World War II Photograph

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.