Iwo Jima Snapshots

Clearing ash-coated Iwo Jima of its grim Japanese defenders was a grind unlike anything US marines had ever experienced before.

Marines landing craftMarines landing craft
Marines pour out of landing craft and onto Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945, D-day for the island’s invasion. (National Archives)
 Beach minesBeach mines
Wielding their K-Bar knives, marines probe the shoreline for Japanese-laid mines. (National Archives)		  
Marines at Suribachi
Exhausted leathernecks pause for a breather below Japanese positions on imposing Mt. Suribachi. (National Archives)		 Marines sound system
Three days into the invasion, marines employ a sound system in an effort to talk Japanese soldiers out of caves around Mt. Suribachi. (National Archives)

 Suribachi
By February 23, 1945, marines had planted the American flag atop Mt. Suribachi, and navy and coast guard ships were pouring more men and supplies onto the island’s beaches. (National Archives)
Beachhead tents
But the battle was far from won. It had scarcely begun. Six days into the invasion, the marines’ beachhead remained a clutter of men and tents. (National Archives)		 Japanese tank
A marine inspects the wreckage of a Japanese light tank destroyed on Hill 382. (National Archives) 		 
Machine-gun marines
Seated in a pool of shell casings, marine machine-gunners target Japanese defenders hidden along the island’s Airfield Number 2. (National Archives) 		Devil dogs
Aided by enemy-sniffing “devil dogs,” a 3rd Marine Division security detail sets out on a patrol. (National Archives)		 Marine sniper
Struck in the face by a sniper’s bullet, a platoon leader reels from an improvised marine observation post. (National Archives)
Flame thrower
Led by a single rifleman, flamethrower-toting marines of the 5th Division struggle forward to smoke out a nest of Japanese pillboxes. (National Archives) 		Japanese dead at Hill 382
Japanese corpses litter the slopes of bitterly contested Hill 382. (National Archives)		  
Marines mortaring Japanese dugout
Supported by a tank, marines brave exploding enemy mortar shells to storm Japanese dugouts on Iwo Jima’s rocky northern half. (National Archives) 		Marines mortaring airfield
Dug in above Airfield Number 2, mortar men of the 21st Marine Regiment’s 3rd Battalion go to work. (National Archives) 		Marine reading mail in his foxhole
Taking advantage of a lull in the fighting, a marine enjoys a fresh stack of mail. (National Archives)
Japanese POW
Japanese POWs ponder their fate aboard a US Navy transport. Few of Iwo Jima’s 21,000 Japanese defenders lived to be captured. (National Archives) 		Weapons
The five-week campaign for Iwo Jima took its toll on US marines, as this stack of ownerless weapons suggests. (National Archives)