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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
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WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Online Library of Selected Images -- Picture Data

Photo #: NH 104583

Iwo Jima Operation, February-March 1945


"Mass Atop Suribachi --- Heads bowed in prayer, Marines attend Holy Mass on the summit of Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima, as one of their number receives communion from the Navy Chaplain who celebrated the mass. The two Marines at the right are spreading their ponchos, (rain capes), to shield the improvised altar from the high winds that rake the volcano peak." (quoted from the original 1945 vintage photo caption).
Photographed by Technical Corporal Louis R. Burmeister.

The original photograph came from Rear Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison's World War II history project working files.

Official U.S. Marine Corps Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 99KB; 740 x 620 pixels

 

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Image posted 20 January 2007