1. William Vandivert,
Berlin, Germany, July
1945

2. William Vandivert,
Berlin, Germany, July
1945

3. World War II 70th Anniversary
LIFE: World War II, Photos We Remember

4. William Vandivert,
Berlin, Germany, July
1945

5. William Vandivert,
Berlin, Germany, July
1945

6. William Vandivert,
Berlin, Germany, July
1945

7. No conflict in recorded history transformed the globe as thoroughly as World
War II. Cities were obliterated; national borders were altered; revolutionary and,
in some cases, fearsome military, medical, communication and transportation
technology were invented; and tens of millions were killed — the majority of
them civilians. Simply put, the world of August 1945, when the war ended, bore
little resemblance to that of September 1939, when Nazi Germany invaded
Poland.
During those six long, uncertain years, LIFE covered the war with more tenacity
and focus than any other magazine on earth. Twenty-one LIFE photographers
logged 13,000 days outside the U.S.; half of that time was spent in combat
zones. In tribute to those journalists, and to the men, women and even children
who sacrificed so much in the Allied war effort, LIFE.com combed the
magazine’s unparalleled archives for some of the greatest pictures made during
WWII — often searing, occasionally lighthearted, always memorable images
from the streets of Blitz-ravaged London to the sands and jungles of Saipan,
Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima.
Seven decades have passed since the war ended, but the power of these
pictures (several of which were never published in LIFE) has barely faded:
confronting them today, we’re still dumbstruck by the destruction; we still flinch
at the scale of the suffering; and we marvel at the courage of the men and
women whose unity of purpose kept the flame of hope alive in the darkest
hours.

8. GEORGE STROCK—TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES
Three American soldiers lie half-buried in the sand at Buna Beach
on New Guinea. This photo was taken in February 1943, but not
published until September, when it became the first image of dead
American troops to appear in LIFE during World War II.

9. ALFRED EISENSTAEDT—TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES
In this and dozens of other, similar pictures made at New York's Penn Station in 1944, LIFE's Alfred Eisenstaedt captured a private moment repeated in public millions of times over the
course of the war: a guy, a girl, a goodbye - and no assurance that he'll make it back. By war's end, more than 400,000 American troops had been killed.

10. ALFRED EISENSTAEDT—TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES

11. ALFRED EISENSTAEDT—TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES

12. WILLIAM VANDIVERT—TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES
During 1940's Battle of Britain, Luftwaffe bombers tried to destroy British air power ahead of a planned invasion of the UK. When that failed, Hitler resorted to terror attacks on civilians,
including the full-scale bombing of London (pictured) and other English towns. The attacks killed tens of thousands of Britons, but "The Blitz" fizzled: the invasion never materialized.

13. W. EUGENE SMITH—TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES
In a picture that captures the violence and sheer destruction inherent in war perhaps more graphically than any other ever published in LIFE, Marines take cover on an Iwo Jima hillside
amid the burned-out remains of banyan jungle, as a Japanese bunker is obliterated in March 1945.

14. ANDREAS FEININGER—TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES
The Statue of Liberty, photographed during a blackout in 1942 - an eloquent expression of the nation's mood in the first full year of a global conflict with no real end in sight.

15. MARIE HANSEN—TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES
Members of the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps, commonly known as WAACs, don their first gas masks at Fort Des Moines, Iowa, in June 1942. The female troops were famously
praised by General Douglas MacArthur, who called them "my best soldiers."

16. HUGO JAEGER—TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES
A photo taken by Hitler's personal photographer (and later acquired by LIFE) shows a 1939 rally in which Hitler salutes Luftwaffe troops who fought with Francisco Franco's ultra-right
wing nationalist rebels in the Spanish Civil War.

17. HUGO JAEGER—TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES
Soldiers goose-step past the FŸhrer in honor of Hitler's 50th
birthday, April 20, 1939. Less than five months later, on September
1, the Third Reich's forces invaded Poland.

18. HUGO JAEGER—TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGE
Austrians cheer Adolf Hitler during his 1938 campaign to unite Austria and Germany. In the rapt faces, straining bodies, and adulation of the crowds swept up in Hitler's mad vision, one
senses the eagerness of millions to forge a "Thousand Year Reich" at, literally, any cost.

19. HUGO JAEGER—THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES
Invasion of Poland, 1939: Adolf Hitler prepares to fly to the Polish front, 1939.

20. HUGO JAEGER—THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES
Invasion of Poland, 1939: Adolf Hitler views victory parade in Warsaw after the German invasion of Poland, 1939.

21. W. EUGENE SMITH—TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGE
In a photo that somehow comprises both tenderness and horror, an American Marine cradles a near-dead infant pulled from under a rock while troops cleared Japanese fighters and
civilians from caves on Saipan in the summer of 1944. The child was the only person found alive among hundreds of corpses in one cave.

