Island Campaigns

Photos of Island Campaigns, Bougainville, Water Buffalo, Butaritari, Cape Gloucester, Wadke Island, Guam

We have gathered a collection of some of the best and most moving photos taken during the Second World War. They are from the National Archives in Washington D.C.
Please browse at your leisure. Meditate on the sacrifice given by these men and women in wartime.

This page is dedicated to pictures of Island Campaigns in World War 2

"U.S. troops go over the side of a Coast Guard manned combat transport to enter the landing barges at Empress Augusta Bay, Bougainville, as the invasion gets under way." November 1943. "A Water Buffalo, loaded with Marines, churns through the sea bound for beaches of Tinian Island near Guam." July 1944.
Click to Magnify   •  Full-size Image Click to Magnify   •  Full-size Image
 
"165th Infantry assault wave attacking Butaritari, Yellow Beach Two, find it slow going in the coral bottom waters. Jap machine gun fire from the right flank makes it more difficult for them." Dargis, Makin Atoll, Gilbert Islands, November 20, 1943. "Army reinforcements disembarking from LST's form a graceful curve as they proceed across coral reef toward the beach." Laudansky, Saipan, ca. June/July 1944.
Click to Magnify   •  Full-size Image Click to Magnify   •  Full-size Image
 
"Marines hit three feet of rough water as they leave their LST to take the beach at Cape Gloucester, New Britain." Sgt. Robert M. Howard, December 26, 1943. "American troops of the 163rd Infantry Regiment hit the beach from Higgins boats during the invasion of Wadke Island, Dutch New Guinea." Lt. Kent Rooks, May 18, 1944.
Click to Magnify   •  Full-size Image Click to Magnify   •  Full-size Image
 
"Landing operations on Rendova Island, Solomon Islands, 30 June 1943. Attacking at the break of day in a heavy rainstorm, the first Americans ashore huddle behind tree trunks and any other cover they can find." "First flag on Guam on boat hook mast. Two U.S. officers plant the American flag on Guam eight minutes after U.S. Marines and Army assault troops landed on the Central Pacific island on July 20, 1944."
Click to Magnify   •  Full-size Image Click to Magnify   •  Full-size Image
 
"Marines storm Tarawa. Gilbert Islands." WO Obie Newcomb, Jr., November 1943. "The Yanks mop up on Bougainville. At night the Japs would infiltrate American lines. At Dawn, the doughboys went out and killed them. This photo shows tank going forward, infantrymen following in its cover." March 1944
Click to Magnify   •  Full-size Image Click to Magnify   •  Full-size Image
 
"Retreating at first into the jungle of Cape Gloucester, Japanese soldiers finally gathered strength and counterattacked their Marine pursuers. These machine gunners pushed them back." Brenner, January 1944. "Men of the 7th Division using flame throwers to smoke out Japs from a block house on Kwajalein Island, while others wait with rifles ready in case Japs come out." Cordray, February 4, 1944
Click to Magnify   •  Full-size Image Click to Magnify   •  Full-size Image
 
"A member of a Marine patrol on Saipan found this family of Japs hiding in a hillside cave. The mother, four children and a dog, took shelter from the fierce fighting in that area." Cpl. Angus Robertson, June 21, 1944. "After the Marines captured this mountain gun from the Japs at Saipan, they put it into use during the attack on Garapan, administrative center of the island." Cpl. Angus Robertson, ca. July 1944.
Click to Magnify   •  Full-size Image Click to Magnify   •  Full-size Image
 
"Back to a Coast Guard assault transport comes this Marine after two days and nights of Hell on the beach of Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands. His face is grimey with coral dust but the light of battle stays in his eyes." February 1944. "These men have earned the bloody reputation of being skillful jungle fighters. They are U.S. Marine Raiders gathered in front of a Jap dugout on Cape Totkina on Bougainville, Solomon Islands, which they helped to take." January 1944.
Click to Magnify   •  Full-size Image Click to Magnify   •  Full-size Image