The old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words”
certainly is true of the pictures taken from the Normandy invasion. Bob Capa
was one of a few non-combat individuals involved in D-Day. He remarked in his
memoir, Slightly Out of Focus, that
he was fortunate to be one out of four photographers asked to capture the first
hours of D-Day.[1]
He boarded the Samuel Chase, as “part
of the largest armadas ever assembled,” joining the 116th Infantry,
2nd Battalion’s Company E who was part of the first assault troops
landing on the section Easy Red of Omaha Beach.[2]
True to his lively and exciting personality, Capa played cards and gambled on board the ship before the action started. However, when the actual fighting began, Capa placed himself in the midst of war action that he hoped to convey on film.[3] As part of the Normandy invasion, Capa along with the Allied troops was “landing on one of the most heavily defended beaches in history.”[4] Capa poignantly described the landing experience in his memoirs noting, “My beautiful France looked sordid and uninviting, and a German machine gun, spitting bullets around the barge, fully spoiled my return. The men from my barge waded in the water. Waist-deep, with rifles ready to shoot, with the invasion obstacles and the smoking beach in the background—this was good enough for the photographer.”[5]
His pictures would become some of the most iconic pictures from D-Day. Capa later recalled how terrified he was noting that the one thing that kept his mind off the danger around him was taking pictures, which he did, until he used up all of the three or four rolls of film he had with him.[6] Capa took 106 pictures but only 11 endured the Normandy invasion.[7]
John Morris was the man responsible for making sure Life magazine received Capa’s D-Day pictures.[8] After receiving the pictures, Morris’s assistant informed him that because of the rush to meet the deadline the films were placed in the drying cabinet too long and thus destroyed. Morris did salvage 11 of the pictures and they appeared in the June 19, 1944 addition of Life magazine’s story on D-Day.[9]
Now known as the Magnificent Eleven, these images are a testament to the skill of Robert Capa’s photography because they convey the compelling and tragic nature of the invasion. These pictures have become famous images of the harrowing day of June 6, 1944. One of these pictures shows a young man swimming in the water trying to get to the beach. It is remembered as one of the most famous of the 11 pictures because it shows the struggle and determination of the young soldiers in D-Day in the first few minutes of the invasion. It has been a mystery as to whom this young man is and some people believe that it is Edward Regan from the 116th’s Company K.[10] Capa’s masterful images will remain classics for displaying the early moments of one of the most important days in World War II history, the Normandy invasion.
[1] Robert Capa, Slightly Out of Focus (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1947), 139.
[2] Alex Kershaw, Blood and Champagne: The Life and Times of Robert Capa (New York: DaCapo Press, 2002), 121.
[3] Ibid., 122-124.
[4] Ibid., 121.
[5] Capa, Slightly Out of Focus, 146.
[6] Richard Whelan, Robert Capa: A Biography (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1985), 213.
[7] “The Magnificent Eleven: The D-Day Photographs of Robert Capa,” Skylighters, accessed on March 17, 2014, http://www.skylighters.org/photos/robertcapa.html.
[8] Kershaw, Blood and Champagne, 126.
[9] Whelan, Robert Capa, 214.
[10] Kershaw, Blood and Champagne, 130-131.
True to his lively and exciting personality, Capa played cards and gambled on board the ship before the action started. However, when the actual fighting began, Capa placed himself in the midst of war action that he hoped to convey on film.[3] As part of the Normandy invasion, Capa along with the Allied troops was “landing on one of the most heavily defended beaches in history.”[4] Capa poignantly described the landing experience in his memoirs noting, “My beautiful France looked sordid and uninviting, and a German machine gun, spitting bullets around the barge, fully spoiled my return. The men from my barge waded in the water. Waist-deep, with rifles ready to shoot, with the invasion obstacles and the smoking beach in the background—this was good enough for the photographer.”[5]
His pictures would become some of the most iconic pictures from D-Day. Capa later recalled how terrified he was noting that the one thing that kept his mind off the danger around him was taking pictures, which he did, until he used up all of the three or four rolls of film he had with him.[6] Capa took 106 pictures but only 11 endured the Normandy invasion.[7]
John Morris was the man responsible for making sure Life magazine received Capa’s D-Day pictures.[8] After receiving the pictures, Morris’s assistant informed him that because of the rush to meet the deadline the films were placed in the drying cabinet too long and thus destroyed. Morris did salvage 11 of the pictures and they appeared in the June 19, 1944 addition of Life magazine’s story on D-Day.[9]
Now known as the Magnificent Eleven, these images are a testament to the skill of Robert Capa’s photography because they convey the compelling and tragic nature of the invasion. These pictures have become famous images of the harrowing day of June 6, 1944. One of these pictures shows a young man swimming in the water trying to get to the beach. It is remembered as one of the most famous of the 11 pictures because it shows the struggle and determination of the young soldiers in D-Day in the first few minutes of the invasion. It has been a mystery as to whom this young man is and some people believe that it is Edward Regan from the 116th’s Company K.[10] Capa’s masterful images will remain classics for displaying the early moments of one of the most important days in World War II history, the Normandy invasion.
[1] Robert Capa, Slightly Out of Focus (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1947), 139.
[2] Alex Kershaw, Blood and Champagne: The Life and Times of Robert Capa (New York: DaCapo Press, 2002), 121.
[3] Ibid., 122-124.
[4] Ibid., 121.
[5] Capa, Slightly Out of Focus, 146.
[6] Richard Whelan, Robert Capa: A Biography (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1985), 213.
[7] “The Magnificent Eleven: The D-Day Photographs of Robert Capa,” Skylighters, accessed on March 17, 2014, http://www.skylighters.org/photos/robertcapa.html.
[8] Kershaw, Blood and Champagne, 126.
[9] Whelan, Robert Capa, 214.
[10] Kershaw, Blood and Champagne, 130-131.
