Belleau Wood

During World War II more than 60,000 Marines saw action with the Second Division. When the division was formally activated on February 1, 1941, at San Diego, California, its keystone was the old Sixth Regiment which brought to the division the historic traditions of Chateau Thierry and Belleau Wood.

Florida Island

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, it was elements of the "Silent Second" which were indisputably the first Americans to land on enemy soil during World War II. Just before dawn on August 7, 1942, a company from the division's Second Regiment splashed ashore onto the gray-white beaches of Florida Island in the Solomon's some 80 minutes before Guadalcanal was invaded. On August 8 a platoon of Second Division Marines met the enemy in the war's first American bayonet charge; and on that day the Division's Artillery fired the first offensive shells of the war.

Tarawa

It was thus on the sands of the Solomon's that the Global offensive began, spearheaded by men of the Second.

After a period of rest and reorganization in New Zealand, lay Tarawa, where more than 3,000 of the Division's Marines spilled blood in seventy-six hours of hellish action.

Saipan

After Tarawa the Marines served in Hawaii where they prepared for their next attack.

In 1944 Saipan and Tinian were added to the battle streamers of the division's flag and on the turreted ridges of Okinawa in 1945 elements of the Second Marine Division spearheaded the last infantry offensive of World War II.

Finally, the Second Marine Division landed in Japan itself; and achieved the goal for which it had striven longer than any other American Division - Army or Marine.