Iwo Jima USMC battlefield photos (1 Viewer)

[24th_infantry]

These photos came from a Marine vet who fought and was wounded twice on Iwo Jima. He served with the 5th Engineer Battalion, 5th Marine Division. He was wounded March 4, 1945 and March 17, 1945. He brought home a few war trophies, one of them being a Jap good luck prayer book (seems it didn't bring its former owner any luck). Included is a piece of his HBT uniform worn on Iwo when he was wounded.

The photos are most interesting, especially the sayings he writes next to the photos. I like the "Dead Japs Are the Best Kind" next to the death photo. It really shows the love these soldiers had for the barbaric Japs.

 

[Humungus]

Most excellent post.

 

[ZeroK]

The Pacific is my favorite theatre of WW2. Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Saipan, Peleliu and Iwo.

 

[24th_infantry]

The Pacific is my favorite theatre of WW2. Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Saipan, Peleliu and Iwo.

Definitely! This is my second PTO grouping with dead Japanese photos. Really gives you a good idea what things looked like for them. I have another album from Saipan and Tinian from a SeaBee

 

[wiggins]

These photos came from a Marine vet who fought and was wounded twice on Iwo Jima. He served with the 5th Engineer Battalion, 5th Marine Division. He was wounded March 4, 1945 and March 17, 1945. He brought home a few war trophies, one of them being a Jap good luck prayer book (seems it didn't bring its former owner any luck). Included is a piece of his HBT uniform worn on Iwo when he was wounded.

The photos are most interesting, especially the sayings he writes next to the photos. I like the "Dead Japs Are the Best Kind" next to the death photo. It really shows the love these soldiers had for the barbaric Japs.

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thank you. These are fantastic photos which do not appear in any of the books I've read on the campaign. We see plenty of battle field pics but we never get to smell the battlefield. Those piles of corpses fermenting in the almost tropical heat not to mention hot ground of Iwo Jima must have spread the smell of death all over the island.

I have read accounts of the 1st July attack on the Somme. The British lost 20 000 men killed in the first hour. July is summer of course and I worked out the mass in kg of those men and at say 80kg each that's in the order of 20 tons of meat lying in the summer heat.

The horror indeed...

 

[rocco54]

 

[ZeroK]

Definitely! This is my second PTO grouping with dead Japanese photos. Really gives you a good idea what things looked like for them. I have another album from Saipan and Tinian from a SeaBee

Would love to see that. One question about the pics with the palm trees my friend. I don't recall palm trees or hardly any trees on Iwo. In fact there's a pic of Iwo where the photographer (Norman Hatch?) points out a solitary tree. U think ur pic might be from Tarawa or some other island? Much respect 24th!

 

[wiggins]

Falaise Gap was another horror odour scene. Aircraft flying at 5000 feet had pilots almost puking into their masks... An absolute meat and horse grinder (the German army, for all it's fancy stuff, was still moved the same way as Napoleon's, by horse and foot. The trucks they took to Russia were a hodgepodge of discarded French and captured British stuff for which they had to pull spares from broken down vehicles to fix what they still had running.

 

[24th_infantry]

Thanks wiggins. Those are pretty nasty calculations. Sadly so many of our school history books in the US are drastically censored and so many students are given just snippets of the war. When I did a presentation for a High School I had to get parental permission to bring in German items. It is a shame what these kids are learning now because so much has been cut away from the curriculum.

 

[wiggins]

Thanks wiggins. Those are pretty nasty calculations. Sadly so many of our school history books in the US are drastically censored and so many students are given just snippets of the war. When I did a presentation for a High School I had to get parental permission to bring in German items. It is a shame what these kids are learning now because so much has been cut away from the curriculum.

Parental permission... wow, that's interesting. What were the items? Tattoo skin lamp shades or a bar of 'kosher soap'?

 

[24th_infantry]

Haha it was a German armband and helmet. God forbid I corrupted their minds or made someone butthurt. It was the time when that PC bullshit movement began.

 

[mikeformo0341]

Being a Marine vet and having server 2 combat tours, I appreciate this post more than any other! Semper Fi

 

[24th_infantry]

Being a Marine vet and having server 2 combat tours, I appreciate this post more than any other! Semper Fi

You are quite welcome my friend!