22. GABRIEL BENZUR—TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES
Members of the U.S. Army Air Corps' legendary 99th Pursuit Squadron, the Tuskegee Airmen, receive instruction about wind currents from a lieutenant in 1942. The Tuskegee fliers - the
nation's first African American air squadron - served with distinction in the segregated American military.

23. BERNARD HOFFMAN—TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGE
A welder at a boat-and-sub-building yard adjusts her goggles before resuming work, October, 1943. By 1945, women comprised well over a third of the civilian labor force (in 1940, it
was closer to a quarter) and millions of those jobs were filled in factories: building bombers, manufacturing munitions, welding, drilling and riveting for the war effort.

24. RALPH MORSE—TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES
Army medic George Lott, wounded in both arms in November, 1944, grimaces as doctors mold a cast to his body. When Lott embarked on a 4,500-mile, seven-hospital journey of
recovery, photographer Ralph Morse - astonished by the high level of medical care wounded troops received both at the front and behind the lines - traveled with him, and chronicled
Lott's odyssey in a revelatory cover story for LIFE.

25. W. EUGENE SMITH—TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES
Photographer W. Eugene Smith's picture of a Marine drinking from
his canteen during 1944's Battle of Saipan is as iconic a war picture
as any ever made. In fact, when the U.S. Postal Service released a
"Masters of American Photography" series of commemorative
stamps in 2002, Smith was included - and this image was chosen as
representative of his body of work.

26. W. EUGENE SMITH—TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES
Unpublished. An exemplar of a bitter, grueling land battle, Iwo Jima also saw prodigious air and sea power brought to bear as American and Japanese troops clashed over control of
the tiny Pacific island. American forces finally captured Iwo Jima - and its two strategic airfields - in late March, 1945.

27. PETER STACKPOLE—TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES
Unpublished. A crew maneuvers an enormous piece of artillery during the Battle of Saipan, 1944. In the waning days of the struggle for the island, thousands of Japanese civilians and
troops committed suicide, rather than surrender to American troops. Many leapt to their death from the top of sheer cliffs that fall 200 feet to rocks and surf below.

28. W. EUGENE SMITH—TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES
Unpublished. American troops chat near a dead Japanese soldier on Iwo Jima. The degree to which the Japanese were willing to fight to the death, rather than surrender, is summed up
in one remarkable statistic: Close to 20,000 Japanese soldiers were killed during the battle; only around 200 were captured.

29. FRANK SCHERSCHEL—TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES
GIs tramp in review across an English field, 1944, as the long-planned Operation Overlord - the D-Day invasion of France - draws near. With 160,000 Allied troops taking part, the cross-
Channel attack was the single greatest air-land-and-sea invasion in military history.

30. WILLIAM VANDIVERT—THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES
An African-American tank crew prepares a Sherman M4 for battle "somewhere in Germany," spring 1945

31. 1945
U.S. SIGNAL CORPS—THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES
An American tank rolls over a Nazi banner laid out in the street after its crew helped take the town of Lembach, spring

32. GEORGE SILK—THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES
American soldier Julian Patrick from Kentucky, member of the U.S. 3rd Armored Division, killed in action inside his tank, March 6, 1945

33. GEORGE SILK—THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES
A bone-weary Canadian soldier stands atop a stalled tank amid
flooding in the Netherlands, 1945

34. JOHN FLOREA—THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES
A young German boy sits beside the road as a tank of the U.S. 9th Armored Division passes through his village on its way to Berlin, spring 1945

35. PHIL STERN ARCHIVES
Rangers offloading onto Licata Beach, Invasion Day, July 11, 1943

36. PHIL STERN ARCHIVES
Army Rangers, Comiso, Sicily, 1944

37. PHIL STERN ARCHIVES
Army Rangers, Comiso, Sicily, 1944

38. RALPH MORSE—THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES
Liberation Of Paris: A "Free French" soldier races to aid a Resistance fighter firing at a German sniper, Paris, August 1944. The sniper had opened fire during a tour of the city by Gen.
Charles de Gaulle

39. RALPH MORSE—THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES
Liberation Of Paris: A family seeks safety beside a Jeep as French Resistance fighters and Free French troops try to take out a German sniper during the Liberation of Paris in August
1944

40. RALPH MORSE—THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES
Liberation Of Paris: Allied troops and journalists — including photographers Robert Capa (on the back of a Jeep with a camera in front of his face) and George Rodger (with camera,
wearing a beret) — in the streets of Paris during the city's liberation, August 1944.

41. JOE SCHERSCHEL—TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES
Unpublished. An American Marine readies to land on Guadalcanal during the five-month struggle for the island between late 1942 and early 1943. Three thousand miles south of Tokyo,
Guadalcanal was a major shipping point for military supplies. The Allied victory there in February, 1943, marked a major turning point in the war after a string of Japanese victories in
the Pacific.

