Line of 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment-- Eugene Sledge's unit -- march, gear on their backs, through the hills at Peleliu. Oct. 1944.

Source: National Archives (127-N-97412)

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)

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

Source: National Archives (127-N-120562)

Marines advance cautiously up the beach on Peleliu during the initial landing. September 15, 1944.

Source: National Archives (127-N-95276)

Portrait of P.f.c. E.B.. Sledge, K Co. 5 Marine Regiment, in Marine dress blues. 1946. Sledge served at Peleliu and Okinawa.

Source: The Sledge Family

Eugene B. Sledge was born in Mobile November 4, 1923, the grandson of Confederate officers. Bookish and frail as a child, he had been taught to hunt and fish by his physician father and spent much of his free time roaming the woods on the outskirts of town with his . . .

E.B. Sledge of Mobile after the fighting ended in Okinawa.

Source: The Sledge Family

Eugene Sledge, left, and two fellow Marines.

Source: The Sledge Family

Eugene Sledge, left, and his brother, Lt. E.S. Sledge, in downtown Mobile on Christmas eve. 1942. Sledge would follow friend Sidney Phillips into the Marines and survive Peleliu and Okinawa.

Source: The Sledge Family

Eugene Sledge's military issue Bible. While in the Pacific, he kept a journal on tiny sheets of paper that he stored in the Bible.

Source: The Sledge Family

Members of Eugene Sledge's unit -- 3rd Bn. 5th Marine Regiment -- are crammed into a "duck" as they head to Peleliu's front lines. October 1, 1944.

Source: National Archives (127-N-97261)

Selections from Eugene Sledge's "With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa." The acclaimed first-person account was named one of the top five books in epic 20th-century battles.

Source: Random House

Eugene Sledge in camp at Okinawa.

Source: The Sledge Family

Infantrymen grab sleep where they can. Normandy, France, July 1944.

Source: National Archives (111-SC-191444)

Bill Mauldin worked for Stars and Stripes during the war. His cartoons were viewed by GIs serving in Europe.

Source: Copyright 1945 by Bill Mauldin. Displayed courtesy of the William Mauldin Estate.

Katharine Phillips was born on June 28, 1923 in Mobile, the older sister of Marine Sidney Phillips, and John Phillips, who was born in 1931. Their father, Sidney C. Phillips, who had been wounded in the first World War, was a teacher who became principle of Murphy High School in . . .

Marines move cautiously across a Peleliu airfield.

Source: National Archives (127-GW-739-95430)

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)