 

[DokraOwl]

My friend's grandpa once told us a story about how he once risked his life on Iwo Jima to save his breakfast bacon which had fallen behind enemy lines during an early morning Jap offensive. The story goes he was cooking the bacon in his mess tin when the Japs advanced on their position and they were forced back to the cover of some rocks. Disobeying orders to fall back further, he saw an opening in the Jap line and went in solo. Under heavy enemy fire he grabbed the mess tin containing the sizzling hot bacon and returned to his unit.

He ended up being wounded and awarded a purple heart a few days later when a Jap grenade exploded near him which cost him a kidney and his left ear.

He died about 10 years ago but when he was alive, even in old age, he was very active and we all liked hearing his tales of the USMC and WWII.

 

[24th_infantry]

Would love to see that. One question about the pics with the palm trees my friend. I don't recall palm trees or hardly any trees on Iwo. In fact there's a pic of Iwo where the photographer (Norman Hatch?) points out a solitary tree. U think ur pic might be from Tarawa or some other island? Much respect 24th!

He was only on Iwo. Depending on their landing location I believe there were palm trees. However due to the bombardment from the navy I can imagine a lot of trees were destroyed thus the lack there of. Great eye though!

My friend's grandpa once told us a story about how he once risked his life on Iwo Jima to save his breakfast bacon which had fallen behind enemy lines during an early morning Jap offensive. The story goes he was cooking the bacon in his mess tin when the Japs advanced on their position and they were focused back to the cover of some rocks. Disobeying orders to fall back further, he saw an opening in the Jap line and went in solo. Under heavy enemy fire he grabbed the mess tin containing the sizzling hot bacon and returned to his unit.

He ended up being wounded and awarded a purple heart a few days later when a Jap grenade exploded near him which cost him a kidney and his left ear.

He died about 10 years ago but when he was alive, even in old age, he was very active and we all liked hearing his tales of the USMC and WWII.

Great story! My grandfather told me stories how he got into hand to hand combat with a Jap and that was how he got his scar. But he loved the story about taking his artillery crew and targeted two midget subs and sunk them in thr lagoon. Aside from fighting he made liquor from coconuts and created a gambling hut. Guys could get a coconut and get in on a game for a couple of cigarets. Best story was the two 70 pound fish he caught on a pole he made. He served it to the officers and the enlisted who ate rations came down with dysentery. I have a hand colored photo of him with the fish so I can prove that story true. Absolutely enjoy hearing stories from vets about their experiences.

 

[k0tp]

nice set, the pacific theater was really brutal

 

[24th_infantry]

Would love to see that.

I actually posted a thread with the Saipan and Tinian group a little while back.

 

[hedgerow]

great pics. fuck them nips.

 

[Guipago]

I knew & talked to an Aussie ww2 vet & until his dying day, 96, he hated japs with a passion, you could see it in his eyes, he was at Tobruk when Rommel was saying 'hello' then went to New Guinea, he always said he'd have a beer with a German any day, but japs he'd rather stab, his stories were unbelievable, RIP Johnny Dixson.

 

[24th_infantry]

I knew & talked to an Aussie ww2 vet & until his dying day, 96, he hated japs with a passion, you could see it in his eyes, he was at Tobruk when Rommel was saying 'hello' then went to New Guinea, he always said he'd have a beer with a German any day, but japs he'd rather stab, his stories were unbelievable, RIP Johnny Dixson.

I have a few times at retirement homes when putting on military presentations that vets would get pissed off when I displayed my rising sun trophy flag, telling me to "burn that piece of shit".
Going to the ETO for a moment, I put on another display at a retirement home...down walks this 80 year old lady. She stops, stares at my Third Reich flag and salutes its and says loudly and proudly "Heil Hitler". I nearly shit myself because I thought the WWII vets were going to fucking riot. Apparently they were not too upset (but again theu hated my Jap stuff). I ended up talking to her after. She joined the Hitler Youth and praised Hitler because she was able to bring food home for her family after their meetings. If not for this leftover food her family would have starved she said.