On this day in 1945, the U.S. flag was raised at Iwo Jima. American soldiers were fighting for control of the Suribachi hills. Once the soldiers reached victory, they cheered for the raising of the flag, and several hours later, more Marines headed up to the crest with an even larger flag.

During the bloody battle for Iwo Jima, U.S. Marines from the 3rd Platoon, E Company, 2nd Battalion, and 28th Regiment of the 5th Division took the crest of Mount Suribachi, the island’s highest peak, and its most strategic position, and raised the U.S. flag. Joe Rosenthal, a photographer with the Associated Press, met them along the way and recorded the raising of the second flag, along with a Marine still-photographer and a motion-picture cameraman.

Rosenthal took 3 photographs atop Suribachi. The first, which showed 5 Marines and 1 Navy corpsman struggling to hoist the heavy flag pole, became the most reproduced photograph in history and won him a Pulitzer Prize. The accompanying motion-picture footage attests to the fact that the picture was not posed. Of the other two photos, the second was similar to the first but less impactful, and the third was a group picture of 18 soldiers smiling and waving for the camera. Many of these men, including three of the six soldiers seen raising the flag in the famous Rosenthal photo, were killed before the conclusion of the Battle for Iwo Jima in late March.

The Japanese garrison on the island numbered 22,000 heavily entrenched men. Their commander, General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, had been expecting an Allied invasion for months and used the time wisely to construct an intricate and deadly system of underground tunnels, fortifications, and artillery that withstood the initial Allied bombardment. By the evening of the first day, despite incessant mortar fire, 30,000 U.S. Marines, commanded by General Holland Smith, managed to establish a solid beachhead.

By March 3rd, U.S. forces controlled all 3 airfields on the island, and on March 26, the last Japanese defenders on Iwo Jima were wiped out. Only 200 of the original 22,000 Japanese defenders were captured alive. More than 6,000 Americans died taking Iwo Jima, and about 17,000 were wounded.