Iwo Jima Operation, 1945
"Jeep in the Heart of Iwo -- One of the first Jeep 4x4s to roll ashore as the Fifth Marine Division landed on Iwo Jima, met the same fate as most of the other vehicles, when it sank into the soft black volcanic ash on the beach.
Until steel mats were laid a large number of Willys MB Jeep vehicles and trucks were stalled in the quagmire as they rolled from landing boats.
Bogged vehicles were favorite targets of Japanese mortarmen who fired down from flanking mountains overlooking the beach."
Quoted from the original photo caption, released by Commander-in-Chief, Pacific, on 25 February 1945.
Photographed by T/Sgt. H. Neil Gillespie.
LCVP being unloaded in the center background is from USS Newberry (APA-158). Note lines being used to keep it from broaching, and the small (bulldozer-type) mobile crane assisting the work.
The original print came from Rear Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison's World War II history project working files. It was provided to Morison by E.J. Long.
Photo #: NH 104215. Uploaded on Flickr by Lee Ekstrom.
Official U.S. Marine Corps Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.
