Original Items. One-of-a-Kind Group. This is an exceptionally scarce group of original U.S. Navy and Marine Corps amphibious intelligence material prepared for the invasion of Iwo Jima, consisting of two color-printed beach diagrams and four large annotated aerial-photograph views. The intelligence was compiled from aerial reconnaissance made on July 4, 1944, more than seven months before the February 19, 1945 landings, and the diagrams are prominently marked SECRET and PREPARED BY INTELLIGENCE SECTION, AMPHIBIOUS FORCES PACIFIC. Together, the six pieces provide a remarkable surviving record of the reconnaissance and beach-analysis work undertaken before Operation Detachment.

Another example of this set of documents was featured in Episode 23 of Season 2 of Pawn Stars. Host Rick Harrison later wrote that he had sold one of the two views for $10,000 on its own! The scene with the plans can be viewed here.

The set consists of two very rare color-printed views of the southern beaches of Iwo Jima, the southwestern section of which served as a potential landing area for the U.S. Marine Corps, and the southeastern of which served as the actual landing area. Both views are marked SECRET in the top right corner, with the bottom marked PREPARED BY INTELLIGENCE SECTION, AMPHIBIOUS FORCES PACIFIC. Each of the two views measures 9 ¾ x 18 ½” with a single vertical fold crease in the center. There is also minor curling of the paper, with a slightly oxidized staple hole at the end of each.

These two diagrams present a general view of the two potential landing beaches at the southern end of Iwo Jima, along with notes about the conditions in each of the roughly 500-yard-wide landing zones. The notes cover “Beach Extent,” “Beach Approaches,” “Nature of Beach,” “Terrain Inland,” “Exits,” and “Obstacles.” There is also a set of notes for the General conditions affecting all beaches.

The southeastern beaches, site of the actual landing, are divided into zones “Green 1”, “Red 1”, “Red 2”, “Yellow 1”, “Yellow 2”, “Blue 1”, “Blue 2”. On the first day of the invasion the 4th Marine Division landed at the Blue and Yellow beaches, while the 5th Marines landed at the Green and Red. The 3rd Marine Division was held in reserve and committed to the central sector on 22nd of February.

The four color-coded photograph views each measure roughly 10 ½ x 20” with two vertical fold creases in the same place on each. They were all taken on July 4th, 1944. They are all marked with the same SECRET and PREPARED BY INTELLIGENCE SECTION, AMPHIBIOUS FORCES PACIFIC, and are a part of the same set as the two colorized views. This set of two colorized views and four photographs would look outstanding all framed together.

This is an incredibly scarce set of documents to find. OCLC records two copies (one at Harvard and the other at East Carolina). Another pair was featured in an episode of Pawn Stars. Host Rick Harrison later wrote that he had sold one of the two views for $10,000.

This group is particularly noteworthy for the combination of its two SECRET Iwo Jima beach diagrams, four accompanying aerial-photograph intelligence views, July 4, 1944 reconnaissance basis, Intelligence Section Amphibious Forces Pacific attribution, complete Green-through-Blue beach zoning, and direct connection to the planning of the February 1945 invasion. Rather than later commemorative maps, these were working intelligence documents produced as part of the American effort to understand and plan an assault against one of the most heavily defended islands of the Pacific War.