Ernie Pyle killed on Ie Shima
The fighting man lost its best friend and greatest advocate on April 18, 1945, when Ernie Pyle was killed by a Japanese machine-gunner on Ie Shima.
Read moreTag Archives: Pacific Theater
Okinawa: The ‘easy’ victory that wasn’t
On April 1, 1945, U.S. soldiers and marines walked virtually unopposed onto the shores of Okinawa. They didn’t believe victory could be so easy. It wouldn’t be.
Read moreJoe Rosenthal and the flag on Iwo Jima
The story of perhaps the defining image of World War II, captured atop Mount Suribachi by an AP photographer on Feb. 23, 1945.
Read moreJ.R. Krantz dangles from a B-29, miles over Japan
J.R. Krantz’s remarkable story of survival after being blown out of his B-29 on a bombing raid over Japan captivated readers across the U.S. and around the world.
Read moreSinking of the USS Tang: ‘Like the world coming to an end’
On Oct. 25, 1944, the USS Tang went down off the coast of China. It would take nearly a year for the true story behind the submarine’s fate to be told.
Read moreDorie Miller at Pearl Harbor: Telling a hero’s story
The heroic tale of Dorie Miller has become a familiar part of World War II lore, but it took months after the Pearl Harbor attack — and plenty of digging by one newspaper in particular — to bring Miller’s identity to light.
Read more43 Days: Vern Haugland’s fight to survive in New Guinea
Associated Press correspondent Vern Haugland bailed out of a B-26 over New Guinea on August 7, 1942 and spent the next six weeks in the jungle before wandering, delirious, into a native village. His diary chronicled a remarkable story of survival.
Read morePeleliu: Hitting the beach with the Marines
Correspondents watching from offshore had an uneasy feeling as they eyed the small island of Peleliu, which seemed “too still” after a three-day bombardment. Those concerns proved valid when the 1st Marine Division went ashore to face a hellscape of dug-in Japanese defenders who would fight on for more than two months.
Read more‘Today the guns are silent’: Japan surrenders
At 9:18 a.m. Tokyo time on Sunday, September 2, 1945, World War II came to an end. The war correspondents aboard the USS Missouri that day shared not only the details of the surrender ceremony but their reflections on what had brought the world to this long-awaited moment.
Read moreWilliam L. Laurence witnesses the bombing of Nagasaki
New York Times science writer William L. Laurence joined the War Department as a “special consultant” to the Manhattan Project in the spring of 1945. That assignment put him in position to watch the bombing of Nagasaki firsthand from a B-29.
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World War II on Deadline 