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FIRST MARINE DIVISION PHOTO GALLERY |
The First
Marine Division served across the Pacific from first to last in the Second World War. The images below show some of the experiences that Marines of The Old Breed lived through in their wartime years.
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May 1942 - Norfolk, Virginia. Marines of the 1st MarDiv board their transport prior to sailing for New Zealand. They are wearing service dress greens with field transport packs. Still image from USMC motion picture film |
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En route to New Zealand, a Marine takes time to read a book on the rail of his transport. Still image from USMC motion picture film |
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Aboard their transport bound for New Zealand, Marines try to make do under very cramped conditions. Still image from USMC motion picture film |
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Aboard their transport bound for New Zealand, these Marines wear their overcoats to ward off the North Pacific cold. Still image from USMC motion picture film |
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20 June 1942, Wellington Harbor, New Zealand. Troops of the 1st MarDiv debark from their transport after over a month at sea. Most of them wear the winter service uniform and they are still equipped with the M1903 rifle. Still image from USMC motion picture film |
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20 June 1942, Wellington Harbor, New Zealand. MajGen A. A. Vandegrift, CG, 1st MarDiv, (wearing overcoat) and BrigGen William Rupertus, ADC, 1st MarDiv, (foreground) debark from the USS Wakefield (AP-21). Still image from USMC motion picture film |
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20 June 1942, Wellington Harbor, New Zealand. MajGen Vandegrift (wearing overcoat), and BrigGen Rupertus (center), confer dockside after debarkation. Still image from USMC motion picture film |
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20 June 1942, Wellington Harbor, New Zealand. Infantrymen of the 5th Marines march off the docks to board the train for their camp. The lieutenant in the right foreground carries a map case and binoculars. Still image from USMC motion picture film |
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This 1st MarDiv Marine appears to have lost no time getting directions from a Wellington police officer. June 1942. Still image from USMC motion picture film |
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20 June 1942, At their new camp outside of Wellington, Marines of the 1st MarDiv find their bunks under the watchful eye of their platoon sergeant. The Marine standing in the door is a BAR man and his NCO carries a Reising submachine gun. The division only stayed in New Zealand for a very short time. Still image from USMC motion picture film |
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20 June 1942, A platoon sergeant forms his Marines at their new camp outside of Wellington, New Zealand. Still image from USMC motion picture film |
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June 1942, NCO's of the 5th Marine Regiment reading The Dominion Post. The Fifth was a storied regiment with combat service in France during World War I. The corporal at right displays the French Fourragere, worn by all hands in the regiment. Still image from USMC motion picture film |
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En route to Guadalcanal aboard a US Navy transport, a 1st MarDiv mortar squad works on crew drills with their tube. Still image from USMC motion picture film |
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En route to Guadalcanal, a Marine looks out across the Pacific Ocean. We can only guess at what he was thinking. He carries and M1 carbine slung over his left shoulder. Still image from USMC motion picture film |
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Off the Lunga Beachhead on 7 August 1942, an LVT-1 of the 1st Amphibian Tractor Bn heads back to the ship after dropping a load of supplies. Still image from USMC motion picture film |
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On D-Day at Guadalcanal, 7 August 1942, an LCP from USS Neville (AP-16) transports a load of Marines to the beachhead. Still image from USMC motion picture film |
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On the Guadalcanal beachhead, a heavy machine gun squad digs in as an LVT-1 drives past in the background. Still image from USMC motion picture film |
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During a visit to Guadalcanal in November 1942, Adm Chester Nimitz, CINCPAC, decorates Col Merritt 'Red Mike' Edson with the Navy Cross for heroism in action while in command of the 1st Raider Battalion in the assault on Tulagi from 7-9 August 1942. Still image from USMC motion picture film |
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Lt Col Lewis B. Puller marches at the head of 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, during the campaign for Guadalcanal, 1942. Puller earned the third of his five Navy Crosses while commanding 1/7 on the 'canal, and he was wounded in action there. Still image from USMC motion picture film |
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Marines test-fire a captured Japanese heavy machine gun on Guadalcanal. Still image from USMC motion picture film |
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A 1st MarDiv honor guard in Melbourne, Australia, 1943. These Marines are wearing the Australian Army battledress blouse issued by the division Quartermaster when units arrived in Australia following the Guadalcanal campaign. Australian War Memorial |
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A posed shot of 1st MarDiv troops reading their mail, Melbourne, Australia, 1943. Australian War Memorial |
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Pvt Al Schmid of Burholme, Penna., is awarded the Navy Cross by Col A. E. Russell at Marine Barracks, Washington, DC. Schmid earned his award while serving as a heavy machine gunner with H 2/1 on Guadalcanal. On the night of 21 August 1942, his unit was attacked by the Japanese Ichiki Detachment. Although blinded in the action, Schmid courageously manned his gun and was instrumental in breaking up the enemy assaults. Schmid died in 1982 and is interred in Arlington National Cemetery. US Marine Corps |
