World War II in Photographs
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1944
ABOVE
The acme of propaganda shots shows
MacArthur wading ashore on Leyte in
October, thus making good his 1942
promise to return to the Philippines.
326
1944
ABOVE
US landing craft run in for the landings on
the Philippine island of Leyte, October 20.
RIGHT
The Japanese conceived an ambitious plan
to lure Halsey's 3rd Fleet northwards while
they crushed the Leyte landings and the
smaller US 7th Fleet protecting them.
The result was the biggest naval battle
ever fought, which ended in Japanese defeat.
Here the massive 72,800 ton battleship
Musashi is under attack on October 24:
she turned turtle and sank after receiving
multiple bomb and torpedo hits.
325
1944
ABOVE
US paratroops drop on to Noemfoor
Island in the Dutch East Indies, July 4.
324
1944
LEFT
A Japanese aircraft crashes into the sea
during the Battle of the Philippine Sea,
June 19-20. Nicknamed by the Americans
"The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot",
this huge carrier battle of the war saw
better-trained US pilots, aided by excellent
intelligence, destroy over 300 Japanese
aircraft for the loss of about 130,
many of whose crews were saved.
BELOW
A US heavy cruiser bombards the island
of Guam, largest of the Marianas, from
close range before landing on July 20.
The Japanese lost over 10,000, over
ten times US losses: the last Japanese
soldier surrendered in 1972.
323
1944
ABOVE
A US Navy corpsman administers blood
plasma to a wounded Marine, one of
over 15,000 US casualties on Saipan.
Blood transfusion, in its infancy in the
First World War, made a major contribution
to improved survival rates: some
four-and-a-half percent of wounded
American soldiers died, down from
eight percent in the First World War.
322
THE PACIFIC WAR
In 1944 MacArthur and Halsey pushed across the Pacific, their
main thrusts converging towards the Philippines. The costly
capture of Tarawa in November 1943, provided evidence that
helped future operations. Vice Admiral Spruance took the
Marshall Islands in January and February, and then, in June,
attacked the Marianas, bringing about the naval battle of the
Philippine Sea. MacArthur's forces, meanwhile, had completed
their conquest of New Guinea. That autumn the Joint Chiefs
redefined strategy for the Pacific theatre. MacArthur and Halsey
would first converge on Leyte. MacArthur would then invade
Luzon, while Halsey struck at Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
ABOVE
The island of Saipan in the Marianas housed
a powerful Japanese garrison. US Marines
landed on June 15, and the island was
taken on July 9, after vicious fighting.
Here attackers use grenades as they fight
their way through a Japanese position.
321
1944
RIGHT
The surrender unusually granted Polish
combatants the right to be regarded as such:
defiant women fighters march into captivity.
BELOW
This carefully orchestrated German
photograph shows Bor-Komorowski
surrendering to a smiling
SS Obergruppenführer Erich von
dem Bach-Zelewski, commander of
the German counterattack force.
Polish killed, civilian and military,
may have exceeded 250,000, and
much of Warsaw was destroyed.
320
1944
RIGHT
At the beginning of the Warsaw Uprising few
members of the Home Army were properly
armed, but weapons and equipment were
captured from the Germans or received
from Soviet or Western supply drops.
3ELOW
A wounded member of the
Home Army emerges from a
sewer after the Polish surrender.
319
1944
WARSAW UPRISING
In mid-1942 the Germans began deportations from the Warsaw
Ghetto to extermination camps, but when they moved in to liquidate
the ghetto in 1943, there was unexpectedly fierce resistance.
On August 1, 1944, there was a more serious rising by over
37,000 Home Army fighters under Lieutenant General Tadeusz
Bor-Komorowski, which lasted until he surrendered on terms in
October. The Russians were close to Warsaw but did little to
help, inducing many historians to suggest that it was in
Stalin's interests to let Warsaw's resistance elite be crushed.
ABOVE
So near but so far: a Russian machine-gunner
on the banks of the Vistula, August 10, 1944.
BELOW
German civilians captured by the Home Army
were made to wear this distinctive dress.
318
1944
ABOVE
On August 23, King Michael of Romania
had Marshal Antonescu, who had been
reluctant to abandon his German allies,
arrested: Romania signed an Armistice
on September 12. The Russians quickly
consolidated their position and installed a
puppet government in March 1945. These
Romanian communists acclaim the armistice.
RIGHT
The Finns signed the armistice with
Russia on September 19, buying freedom
from Soviet occupation with a heavy
price in territory. This photograph shows
the Finnish peace delegation arriving at
the frontier before flying to Moscow.
317