AP Historical Hard Drive 2002

Soldiers of the 77th U.S. Division raise the Star-Spangled Banner at Geruma Shima, Keramas island, in the Ryukyu group, on April 7, 1945. (AP Photo)

Alert for enemy movement and in position with his carbine, Pfc. Armand Rindone of Philadelphia, Pa., is seeking cover at the railroad station in the n...

During the final days of World War II, at an unknown location in Germany, women build a line to pass buckets of water as they battle a fire in their v...

Major Gen. Lucius D. Clay, left, Deputy to General of the U.S. Army, is awarded the Distinguished Service Medal by Gen. Brehon Somervell, commanding,...

German civilians form a bread line amid ruins in Moenchengladbach, Germany, on April 4, 1945 during World War II. (AP Photo)

Japanese American infantrymen of the 442nd regiment are running for cover inside a building as they are targeted by German artillery in an unknown Ita...

German civilians are seen as they look over the entrance to their shelter, with a white flag attached to the post next to them, at Rembendorf, Germany...

German civilians, who have returned to their home in Moenchengladbach, gather sticks from a bomb shattered broom factory to use as fuel in their homes...

The Burlington diesel freight locomotive is shown as it passes through Sheep Canyon, Wyoming, April 3, 1945. (AP Photo)

A former Russian slave laborer, left, who was released by the Allies after three years of forced labor in a German factory, unleashes his anger agains...

Bodies of dead Nazi soldiers line a roadside east of the Rhine River in Germany on April 3, 1945 during World War II. (AP Photo)

A Canadian soldier, J.H. Koskinen of Toronto, Ont., points from the jutting ramp of a German V-1 bomb launching site captured by Canadian forces durin...

White markers designate the final resting place for hundreds of Third and Fourth Marine Division fighters, who died during invasion of Iwo Jima in Wor...

Canadian soldiers find a German V-1 launchig site hidden in the woodland north of Zutphen, Germany, during clean-up operations in World War II, April...

U.S. Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz poses while reading the communique from his advance headquarters in Guam on April 1, 1945 during World War II. N...

Sitting on a tank, these U.S. infantrymen are seen on their way to take the town of Ghuta on Okinawa, on April 1, 1945. (AP Photo)

An American soldiers of the 12th Armored Division stands guard over a group of German soldiers, captured in April 1945, in a forest at an unknown loc...

A panoramic view on the Bavarian city of Nuremberg after the cessation of organized civilian resistance of the

The ruins of German city Heilbronn are seen in a panoramic view, in April 1945. Heilbronn, located in southwestern Germany, was one of the most devast...

A U.S. Marine looks back at the body of a dead Japanese soldier while his platoon passes a small village on Okinawa, in April 1945. (AP Photo)

Choked with debris, a bombed water intake of the Pegnitz river no longer supplies the war factories of Nuremberg, vital industrial city of Germany, as...

Black smoke rises from bombed targets at Japanese airbase Kanoya, on Kyushu island, on March 30, 1945, after a U.S. Navy air raid. (AP Photo)

A U.S.supply convoy, operating regularly between the Burmese railhead of Lashio and the Chinese city of Guiyang, is making its way on the famous twent...

Medical corpsmen of the U.S. Marines are accompanied by riflemen as they disembark from a landing craft vehicle, on their way to pick up wounded comr...

Infantrymen of the 19th Indian

An explosion rocks the USS Franklin after being hit by two 500 pound armor-piercing bombs from a Japanese dive bomber, on March 19, 1945, off the coas...

The USS Santa Fe lies alongside the heavily listing USS Franklin to provide assistance after the aircraft carrier had been hit and set afire by a sing...

The USS Franklin lies dead in the water with a heavy list to portside, after the aircraft carrier had been hit and set afire by a Japanese dive bomber...

With his mother pushing from behind, this young man pulls a cart loaded with houshold goods through a street of Uerdingen, a surburb of Krefeld, Germa...

Crewmen aboard the burning USS Franklin are seen standing in the second deck while awaiting rescue, after the carrier had been hit and set afire by a...

William T. Piper, who started Piper Aircraft Corporation in 1936, is shown in New York on March 16, 1945. (AP Photo)

Two infantrymen from the 7th U.S. Army, armed with rifle and bazooka, are shown as they move through a Jewish cemetery in the Alsace region near Stras...

With their hands raised, a column of German soldiers is lined up in front of the heavily damaged Cologne Cathedral as they surrender to an American pa...

This aerial view shows the destruction of the German city of Cologne caused by Allied air warfare against Nazi Germany during World War II. The Colog...

The first American infantrymen to cross the Rhine are seen as they pass two wrecked German jeeps on their way over the last still intact bridge, the L...

The USS Randolph shows heavy damage to the overhead hangar and flight deck, after being hit by a Japanese suicide bomber, on March 11, 1945. (AP Photo...

White surrender flags wave from buildings along a street in Kettig, Germany, March 10, 1945 during World War II. A lone American jeep of the Fourth A...

A fighting U.S. Marine views dead Japanese soldiers blasted out of a pillbox on Iwo Jima, Japanese Volcano Island, on March 3, 1945 during World War I...

U.S. Marines receive communion from a Marine chaplain on Iwo Jima, the largest of the Japanese Volcano Islands, on March 3, 1945 during World War II....

A wounded U.S. Marine soldier, lying on stretcher at left, is given blood plasma by American Navy hospital corpsmen on Iwo Jima, Japan, on March 3, 19...

An American artillery crew is seen as they fire at a Japanese cave, at an unknown location, on March 3, 1945, during Pacific theater of operations of...

Injured U.S. Marines walk down the hillside as another wounded is carried on a stretcher to a medical station below on Iwo Jima, Japan, on March 2, 19...

Dead Japanese soldiers who defended the stronghold lie at the feet of U.S. Marines following American invasion of Iwo Jima, Japanese Volcano Island, M...

U.S. Marines of the 5th Division pose with captured Japanese battle flags, at Iwo Jima, on March 2, 1945. (AP Photo)

U.S. Marines kneel in prayer before they receive communion during a pause in the fighting for Motoyam Airstrip No. 1 on Iwo Jima, Volcano Island of Ja...

U.S. Marines walk amid wreckage of Japanese planes alongside Motoyamo Airstrip No. 1 that were brought down during aerial bombing and naval shelling p...

Troops of the 9th U.S. Armored Division, First Army, advance across the intact Ludendorff Bridge to the east bank of the Rhine River in Remagen, Germa...

Infantrymen from the 145th Regiment of the 37th U.S. Division are seen as they move through a patio in the ruins of City Hall, in Manila, Philippines,...

American soldiers aboard an assault boat huddle together as they cross the Rhine river at St. Goar, Germany, while under heavy fire from the German fo...

Wounded U.S. Marines are being helped walking to an aid station by comrades and Navy corpsmen on Iwo Jima, in March 1945. (AP Photo)