U.S. Army soldiers make an amphibious landing on the banks of Germany’s Rhine River. Navy sailors take a break from combat for a dip in the Pacific Ocean. A young marine cleans sand out of his shoe. These World War II–era images are part of a small collection of photographs currently on display in the basement of National Geographic’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. (Sorry, not open to the public, but we’re bringing you a selection here on Proof, along with the original captions.)

Tucked away among the 11.5 million photographic items housed in the National Geographic archive, the images were among those recently pulled from storage by NG Creative’s Julia Andrews and Debbie Li and archivist Bill Bonner in