Workers pass through the gate at the Alabama Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Co. in Mobile.

Source: The University of South Alabama Archives (Addsco 3-416)

Military campaign in the Central Pacific. After securing the Marshall Islands in early 1944, American military planners decided that the next step would be to bypass the Japanese-held Caroline Islands (including the stronghold of Truk) in order to seize the Mariana Islands. Located equidistant from the Marshalls and the Japanese . . .

Completely exposed to enemy fire, a Marine dashes across a field on Okinawa. May 1945.

Source: National Archives (127-N-120562)

The penultimate test of U.S. Marine Corps amphibious doctrine and practice. By the end of 1944, American forces had secured from Japan control of the Mariana Islands to provide air bases for B-29 strategic bombers that could strike Japan. En route to Japan, these bombers flew over Iwo Jima (Sulphur . . .

A Marine receives medical attention for wounds caused by a mortar burst on Iwo Jima. February 20, 1945.

Source: National Archives (127-GW-331-110154)

General MacArthur arrives at Leyte Island, Philippines, October 1944.

Source: National Archives (111-SC-349595)

Coast Guardsmen crowd in for mail call aboard a troop transport in the Pacific. 1945.

Source: National Archives (WC-0929)

Portrait of Mobile's Maurice Bell in his blue Navy uniform and white sailor's cap. Aboard the USS Indianapolis, Bell witnessed the battles of Tarawa, Saipan and the Philippine Sea.

Source: Maurice Bell

Maurice Bell was born in Mississippi on February 17, 1925, and grew up in the northeast corner of the state. Throughout 1942, he traveled around the country with his father on a construction crew that was building army camps. While in Indiana in early 1942, he met and started dating . . .

Mobile's Maurice Bell, in blue Navy uniform, and his bride Lois K. Richards on their wedding day in Nineveh, Indiana, October 29, 1944. Aboard the USS Indianapolis Bell witnessed the battles of Tarawa, Saipan and the Philippine Sea.

Source: Maurice Bell

Mobile's Maurice Bell poses for a portrait in his white Navy uniform. Aboard the USS Indianapolis, Bell witnessed the battles of Tarawa, Saipan and the Philippine Sea.

Source: Maurice Bell

A kamikaze pilot dove straight where Maurice Bell stood aboard the USS Indianapolis.

He still thinks about the war quite often and it seems like a dream.

Two enormous vessels docked at a Mobile pier. Men move cargo in the foreground.

Source: The University of South Alabama Archives (Addsco 49-A)

Two servicemen cross a street in downtown Mobile.

Source: The University of South Alabama Archives (MN-159B)

A pre-war view of a busy street in downtown Mobile.

Source: The University of South Alabama Archives (N3075)

Rear view of the interior of an empty Mobile city bus. "WHITE" sign hangs from the ceiling.

Source: The University of South Alabama Archives (CO-10020)

Bustling Mobile ship channel.

Source: The University of South Alabama Archives (C-9089)

Black shipyard worker at the Alabama Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Co. in Mobile guides a giant propellor. Clyde Odom worked as a foreman at the segregated docks.

Source: The University of South Alabama Archives (G-25)

Navy 7th Division, 2nd Section aboard the USS Indianapolis. Maurice Bell of Mobile stands eighth from the right. He witnessed the battles of Tarawa, Saipan and the Philippine Sea.

Source: Maurice Bell