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A 6 x 6 truck of 3rd Bn, 17th Marines, plows through the morass of a trail at Cape Gloucester, 1944. Australian War Memorial |
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1944, Pavuvu Island. Infantry Marines practice debarking from their amphibian tractor in training for the Peleliu campaign. USMC Photo |
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1944, Pavuvu Island. The crew of a 37mm antitank gun unloads their piece from a DUKW amphibian truck during the pre-operational training for the Peleliu campaign. USMC Photo |
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August 1944, A Bird Dog observation plane carrying Bob Hope arrives at the airstrip on Pavuvu. Still image from USMC motion picture film |
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August 1944, Bob Hope shakes hands with the 1st MarDiv CG, MajGen William Rupertus. Still image from USMC motion picture film |
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August 1944, Jerry Colonna entertains troops of the 1st MarDiv at Pavuvu. Colonna was Bob Hope's sidekick for many years and went on many USO tours. Still image from USMC motion picture film |
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A small part of the crowd of 1st MarDiv Marines at the Bob Hope USO show on Pavuvu, August 1944. Many of the Marines who attended this event remembered it as one of their fondest memories of the war years. Still image from USMC motion picture film |
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A1st MarDiv bazooka man fires his M1A1 rocket launcher during the campaign for Peleliu. The bazooka was an effective weapon for destroying Japanese armor and defensive complexes. Still image from USMC motion picture film |
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A 1st MarDiv flamethrower operator employs his weapon during the campaign for Peleliu. He carries the M1-1 flamethrower. Still image from USMC motion picture film |
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During the fighting on Peleliu, a radioman sprints toward cover under heavy fire. He carries the SCR-300 backpack radio. Still image from USMC motion picture film |
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A Marine kneels at the grave of SgtMaj Lawrence J. Letellier on Peleliu. The SgtMaj served with HQ Co, 2nd Bn, 5th Marines and was killed in action by a Japanese mortar explosion on D-Day, 15 September 1944. He was one of the 1,361 Marines and FMF medical personnel who died in the assault on Peleliu. USMC Photo |
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Dedication ceremony after the battle of the Armed Forces cemetery on Peleliu. USMC Photo |
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The Price, by Tom Lea, depicting a wounded Marine of the 1st MarDiv during the D-Day assault on Peleliu. About this painting, Lea later wrote: "Lying in terror looking longingly up the slope to better cover, I saw a wounded man near me, staggering in the direction of the LVTs. His face was half bloody pulp and the mangled shreds of what was left of an arm hung down like a stick, as he bent over in the stumbling, shock-crazy walk. The half of his face that was still human had the most terrifying look of abject patience I have ever seen. He fell behind me, in a red puddle on the white sand." U. S. Army Art Collection |
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Down From Bloody Nose Ridge, by Tom Lea, depicting a combat fatigued Marine of the 1st MarDiv on Peleliu. In the background is the Umurbrogal complex. Lea wrote of this subject: "As we passed sick bay, still in the shell hole, it was crowded with wounded, and somehow hushed in the evening light. I noticed a tattered Marine standing quietly by a corpsman, staring stiffly at nothing. His mind had crumbled in battle, his jaw hung, and his eyes were like two black empty holes in his head. Down by the beach again, we walked silently as we passed the long line of dead Marines under the tarpaulins." U. S. Army Art Collection |
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Sundown at Peleliu by Tom Lea. U. S. Army Art Collection |
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War is Fighting and Fighting is Killing, by Tom Lea. U. S. Army Art Collection |
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1 April 1945, L-Day on Okinawa. An infantry Marine moves across the beach under cover of an LVT(A)-4 amphibian tank. Still image from USMC motion picture film |
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1945-Marines in combat on southern Okinawa. The First and Sixth Marine Divisions fought in this, the last campaign of the war. The island's rugged terrain posed an extreme challenge that required the utmost in courage and tactics. Still image from USMC motion picture film |
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1945-Marines in combat on southern Okinawa. These men move out under fire toward their objective. The rifle squad was the building block of Marine tactical operations. Still image from USMC motion picture film |
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1945-Marines in combat on southern Okinawa. A .30-caliber light machine gun lays down fire support for an infantry attack. These automatic weapons were crucial elements in the rifle company's operations. Still image from USMC motion picture film |
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May 1945, Okinawa. Col Francis I. Fenton (kneeling) at the funeral for his son Michael, an infantryman in B 1/5 who was killed in action on 7 May 1945. At the time, Col Fenton was the Engineer Officer for the 1st MarDiv. Col Fenton's other son was also career Marine, as was his grandson. Col Fenton later said the other men who died on Okinawa weren't so fortunate as Mike, who "at least had his father there to pray over his body at the end." Life Magazine |
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Cpl Eugene B. Sledge of Mobile, Alabama in a fine studio portrait taken upon his return from World War II in 1946. Sledge served as a mortarman with Co K, 3rd Bn, Fifth Marines in the campaigns for Peleliu and Okinawa. After VJ-Day, he deployed to China for occupation duty. He was the author of the memoir, With the Old Breed at Peleliu and Okinawa, which has been widely acclaimed as one of the best personal narratives to come out of the wartime experience. Cpl Sledge passed away from cancer in 2001. Photo courtesy of the Sledge family |
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