Ground crewmen of the 345th Bombardment Group ('Air Apaches') pose beside a trailer of general-purpose bombs on the airfield at Ie Shima, 1945. Flying B-25 Mitchell medium bombers under Fifth Air Force, the group relocated to this small island near Okinawa in the final months of World War II to strike targets on the Japanese home islands, Formosa, and the Chinese coast. Photographs like this one, taken by armament and support personnel between missions, document the unglamorous but essential work of arming and maintaining the aircraft that carried the fight to the enemy. Project: 218227