42. .
CARL MYDANS—TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES
American troops in the Philippines celebrate the long-awaited news that Japan has, finally, unconditionally, surrendered in August 1945

43. FRANK SCHERSCHEL—THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES
The Ruins Of Normandy: Ruins of a town in northwestern France, summer 1944

44. MARGARET BOURKE-WHITE—THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES
Caption from LIFE. Nurnberg [Nuremberg], second largest city in Bavaria, was famous for its Gothic churches. One of them, St. Sebaldus, can be seen here.

45. MARGARET BOURKE-WHITE—THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES
Caption from LIFE. On June 2, 1945, RAF night raid of tremendous proportions wrecked key objectives in the center of the city (Nuremberg), leaving skeletal walls and leveled areas
pictured.

46. GEORGE RODGER—THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES
A small boy strolls down a road lined with dead bodies near the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, 1945.

47. GEORGE RODGER—THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES
Male and female German SS soldiers forced to load corpses onto trucks under British guard at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, 1945.

48. .
GEORGE RODGER—THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES
Female prisoners in the newly liberated Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, 1945

49. .
MARGARET BOURKE-WHITE—TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES
Survivors gaze at photographer Margaret Bourke-White and rescuers from the United States Third Army during the liberation of Buchenwald, April 1945

50. MARGARET BOURKE-WHITE—TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES
The dead at Buchenwald, April 1945.

51. RALPH MORSE—TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES
Germany Surrenders At Reims, May 7, 1945:Scene at German surrender in World War II, Reims, France, May 7, 1945

52. RALPH MORSE—TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES
Germany Surrenders At Reims, May 7, 1945: Caption from LIFE. "For Eisenhower, Chief of Staff Lieut. General Bedell Smith signs. At the left is Admiral Sir Harold Burrough,
commander of Allied naval forces; right, Russian interpreter Cherniaeff."

53. RALPH MORSE—TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES
Germany Surrenders At Reims, May 7, 1945: Caption from LIFE."For Red high command, Major General Ivan Susloparov signs, to be followed by French General Francois Sevez for
[Alphonse] Juin, commander of French expeditionary forces. At right, [American Gen. Carl Andrew] Spaatz."

54. RALPH MORSE—TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES
Germany Surrenders At Reims, May 7, 1945: Caption from LIFE."After surrender, Eisenhower (right) seizes hand of General Susloparov and says, 'This is a great moment for us all.' But
surrender announcement was held up for Moscow approval."

55. WILLIAM VANDIVERT—TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES
After the Fall: Oberwallstrasse, in central Berlin, saw some of the most vicious fighting between German and Sov iet troops in the spring of 1945

56. WILLIAM VANDIVERT—TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES
After the Fall: At the Reichstag, evidence of a practice common throughout the centuries: soldiers scrawling graffiti to honor fallen comrades, insult the vanquished or simply
announce, I was here. I survived. Berlin, 1945.

57. WILLIAM VANDIVERT—TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES
After the Fall: An image almost too perfectly symbolic of Berlin in 1945: A crushed globe and a bust of Hitler amid rubble outside the ruined Reich Chancellery.

58. WILLIAM VANDIVERT
Berlin 1945: Ruins of the Reichstag building showing destruction from Allied bombing and artillery (note abandoned 88mm anti-aircraft gun in foreground).Berlin, Germany July 1945

59. WILLIAM VANDIVERT
Berlin 1945: Ornate archway inside the Reichstag building shows damage as well as graffiti scrawled & scratched on the walls by conquering Russian soldiers. Berlin, Germany July 1945

60. WILLIAM VANDIVERT
Russian military policeman directing traffic at the bullet riddled Brandenburg Tor gate border of the Russian controlled sector of Berlin .July 1945

61. WILLIAM VANDIVERT—TIME & LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES
After the Fall: Russian soldiers and a civilian struggle to move a large bronze Nazi Party eagle that once loomed over a doorway of the Reich Chancellery, Berlin, 1945.

62. ALFRED EISENSTAEDT—TIME & LIFE
PICTURES/GETTY IMAGE
Peace at last: V-J Day, Times Square, August
14, 1945.

63. ALFRED EISENSTAEDT—TIME & LIFE
PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES
Caption from the Aug. 27, 1945, issue of LIFE. "In
the middle of New York's Times Square a white-
clad girl clutches her purse and skirt as an
uninhibited sailor plants his lips squarely on hers."

64. end

65. cast LIFE: World War II, Photos We
Remember. World War II 70th Anniversary
images and text credit time.com
Music Schindler's List - Theme Itzhak Perlman.
created olga.e.
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