| Running past 2 pillboxes destroyed by gunfire from United States Navy warships, 2 United States Marines run for cover from Japanese snipers. Photo by Joe Rosenthal (October 9, 1911 – August 20, 2006). 2 United States Marines crouch low and dash for cover to escape Japanese sniper fire on a slope overlooking the right flank of fighting on Iwo Jima. The concrete blockhouses were knocked out by concentrated naval fire. Dead Japanese soldiers were numerous, most of them burned to a charred mass by flamethrowers or demolition charges that blew apart their pillboxes. They were buried in shattered concrete blockhouses hit by shells from the Navy and bombs from the United States Army Air Force or burned out by Marines with flamethrowers. Japanese gunners in blockhouses had a wide field of fire at the invasion beach. Rocky terrain on Iwo Jima proved a tough obstacle to Marines who had to climb ridges and hills pocked marked with enemy sniper and machine emplacements. Rosenthal later wrote, “I have said this before, and I have written this before, and I mean it with all my heart. I say it again because it is one of the strongest recollections I have of that day more than a half century ago. Surviving that beach on D-Day was like walking in rain without getting wet. No one can explain how he survived. I surely can’t.” “I ran up the beach and, as in the other assaults, I looked for some kind of quick cover…I never could escape that feeling of grabbing for Mother Earth…that feeling of what the hell am I doing here…I didn’t escape those thoughts on Iwo…but I just had to shake myself loose…focus my mind again to the job that had to done…let everything else be excluded.” Rosenthal continues, “Iwo sand was loose and gray/black…it was hard to move at anything that resembled running speed. As I ducked from shell hole to shell hole, I spotted bodies and body parts of those who ran this route before me…I remember patches of sand discolored to a deep red black by the blood of those who proceeded me…” “Death on this beach was violent…more so than other beaches. That is because it was mortar fire that killed so many…not rifle or machine gun fire…though they took their toll, too. But the mortars were powerful explosives…so very many died instantly from the fierce blast of a nearby mortar round…their bodies literally torn apart instantly by the tremendous force of the mortar.” “I shot pictures of Marines moving up the beach, then sought cover behind a blasted-out blockhouse or pillbox. I made more pictures of the Marines on the beach. I tried for pictures of a burning jeep but couldn’t get it right.” | |
| Image Filename | wwii1849.jpg |
| Image Size | 802.29 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2984 x 1989 |
| Photographer | Joe Rosenthal |
| Photographer Title | |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | March 2, 1945 |
| Location | |
| City | |
| State or Province | Iwo Jima |
| Country | Bonins |
| Archive | |
| Record Number | |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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