An Overwhelmed US Marine Is Pictured While Weeping Among Ruins During, 1944

The photograph shows an Overwhelmed US Marine Is Pictured While Weeping Among Ruins During The Battle Of Peleliu. September 26th, 1944. Made in 1944, it is the kind of image that turns a date in a history book into something you can actually see.

The first half of the 1940s was consumed by the Second World War, the largest conflict in human history, and photography went to war with it — small 35mm cameras and wire services meant pictures from the front could reach newspaper readers within days.

History is usually written down long after it happens, but a photograph is made in the moment itself. That immediacy is what keeps images like this one circulating decades after the event they show.