemy fire. Here, a gun pumps a stream of shells into Japanese positions inland on the tiny volcanic island in Tokyo’s “Front Yard.”

26-G-4123 AMTRACS from Coast Guard-manned LST’s carrying Fourth Division Marines poke through the wreckage to crawl up on the blackened sands of Iwo Jima. At right is a shattered Japanese transport. Shelled to destruction by the terrific pre-invasion bombardment of U.S. Navy guns. American equipment, caught in a cross-fire from hidden Japanese positions, bogged down in the volcanic ash sands, but the alligators were able to creep forward through the destruction.

26-G-4124 Black smoke hangs over the embattled shores of Iwo Jima as AMTRACs from Coast Guard-manned LST’s move the fifth assault wave of Marines into the fierce battle for the volcano islet known as “Hell’s Acre.” This line of amphibious tractors was snapped by a Coast Guard combat photographer about 500 yards off shore.

26-G-4125 Through the bow doors of a Coast Guard-manned LST, a duck takes to the water to carry Marines to the flaming shores of Iwo Jima. It is D-Day and the battle for this Pacific “Gibraltar” is mounting in fury.

26-G-4128 Rounded up in the bitter fighting off Iwo Jima. The first Japanese prisoners of that operation are taken aboard a Coast Guard-manned invasion transport. Few Japanese on Iwo Jima were captured as the sons of Nippon fought with fanatical fury to hold the volcanic island fortress against the tremendous striking power of the American forces.

26-G-4135 Dead Japanese lie twisted grotesquely in the volcanic dust of Iwo Jima. In a shell hole gouged on the ashy slopes below Mount Suribachi. Off shore, thickly massed, is the irresistible striking force of America’s amphibious invaders. An imposing array of Navy ships, coast Guard-manned LST’s and smaller landing craft. It was in a futile attempt to block this formidable attacking power that these Japanese died on Iwo, the tiny spot called “Sulphur Island.”

26-G-4136 Sprawled face down in the soft volcanic dust of an Iwo Jima shell hole dug by the great guns of the U.S. fleet, a Marine finds his “journey’s end” on the tiny island which the Japanese defended with ferocious tenacity. A Coast Guard combat photographer, going in with the invaders, made this picture. Grimly symbolic of thecourage-unto-death with which the Marines fought their bitterest fight.

26-G-4140 From the crest of Mount Suribachi, the Stars and Stripes wave in triumph over Iwo Jima after U.S. Marines had fought their way inch by inch up its steep lava-encrusted slopes, wiping out Japanese contesting their climb from caves guarded by pillboxes. Below stretches the beach, called Futatsune, where Coast Guard-manned and Navy LST’s pour forth men and armaments to carry the battle for Iwo to its northern edges.

26-G-4141A Clambering up the lava-encrusted walls of Mount Suribachi, a Coast Guard combat photographer snapped this shot of Old Glory unfurled to the breeze a few seconds after Marines had planted it there on the Volcanic knob at the souther tip of Iwo Jima. Raising of the flag marked the end of the early stage of the fierce battle for Iwo and the mopping up of Japanese gun nests hidden in the caves of the volcano.

26-G-4143 Along the beaches of Iwo Jima, AMTRACS are bogged down in the sands. Some of them stopeed by the fierce enfilading fire of the Japanese, others half buried by the treacherous volcanic ash spewed out in years gone by from the crater of Mount Suribachi. Marines and Coast Guard beach parties, in background, operate communications and command posts and foxhole “hospitals,” as assault troops shove the enemy away from the embattled beaches.

26-G-4147 If you live in Albany, New York or Queens, Long Island, perhaps you recognize these Marines which a Coast Guard combat photographer found crouching in a listening post dug in Iwo Jima’s coffee grounds sands. Typically American are the sign posts. Placing Tokyo, their destination, at 700 miles, and home, Albany and Queens, 8,600 miles, which is slightly more than “around the block.”

26-G-4162 The landings on Iwo Jima, brutally tough under heavy Japanese fire, were made even tougher for Coast Guard and Navy crews by the heavy, grinding surf, which wreaked havoc with many a landing craft. Here, beach parties attempt to square away two “ducks”, battered by the combers and rapidly filling with water on the blackened sands of the volcanic island fortress.

26-G-4189 Awaiting evacuation from conquered Iwo Jima, a group of wounded Marines are snapped by a Coast Guard combat photographer lying in the shade of the giant wing of a Yank C-47. The big plane is on the runway of Iwo Jima’s Motoyama Airfield, wrested from the Japanese in furious fighting and now a vital link in America’s air attacks against Japan.

26-G-4207 A dead Japanese soldier lies face up in Iwo Jima’s ashes. A picture of ugliness snapped by a Coast Guard combat photographer covering the invasion of that island fortress. Still fastened to his neck is the hand grenade with which he may have intended to blast away his own life when American attackers closed in. A Marine save him the job with a well-placed bullet.

26-G-4208 Stacked like corwood from the explosion of a Yankee shell, these Japanese soldiers lie sprawled in death in a crater on Iwo Jima. A Coast Guard combat photographer came upon them just south of the first air strip as he followed American attackers in from the beachhead early in the battle for possession of the vital “sulphur island.”

26-G-4227 Following a pulverizing bombardment from the big guns of the battle wagons, Coast Guard-manned and Navy landing craft move against the beaches of Iwo Jima from transports standing off shore on D-Day. Thus opened the bloodiest battle in the Pacific war as the Japanese fought fanatically to retain the vital volcanic island fortress only 750 miles from Tokyo.

26-G-4462 Striking with overwhelming power, American forces crash against the beaches of Iwo Jima. Coast Guard-manned and Navy landing craft with Marines pile onto the beach. On the ridge, advanced guards are visible

26-G-4465 The surf gushes into the shattered wreckage of a Marine AMTRAC and a splintered landing boat lying dead on the beach of Iwo Jima. They were hit by the murderous Japanese mortar, shell and machine gun fire that tore from hidden emplacements on the heights of the island fortress. In background, a Coast Guard-manned LST unloads while further off rises the frowning hump of Mount Suribachi.

26-G-4467 Japanese ship wrecked on Iwo Jima.

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